[Dixielandjazz] I love this definition!/why people patronize music

[Charles Suhor]

On Feb 2, 2007, at 12:04 PM, Bob Romans wrote:

> Jazz Club - n. A place where people pay a lot of money not to listen 
> to jazz, most of which does not go to the musicians to whom they are 
> not listening.


Yes, lots of club partrons go to hip (and thought-to-be-hip) jazz clubs 
to be seen there, or to tell friends back home that they went there. I 
wonder how many people who don't give a hoot about jazz have been over 
the years to Preservation Hall, Sweet Basil's, the Lighthouse,  the 
Blue Note, etc., just for bragging rights. Don't get me wrong, I think 
we should value their support, even when they clap on one and three, it 
means work for musicians. But it's an interesting social phenomenon.

I've been told that going to the opera in order to be seen, preferably 
in fur coats and fine jewelry, has long been part of bourgeois and 
upper class culture, much to the consternation of true opera lovers. Is 
this the case? Any opera buffs out there? Last week I went to Guiseppe 
Verdi's  "La Traviata," my first full-length opera. It's the one kind 
of music I've never much connected with. That's a flaw, but I accept it 
as such and have stayed away, going this time because my son was in the 
chorus. I had mixed reactions, but that's not a topic for this list. It 
was perversely comforting, though, to know that the title and composer 
can be translated, "The Slut" by Joe Green.

Charlie Suhor