[Dixielandjazz] First Annual Traditional Jazz Festival/Competition in Sacramento

[Vaxtrpts at aol.com]

Well, I am just home from Sacramento, where they had their first annual  
festival, sponsored by the Traditional Jazz Society and Sacramento State  
University.  I think that, for a first time festival, it was a  success.  There were 
some problems for the judges, but these can be ironed  out in the future, and 
we have already given the people who put it on, a list of  suggestions.  While 
there weren't "standing room only" crowds during the  day, there were a lot of 
kids there performing and listening to the other  bands.  They had 
approximately 20 bands perform.  
As a judge, my biggest frustration was that many of the directors of these  
bands didn't really read the criteria for music selection.  This may sound  
strange, coming from one who has always been about keeping the music fresh and  
not just imitating old records, but many of the bands did not play 
"traditional"  jazz repertoire, and many of the bands sounded like small swing big bands.  
 Some had as many as 11 players on stage.  Most of them were playing some  
sort of arrangements that were written out.  I said to almost every band  that I 
heard, that I would like to see them play just one tune with NO  music.  For 
them to learn the tune itself and not someone else's  arrangement, and then 
actually do some simultaneous improvisation, just like the  early jazz musicians 
did.  After all, this festival was started to be  something different from 
most of the festivals that high school and college  bands play ,that feature big 
band and more modern small group types of the  music.  Because I am such a 
fan of young people learning about the HISTORY  of our music, I think this 
festival is a great idea.
For me, the highlight was Dave Robinson's group for the Potomac River Jazz  
Club.  They had come all the way from the East Coast for the  festival.  For 
those of you who don't know, Dave is the "fire" behind the  Traditional Jazz 
Educator's Network.  Well, he proved today to many of us,  that he surely "puts 
his money where his mouth is!"  While many of these  kids are college students 
and a little more experienced than most high school  musicians, they 
UNDERSTAND what traditional jazz is, and how to play different  styles - AND they 
played wonderful improvised solos.  I had the chance to  talk with some of them, 
and they are exactly what I like to see in ANY jazz  musician.  We had a 
wonderful discussion about stylistic soloing and being  able to play and understand 
many different styles --- AND they LOVE all forms of  jazz music.  Some of them 
are in some ways, just like me, in that they are  essentially more modern 
players who love to play the older tunes and styles just  as much.
I think that this will be the beginning of a festival that goes for many  
years, and will help keep what many of you call "OKOM" in the minds of the  
students who perform here.  Will it be the start of other similar festivals  around 
the country?  I don't know.  Will it be a way to "save" the  more traditional 
forms of jazz for future generations?  Probably not.   But - at least it is a 
way of turning new kids on to this music, and maybe  getting some high school 
and college band directors to look at teaching the FULL  history of jazz 
music.
Mike Vax