[Dixielandjazz] Preservation Hall Players

Dan Augustine ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu
Mon Oct 2 21:24:37 PDT 2006


     Yeah, well, most of the Preservation Hall bands i've heard are 
very very poor musically, very dated, and just flat uninteresting as 
far as traditional or any other kind of jazz goes.  Maybe i heard 
some poor recordings, who knows.
     I don't give a rat's ass how much money they make.  Kenny G makes 
a lot of money too.  I DON'T CARE.  You start equating musical 
quality with money, thinking that lots of people wouldn't pay good 
money to hear bad music, and you're flat wrong.
     Maybe they're partly responsible for people not liking 
traditional jazz.  They hear PH and think to themselves, gee, so 
that's what it sounded like 100 years ago; sure don't want to hear 
any more jazz like that.

     Dan
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2006 00:15:24 -0400
>From: Steve Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
>To: DJML <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Preservation Hall Players
>
>Hey, don't be knocking those guys. They are deliberately playing like that.
>It is their "thing" and what many people think most N.O. Bands played like
>in the very beginning.
>
>It also works to make them the most popular Dixieland Jazz Band in the world
>sometimes with several touring units going on the road concurrently.
>
>It is as close as you can get to the original "art form" as created by
>musicians back then who, for the most part, lacked formal training. It is,
>in effect Folk Music Dixieland.
>
>Don't like it? That's fine. But they are working as much as any Dixieland
>Band you can name and laughing all the way to the bank.
>
>Trust me, I had a long conversation at the bar with Wendell Brunius (a fine
>musician who gigged in Vegas with our guitarist in the 1960s) several years
>ago when we shared the stage on "New Orleans" Nights at the Berks Jazz
>Festival (10 days, 150,000 attendees) and then The Clifford Brown Jazz
>Festival,( 5 days 60,000 attendees) Both are Modern Jazz Festivals.
>
>What they made in $US for one set at each of these two festivals would
>astonish most Dixieland bands who perform at low paying OKOM festivals. And
>the $ they were offered, to play at The Red Sea Jazz Festival would also
>astonish most people.
>
>How come they make so much? Because they draw LARGE audiences of people who
>not only adore them, but will put their money where their mouths are to see
>them. And, because they are "art form" they also get monetary support from
>many private, state and federal arts foundations.
>
>Why don't our local OKOM Festivals hire them? Because, as they have said on
>this List, "We can't afford them."
>
>Cheers,
>Steve Barbone

-- 
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**
**  Dan Augustine  --  Austin, Texas  --  ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu
** "Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from
**  from the foolish their lack of understanding." -- Ambrose Bierce 
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