[Dixielandjazz] "Swing Dancers"

[Steve Barbone]

on 10/24/06 7:45 PM, Edgerton, Paul A at paul.edgerton at eds.com wrote:

Steve Barbone wrote:
> What were the rest of us doing for the rest of the 1990's to take
> advantage of the interest or should I say revival of swing dancing?
> 
 Paul Answered
> I and hundreds of my musical friends were busy playing for these people,
> happy to add them to our audience.  (We were glad that we had something
> to play other than disco!)  That we didn't shout about it to everybody
> shouldn't be construed to mean we failed to capitalize on the
> opportunity.

Nonsense Paul. Very few California OKOM bands were playing for swing dancers
and very few California OKOM festivals had bands playing for swing dancers.
Do you understand that the revival of swing dancing spawned hundreds of
swing dance clubs, and numerous organized swing dancing weekends and swing
dance festivals and swing dances at Universities. A wonderful niche market
with quite a few different chat lists nationwide, mostly aged under 35.
There is a huge difference between playing for, or courting organized swing
dancers and playing for "these people" as you put it. Yes, you failed to
capitalize on the opportunity.

Steve wrote:
> Point being, "most" of us were studiously ignoring it and writing
> posts about how kids are not interested in OKOM.

Paul answered: 
> Is that a fact, or is that just your view of things?

Oh my, of course that's a fact. All you have to do is go back and read ALL
those posts on the DJML about how there was no young audience for OKOM. Most
of those posts bemoaning the lack of a young audience were from West Coast
Bands. Yet you say hundreds of you were playing for swing dancers? HUH?

Steve Wrote: 
> By 2000, there were just a very few of us touting renewed interest in
> Jazz because of "swing dancers" and because of the interest in Jazz that
> was generated the Ken Burns program.

Paul answered: 
> That's a very self-serving interpretation.

Oh my, not an "interpretation" at all. Just the simple truth. Many on the
DJML back then were sadly hanging their heads and complaining that the young
did not like OKOM, while I said the opposite and used gig examples to back
it up. And they raked Wynton and Ken Burns over the coals about nonsense
instead of seeing the opportunity that W and B presented to us. Go back and
check the archives.

Steve wrote: 
> Seems to me most jazz festivals, including Sacramento, were also
> ignoring the genre and the obvious opportunity swing presented for
> increasing the audience for OKOM.

Paul answered: 
> What?  Steve, I'm not sure you know what you're talking about here.  Did
> you come to the Jubilee -- even once -- during the 90s?  Sacramento had
> swinging bands like Allotria, Jazz Band Ball Orchestra, James Dapogney
> and many others since I first attended in 1982.

Before you make such silly statements, I suggest you talk to some of the
current movers and shakers of the Jubilee for their views on the subject. I
believe you will find they pretty much agree with mine. I also think you
don't understand what I wrote in my post. Swinging Bands are very different
from Swing Dancers. More about that below.
 
Paul wrote:
> I have attended most years since then, and they have always had bands
> that appeal to dancers. Yes, even without been told, intoned, exhorted,
> preached at and harassed to do so.  Most of the people who actually
> deserve credit for this achievement are modest and very quiet about it.
> We have been, for the most part, very candid in discussing the
> shortcomings of the festival circuit.  We normally don't spend much time
> congratulating ourselves for the good things we have done.  But there
> have been many more successes than failures.

Now I'm sure you don't understand what I said. Let me repeat what the truth
of the matter is. Sacramento Jubilee, until very recently, virtually IGNORED
THE SWING DANCE COMMUNITY. As have most OKOM festivals and most OKOM Jazz
Societies throughout the USA until very recently. Hopefully you will come to
understand that "swinging bands" and "bands that appeal to dancers" as you
used the terms are VERY different from "SWING DANCERS". If you still do not
understand that, you need to be told, exhorted, preached at and harassed
some more. I'm sure Bob Ringwald, Bill Gunter or Joe Hopkins, given their
recent posts, can set you straight on what YOUNG SWING DANCERS are, what the
SWING DANCE COMMUNITY is, and how few the Jubilee attracted in the past.

The people in power, previously, at Jubilee did damn little about securing
the future of the Festival. Worse yet, they created the loss of some
$800,000 plus or minus over a decade that swing dancing was thriving. Too
bad they were impervious to harassment. Their achievements? They turned the
Jubilee surplus into a negative and almost caused the demise of the top OKOM
festival in the USA. Those that run it now are the ones who deserve a lot of
credit as they inherited a can of worms.

Paul wrote:
> Come see for yourself.  Even *you* might be impressed.  And we'd
> probably let you sit in.

Thanks for the invite. I'll have to pass as Memorial Day is much too busy a
weekend musically in my hometown for me to head West on the off chance that
I might be impressed. Sitting in? I like Lester Young's philosophy about
that which was: "I don't dig being dug when I'm diggin."

Cheers,
Steve Barbone