[Dixielandjazz] Dress expectations

[David Dustin]

Ted wrote:

Recall going to hear the Black Eagle Jazz Band years ago in Bangor, Maine.
The banjoist had mismatched clothes on, but what brought down the house were
his  socks, which he prominently displayed, one bright red and one bright
green. 
 Corny? Yeah, but the audience loved it!!
 
Rightly or wrongly, people expect certain modes of dress. Would you take
your illness to a doctor who did not wear a white lab coat, instead wore a
t-shirt and cutoffs?? How about entrusting your divorce to a lawyer wearing
jeans 
and a fringed shirt, while kicking his desk with his alligator boots??

===============
I agree with Ted¹s point, but the standard for professional dress depends on
where you are in the world. Like somebody wrote last week about playing a
formal wedding in Texas where half the guests were in bluejeans, in Texas,
jeans can be considered ³formal² so long as they are ironed to a sharp
crease and you are wearing your best boots and a $500 blazer over an $150
colored silk shirt. That divorce lawyer in Texas, if he¹s not about to make
a court appearance in a major city, could well receive clients in pressed
jeans, certainly the boots would be normal office garb, dunno about the
fringed shirt unless maybe we are taking about West Texas...

On socks, the touring white bone player in Preservation Hall sits front and
center on stage with splayed legs and highwater pants, proudly displaying
red terrycloth socks. It¹s obviously a trademark because I¹ve seen him do it
twice.  If I had them, I¹d do it too because it¹s a great shtick.

If you want to score with audiences, most of whom are not jazz critics who
fly around the world to attend the latest OKOM festival, you have to
consider yourself an entertainer first and a musician second.  To do that,
you have to adopt some sort of a band look, and yes, take a cue from some of
those OKOM LP covers in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.  This is what your audience
remembers and expects. Looking like Miles (in either early OR late
manifestations) or Monk ain¹t going to help sell your band to any normally
distributed OKOM crowd (in the USA) these days outside the major urban
areas.  The old folks who pay our fees want to see the snappy (or
mismatched) socks, the bright vests or jackets, the loud suspenders (braces,
to our listmates in the former British Commonwealth) sleeve garters, the
straw boaters/skimmers or panama hats, derbys/bowlers, or maybe even the New
Orleans classic style fireman¹s hats worn in the early bands.

David Dustin