[Dixielandjazz] Re: Jazz Advocate

[Hal Vickery]

I've said this before, and I'll say it again from the standpoint of one who
is a fan.  I think the idea is to hook them while they're young, before peer
pressure sets in, and to get them to hear it *live*.  They may submit to the
peer pressure and listen to whatever is popular among that age group, but
some will eventually find their way back.  

I was pretty lucky with my kid.  He didn't hear much at home from me other
than jazz, from OKOM to hard bop mostly.  He got into jazz band in junior
high and naturally gravitated to the stuff they were playing there and in
high school.  

But thanks to Don Mopsick when he was about 16, after my son had been going
off on his own at Elkhart while I'd go to sets playing OKOM, I got a couple
of tickets to a JCJB concert up in Madison, WI.  It was like a light went on
in his head when he heard them.

Since then he's told me that the reason he resisted at first was simply the
quality of the sound on stuff like the Hot Fives and Sevens, Bix, etc.
Apparently he wasn't around when I'd play anything else.

At any rate he listened to a lot of OKOM (loves the Bob Cats, btw) at
Elkhart this year with his girlfriend who is also 26 and who says she likes
it now that she's heard it.  You can't underestimate the value of presenting
music to kids *live*.

Hal Vickery


-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com] On Behalf Of Bruce
Stangeland
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 11:02 PM
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: Jazz Advocate

Steve,

I recently played a noon concert outside in the schoolyard at El Cerrito
High School (California) with a 5-man band, which included Bob Mielke, Dana
Kemp, Eliot Kenin, and Jim Ritz. The kids were very surprised and
interested. A few students sat down on the ground in front of us and
listened through their entire lunch hour. Some students came up later and
said "awesome" (or words to that effect). Two attractive young women did
some great dancing, which also attracted some attention.

The teachers were also enthusiastic, and asked us to come back.

Bruce Stangeland
Berkeley banjoist

----------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 17:27:07 -0400
From: Steve Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: Jazz Advocate
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Message-ID: <C0CDB26B.64D9%barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

..............

I wish you would post more about your successes with the young. Many of the
600 or so on the DJML still don't believe that kids like this music. And the
future of Festivals like Sacramento depends upon kids attending.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone 
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