[Dixielandjazz] JCJB Baxk from Russia

Tue Apr 24 22:34:58 PDT 2007

In case anybody takes offense at what I am about to say this is a 
generic post addressing a situation not a personal attack on any 
organization in particular or the Union or God or Hari Kirshana or 
anybody else:   If you already hate me or dislike me or get bored with 
what I have to say just hit the delete key now, Save your personal hate 
mail on or off list for something that I really piss you off about . :))

I am only trying to stimulate some hard thinking and observations of 
the scene as I see it :)) got a better answer let's hear it!

Has any top professional level OKOM band offered a major or semi major 
label a Marketable Album in the past 40 years ?

Has any Jazz Society approached any major Big Corporate Sponsors and 
asked for sponsorship money ?

There was a time when STJS and the Jubilee certainly did qualify to get 
such funding if they had only asked and presented the numbers showing 
the corporate sponsors the potential marketing return on their 
investment.   Or did they simply shy away from them under the name of a 
non-profit business.    Big corporate business is always looking for 
good events and projects to fund, but yoiu need to have professional 
proposal drawn up and in their office by Oct 1, for the following 
year's funding.   Most organizations wait until 90 days from their 
event to ask for money and help and get no more than the leftovers.

This is a very competitive business folks  even if most musicians are 
not too good at business, you should at least have the good sense to 
hire somebody who is, to do it for your organizations.   If they can't 
or don't deliver, fire them and find someone who can and will.

It takes Big money to make big money,  and yes there was a time when 
you could make BIg money with a little money, alas but those days are 
long gone, if you want to play with the Big Business boys ya gotta play 
big, They go where the Money is and most OKOm events don't have the 
numbers to attract them primarily because they have been sold out to be 
cheap operations often far below poverty level operations.    Not 
unlike all the Blues Societies begging to KEEP THE BLUES ALIVE  $5.00 
at a time.  The Blues are very much alive and making great livings for 
some of the better players outside the USA where the music is still 
respected and paid for very well.

Too many non-profit organizations presenting acts have no clue what 
they are doing other than running a private little social club for 
little or no money to satisfy their own low budget needs.  Always 
crying poor, but still charging about a 1/3 of what the going rate is 
for good music events in today's market.   But as long as we have Hobby 
bands willing to play for them at those rates they will exist until 
their last member dies.   They and the musicians who play that circuit 
are just trying to outlive each other. :))

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins

-----Original Message-----
From: robert at ringwald.com
To: Tcashwigg at aol.com
Cc: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 9:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] JCJB Baxk from Russia

   Regarding the JCJB in Russia, I wrote: 

  > Congrats to the band. Isn't it amazing how much the folks "outside" 
of 
 > our country love our kind of music? 
 > 
 > Big business has certainly done a number on us here and the people 
 > fall for it. 
 (snip) 

 Steve Barbone replies: 

  I agree with what you say as a generality Bob, and certainly am happy 
for 
 the JCJB and the Europeans who love OKOM. 

  But I respectfully disagree that Big Business here is responsible for 
the 
 demise of OKOM, if that is the point you seek to make. 

 (snip) 

  BR- Steve, nothing is 100%. However IMHO, big business is a large part 
of 
  the reason for the demise of OKOM. Big business has not promoted OKOM 
to 
 any extent for many 
 years. 

  As far as I know, only one major label has released one contemporary 
OKOM 
 band recording in some 40 years. 

  Turn on your radio and see how many stations you hear that are playing 
OKOM. 
  Look in the CD stores (the ones that are left) and see if you can find 
a CD 
 of a contemporary OKOM band on a major or even semi-major label. 

 Turn on your TV and see how many of the live bands you see, are OKOM. 

 Steve continues: 

 We Dixieland Bands need look no further than ourselves for one of the 
  reasons the music is not appreciated by mass American audiences. We 
had as 
  much to do with the lack of musical appreciation in the USA as does 
big 
 business. 
 (snip) 

  I disagree. Jim Cullum's band works in their own club 6 nights a week 
and 
  have worked very hard to get and maintain their radio show. They tour 
all 
 over the country and now in Russia. How often do 
 you see them on national TV? How often do you see a mention of them 
 anywhere in the press? How often do you hear them on the radio music 
 stations? 

  Do you think big business is really going to pay DJs or Program 
managers 
 payola to play the Cullum band? 

  In the past 40 years there have been several full-time working bands 
who 
 have struggled to make it. 

  Other than Louis Armstrong with "Hello Dolly," "Mame" and "Mack The 
Knife" 
  Turk Murphy came about as close to getting some national recognition 
as any 
  OKOM band. However, mention his name to 99% of the American music 
audience 
 and you will draw a blank stare. 

  Pete Fountain got national exposure on the Tonight Show when Carson 
hosted 
 it but that came to an end when Leno took over the show. 

  Contrary to what you seem to think, there are lots of bands playing 
OKOM now 
  days that dress well, play well, present themselves well, play for 
decent 
 money, etc. However, no one is knocking down their doors to give them 
 national exposure. 

  Big business in this country promotes who it wants and then just as 
quickly 
  discards them and moves on to the next artist that will make them the 
fast 
 buck. And often the person they are promoting has little if any real 
 talent. 

  I recently saw a TV show where they took a normal every day guy who 
could 
  not really sing. Showed how they took him into a recording studio, 
recorded 
  him, used pitch correction, put music behind him, added reverb, etc 
and wa 
 la, he sounded as good as any Rock star recording today. 

  Let's face it. While the older folks have more money, they spend it 
more 
  wisely than the teen-agers and 20/30 year olds. The older folks cannot 
be 
  brain washed as easily out of their money. Thus everything is pointed 
at 
 the young folks. 

 It is the way it is and the way it has been for a long time. And will 
 probably continue for a long time to come. 

  Regardless of what you do, or I do, or 50 OKOM band leaders do in this 
country, it is not going to change. 

 --Bob Ringwald 

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