[Dixielandjazz] Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 48, Issue 63

[Steven Holzer]

Butch,

I've had the privilege of attending at least one of your shows, and I'm 
certainly glad I did.

With regard to whether I meant the rest of my comments that way or not, 
I both did and didn't.

When I joined the Indianapolis Jazz Club at the age of 18, I was the 
youngest member. I'm fifty three now, and still the youngest member. In 
the intervening years I have come to know and worked beside many fine 
people in the name of jazz. A great many of them are dead now and those 
that are left are gradually disappearing, either to oblivion or to the 
great state of Florida where they will await the transition to oblivion. 
I miss them all, every day.  When the last of them are gone, I will be 
lonely indeed.

That being said, it is nevertheless true that many members of the club 
adopt an increasingly insular attitude as they get older. The desire to 
share the music with younger generations is no great part of their 
motivation. They have withdrawn into a world where all they want is to 
have some jazz for themselves while they're still here. I can understand 
that, but like you, it is an attitude I have little patience with. If it 
were up to them alone, it would indeed be a self-fulfilling prophecy 
under which the music and the audience go out together, never to be 
heard again.  I have no desire to be the last elf to leave for the Grey 
Havens.

When all is said and done, we play the hands we're dealt. If  the future 
of jazz must rest temporarily on a few souls, then that is how it will 
be. We may wish otherwise, but we can't really hold others accountable 
for not seeing things the way we do or having the same motivations. If I 
have to choose, I will be grateful for the company thus far and let it 
go at that. But if I can find a defibrillator that starts the old hearts 
pumping again, I'll use it...

Steve Holzer

Butch Thompson wrote:

>Steve Holtzer writes:
>
>  
>
>>Not to be too flip about it, but this is increasingly less of problem.
>>Like people who actually experienced slavery or fought in WW I, the
>>people to whom jazz is a matter of nostalgia are dying.
>>    
>>
>
>Hmm.  Well, I guess that's one way of looking at it.  Those pesky oldsters
>will soon be history.  I guess you probably don't mean it that way -- I
>believe you when you say you don't mean to be flip -- but for me anybody who
>shows up to hear me play deserves my gratitude.  I don't care why they come,
>I just want them to be glad they did.
>
>Butch Thompson 
>
>
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