[Dixielandjazz] Young Fans

[Steve Barbone]

Gluetje1 at aol.com wrote
> 
> Brian,
> I have clucked-clucked about the loss of audiences for this music as well  as
> listened to others do so for years.  But I've think I've only ever heard
> three insightful things ever said about THE FIX and you have just said two of
> the three, which by the way, I've not heard anyone else say.  (Maybe I just
> wasn't listening.)
> 1.  Young fans want to be among other young fans.  They will  tolerate a few
> of us and even think a few old people in the audience is cool as  that
> validates their choice as smart.  But they will not support venues  where we
> are in majority.

Hi Ginny:

You probably haven't been on the list long enough to remember my earliest
admonitions that to get the music to a young audience, you need to play
where the kids are.

> 2.   Dance floors!  I have a thirty-four year old daughter  who learned from
> dad to check deck plans of cruise ships before booking  one.  What is the
> first and most important thing to her?  The  location, size, and ambiance of
> dance floor.

Yes indeed. I just now returned from a swing dance gig. 372 paid attendance
at $20 a pop. Got an hour overtime, for 4 hours total. Ask Paul Edgerton
what it paid. I sent him the gig directions by mistake. Best of all,
youngest there was a 14 year old girl. (with 35 year old mom). Oldest there
was an 84 year old gentleman. Slim as a rail, he danced EVERY tune we played
and also the records on our breaks. Four hours of dancing. Most folks were
between 25 and 35, though there was a good showing of over 60s.


> 3.   (Assorted other elders like Steve and Tom do speak  regularly to this
> one.)  Accepting and being part of the fact that the  music will morph.  I
> wonder how many of us who would like to be gigging  more ever even sneak into
> the swinging nightspots for the young and do some  research.  Ask them what is
> so groovy (sorry for dated vocabulary LOL)  about the group they have come out
> to hear.  Spent some time integrating  the results of the research and
> creating how to be musically fresh with the  beloved old?

Heck of a good idea. On May 9 we are playing for the senior class at the
University of Pennsylvania. Over by 7:30 PM or so. Two of my swing dancing
band fans invited me to go to The World Cafe Live which is nearby to hear
the Asylum Street Spankers. The venue is all the rage with the young, as are
the Spankers. If you missed them before see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmsOIjzQ1V8
> 
> I'm not in the business of wanting to build young audiences.  But I  sure
> hope some on this list and elsewhere are.  And I hope they get the  benefit of
> your, Tom's, Steve's wisdom.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Steve