[Dixielandjazz] FW: Is Jazz dying

[Marek Boym]

A few minutes ago I wrote about tonight's Isradixie concert yo DJML at large.
I forgot to mention that there was enough showmanship to keep those
who were not real fans interested, but not too much to get on the
nerves of the dieheards" like me who come for music alone.
I don't find music alone BORING, not at all, but if the band wants to
attract a wider audience, it does need a show.  Partly, this is
provided by Paul Moore, who plays the (unadorned) washboard, ukelele
banjo, kazoo and an assortment of teapots and jugs, and his own teeth
(with a plastic spoon), and sings.  Still, the other members of the
front line provide some of the "entertainment," too.
And another thing, although on a different subject: I was amazed by
the musical sound the banjo and gutar player, Aharoni Ben-Ari got from
his solid body guitar (usually, he plays a regular amplified guitar).
Cheers

On 31/08/2007, Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis
<larrys.bands at charter.net> wrote:
> Ron said--I've been listening to Dixieland/New Orleans/Ragtime
> since I was a kid of 13 or 14 and I still hear tunes I never heard before.
> The style covers music from the late 1800s to the 1950s,
> __________________________________
>
> For an old guy who hasn't always played Dixie and Ragtime your comment is
> especially true.  I wish I had played it for a lot more years because I
> would know the style better and what's more important I would have networked
> in with the guys who do play better.
>
> When I play a gig with another band they are forever coming up with "New
> Tunes".  The kids are addicted to the latest from the net, radio, CD's or
> whatever.  Well so am I except my "New Tunes" are the tunes of my Mother and
> Father's youth and the music that my Grandfather tapped his foot to that I
> never heard.  There seems to be an endless supply of them and what's better
> an endless supply of ways that they are done.
>
> Unlike some modern styles these tunes have understandable words, melody's,
> good rhythms that aren't restricted to a back beat and lots of cymbals and
> chord progressions that your audience doesn't have to be either geniuses or
> morons to like it.  Some people actually know the words and almost everyone
> knows or can hum or whistle the melody when you are done.
>
> The styles that come closest to all those things is early rock and C & W
> music.  Both of which still have a huge following.
>
> Why is it that when we play in a public venue, young adults bring their kids
> and baby's up to hear us?  It is true that we are not hired by the 20
> somethings and the money seems to be with the 50 up crowd.  Venues are
> mostly run by people who suppose for whatever reason that the 20 something
> crowd want's anything but what we are selling.
>
> I suppose if you are counting bucks at the end of an evening at your bar
> that "loud and wild" fills the till more so that's what they go with.  Short
> sighted venues use DJ's and I guess that if you pay a band $300-$800 a night
> that is skimmed off the top of the profits as vs. paying some guy a hundred
> bucks to spin CD's makes sense.
>
> There are a lot of bands that are just too tired  and have little or no
> showmanship.  I went to a antique rail road station that was re opening
> after years of just setting there.  It was a big civic deal and they hired a
> Dixie Band.  Musically they weren't too bad but they were outdoors and were
> standing off almost to themselves and obviously playing to each other.  If
> these guys had played the Saints and paraded to another part of the area and
> played a few tunes and moved again at least they would have seemed to be
> alive.
>
> People like to see musicians play instruments.  In this TV age everyone is
> becoming more and more visual.  Look at almost any band on TV.  They are
> doing things to simulate movement.  Even the Zataran's (food commercial)
> clarinet player is kicking back and pointing his clarinet to the heavens.
>
> If our music is so dead then why does a company pick as their symbol and
> logo a guy playing OKOM on a clarinet if someone up the corporate ladder
> didn't think it was cool?  That person could have picked almost anything
> else.  Does he know something we (Dont count me in the greater WE) don't
> seem to know.
>
> What he knows is that people equate New Orleans with good times and fun and
> good eating.  The company hasn't gone broke yet.
>
> Yes the tunes are "Old" and yes many of us are "Old" but if you look "Old"
> and "Tired" too it's no wonder people just go ho hum.
>
> I booked a return gig a month or so ago and the comment was that the people
> liked us because we talked to them.  Could it be that my competition just
> stands there and plays music at them?
>
> Look at a guitar player sometime from your least favorite TV band.  There is
> a 99% chance that he's not just standing there playing.  There is every
> likelyhood that he looks like he's having an orgasm or pumping the guitar
> neck up and down and the drummer is making great flourishes while smacking a
> cymbal.  That guitar player is also moving his body or has struck a pose of
> some sort or maybe is walking around the stage.  Does he know something we
> don't.
>
> I was playing a wedding reception at one of the top hotels and to the horror
> of the band leader as one of my Rock screaming solos was coming up I walked
> out to the middle of the dance floor and played my solo.  When I opened my
> eyes all the young people had formed a circle around me and clapped as I
> sort of moon walked back to the band.  Did you know that as I left that
> night there were four couples waiting for me in the parking lot, wanted to
> carry my horns and stood and talked to me for a few minutes and wanted to
> know where I was playing next.  The band leader mumbled something about me
> not doing that again.  What a dunce.  I must have struck a chord with them
> and there was 40 or more years difference in our ages.
>
> I got the idea from another band.  It's an 18 pc group.  They play a hot
> swing tune (I believe its' one o'clock jump) and they put the saxes
> immediately in front of the band and the brass are on the other two sides.
> The Band Leader who only MC's the group and the male singer put on black
> hats and sunglasses and do a Blues Brothers routine.  Solos step out from
> the line, Trombones wave their slides around and the trumpets strike poses,
> the sax section kneels on one knee while playing, stands up at the end and
> takes a bow. And yes kiddies the band is made up of guys that are over the
> hill like me.  The crowds always go nuts.  What did it cost anyone and how
> hard was it?  Nothing and not very hard.  Yet the people love it.  This big
> band works almost every week somewhere.  They do this routine near the end
> of the evening and people go away remembering that and not Mambo Jambo three
> hours before or that they didn't do anything special for the other 3 hours.
>
> I really don't think it takes much if you do several things.  Move, appear
> to enjoy playing, do things with your instruments besides hold them, talk to
> the people and have as much color in your apparance as you can.  Look at
> some of Elizar's things on U-Tube.  I noticed on one that they paraded
> around in a six or eight foot circle and I bet the people loved it.  Even
> those who are barely ambulatory can do that.
>
> For some reason musicains think people hire them to play music.(what a
> concept - burn him at the steak)  If they wanted just music they would hire
> a DJ but even the DJ's today have to do something besides stand there and
> spin records.  They use flashing colored lights, strobes, fog machines and
> all sorts of gimmicks.  They know just music is BORING and most bands are
> BORING after the first half hour or so.  At least the DJ moves from style to
> style but most bands are stuck with basically the same sound all night so we
> have to do something to make us interesting.  In this TV clicker age we have
> to work at it.  Sometimes I forget too and get lazy.
>
> Some friends who were at a dinner half way across the state still talk about
> when we paraded around the room with me playing Yakety Sax and the rest of
> the band playing Saints with everyone in the room up parading with us in the
> line too.  That's what they remember and not the clever harmonies or solos
> or anything else.  They don't remember who was better than who or even how
> many there were of us or what else we played.
> Larry
> StL
>
>
>
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