[Dixielandjazz] Timing the band's songs.

[Steve Barbone]

> David Richoux <tubaman at tubatoast.com> wrote (polite snip)

> Most OKOM songs were recorded under 3 minutes (limits of the
> technology, I know) but I doubt if a live version of a song would
> have gone over 5 or 6 minutes. Sure, there are some exceptions - but
> I bet they were very rare.
> 
> How many of you actually put a stopwatch on your songs? What is the
> average song length?

I estimate ours (Barbone Street's) pretty closely Dave. Our normal 3 hour
performances are one hour, then 20 minute break, then 40 and 20 and 40 till
the end of the 3 hour period.

We play 9 songs over the first hour, and then  6 songs for each 40 minute
segment. Or a total of 21 songs in 140 minutes of actual on stand time. That
works out to about 6 and a half minutes per song considering the chatting
with the audience, throwing beads, etc. time.

Our swing dance performances are very different. We average about 4 minutes
a song, play more songs (35) and do virtually no chatting up between
numbers. 

The situations are very different depending upon venue, and type of event.
Swing Dancers like short tunes because they are "social" occasions. Folks
who don't know each other hooking up to dance. They don't want to get stuck
with someone they don't like for more than 4 minutes before they can switch
partners, etc. They go to dances to meet other people as well as dance. But
once a night, just to break up the monotony, we'll challenge the top dancers
to dance 7 minutes to a tune like Fidgety Feet. They love to strut their
stuff and once we had them go over 8 minutes to a very high speed That's A
Plenty. There is nothing like hugging our young, sweaty, female fans after
that. It has become a fun ritual.

Go to http://www.myspace.com/swingkatent and you might see such a challenge
by Barbone Street and/or The Boilermakers on their "my space" page. They
call it a "jam circle". It is a polite cutting contest for the dancers and
the very best challenge each other.

That's one reason Barbone Street does not play written arrangements. We need
a lot of variance in song length depending upon the type of gig and we don't
want to get confused about how or when or where to shorten or lengthen a
tune. So we do it on the stand by simply estimating and adapting, going to
the bridge after the last solo to shorten a slow tune if dancers appear
tired, etc.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone