[Dixielandjazz] Shtick

[Ministry of Jazz]

Shalom Jazz Fans,

I believe I made this point once before on DJML. There are some of us players as well as fans who grew up in the 50s - 60s, and not in the 20s - 40s, and therefore the "original" music and style for us was the revival era version, and not the era in which the music originated. I heard Dixieland (yes, Dixieland) in Shakey's, Your Father's Moustache, Rosie O'Grady's, Farrel's, and in various movies and TV shows of the period. That's the stuff I fell in love with. OK, so it wasn't the original source, but it was an important era in OKOM in its own right, without which we might not be here playing it today.

My band wears all white with red vests and straw hats. Since I work sometimes in India, our version of the red vests is red silk with gold brocade -- a fabric that is used in Indian wedding dresses. Looks sharp and exotic, and we get many compliments on our look as well as our sound. One customer said we created a party atmosphere with the uniforms alone before we even started playing.

I'm with Tom Wiggins, who reminds us that if we dress classier we position ourselves to get classier gigs. I also know that dressing in something unusual gets you photographed -- i.e., noticed -- much more than when you play in street clothes. I have pix of my band playing on the street in our uniform, and also in shorts and t-shirts and sandals. When I get the occasional objection to the band uniform from a player, I hold up the two pictures and ask him which of the two bands he would hire if he were the customer. That shuts them up.

While on the subject, I have a somewhat related story that is amusing. When traveling to Australia about 10 years ago, I stopped in both directions in Bangkok for about a day between flights. That was my first trip to Asia, where I heard that one could get good tailoring for little money. I quickly found a tailor and ordered a suit and some shirts. When it came to picking out the color and style of the suit, I looked first at black. But I thought, "Elazar, you're a banjo player. What are you going to get, a call from the symphony that you need a black suit?" So I settled for black with white pinstripes. A month later, I got a call from the Jerusalem Symphony, who needed a tenor banjo player for a Gershwin concert in honor of his 100th birthday. After settling the musical issues, they said, by the way, do you have a black suit? Not being easily fit with a rented or borrowed suit, I was permitted to wear the pinstripes. I have since purchased a black tux and a white tux, both of which I have regular occasions to wear for performances.

Anyway, to answer the original question of this thread, IMHO, it doesn't matter that much where the shtick came from, it is now part of the classic jazz culture in a lot of people's minds -- both performers and audiences -- and what's wrong with perpetuating that part of our presentation, if the audiences (i.e., paying customers) enjoy it. I'm sure they didn't always play classical music in black suits, but now it is expected. What's the difference where it came from? It's here now.

My 2 shekels' worth,

Elazar Brandt
Dr. Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Trumpet Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz 
+972-2-679-2537