[Dixielandjazz] Some People Want To Dance

[Steve Barbone]

Dan Spink DWSI at aol.com wrote

>Our New Year's Eve dinner party opened my eyes. My wife, mother-in-law, and
>I attended a country club gala with a "7 piece live orchestra" and we were
>excited. My wife and mother-in-law love to dance. I mean really dance. We
>shouldn't have gone. The 7 pieces centered on a loud, very bop-oriented sax
>player, with a very strong, (one beat), drummer. Now, don't get me wrong. I
>understand why musicians must practice their scales. But aren't we supposed do
>that when we're alone, instead of all night long, on a so-called, "dance  job?"
>With two song exceptions, this 7-piece "orchestra" focused on the  same
>up-and-down-the-scales sax solo, (at best approaching a poor man's Blues'
>Brothers feeling), with all the old folks, (like me), moving-but not really
>dancing-on the alledged dance floor. Even my sweet mother-in-law, who is  very
>forgiving and kind, said it was "jiggle" music, not dance music; you go out  on
>the dance floor and jiggle around. My point is a simple one. Isn't there a
>huge market for OKOM dance occasions? I used to dance to Dixie and even
>Ragtime,  not to mention the world of other OKOM varieties. My god! Whatever
>happened to booking OKOM for dancing? What am I not getting? And why is a
>bopper even  playing a dance job?

Good question Dan. Whatever did happen to booking OKOM for dancing. Could it
be that too many Dixieland bands got seduced playing "artistic" music for
the ever shrinking elitist artsy audience and forgot why this music used to
be more popular? Are many of us to proud to be viewed as mere entertainers
thinking we should be viewed as jazz artists? (Speaking about the USA only)

Dixieland dancing is still alive and well here in the Philadelphia, PA, USA
area. Our main New years Eve Gig was for a dance at an upscale retirement
home that has 700+ residents and for 2006/7 had 2 bands. Barbone Street at
one location and a 15 piece dance band at the other. (Earlier gig was a New
Orleans Funeral for 2006 at a Unitarian Church)

Because we play there 4 times a year, and have a rep, we drew about 550
people and the big band drew about 200. By 11 PM when many have gone to bed,
we had about 350 and the big band had 50 or so.

Folks told us we had "the beat" and the big band sounded lackadaisical. We
played mostly Dixieland for Fox Trots, Two Step and Peabody from memory and
the big band used charts.

However, we were also subject to requests for, and played either singly or
in medley form: (also from memory)

Cha Cha: e.g. Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom Time, Tea For Two etc.
Waltz:   e.g. Lover, It's All In The Game, Skaters Waltz etc.
Bossa:   e.g. Quiet Nights, Desafinado, etc.
Polka:   e.g. Pennsylvania Polka, Roll Out The Barrel, She's Too Fat For Me.
Line:    e.g. New York, New York
Swing:   e.g. In The Mood, Begin The Beguine, Fly Me To The Moon

Needless to say, we had attracted almost everyone who was still awake at our
New Year's Count down and the other venue was close to empty.

For "dance" gigs, leader and the musicians must be prepared to play all
forms of dance music. These are the old Lester Lanin type gigs. One of the
reasons that he hired Dixieland Players like Pee Wee Erwin, Kenny Davern,
Gene Schroeder et al. was that they knew all the Mickey stuff and also
played great Dixieland which was all the rage for dancing among the rich &
famous. Still is the rage. Even if you only consider the 60 and over crowd,
there are more than 30 million of them in the USA today. It is a huge,
mostly untapped, market that pays well and enables your band to keep
excellent musicians on lower paying club date jazz gigs, when those gigs pay
less than they might make with your leading competitor. Nobody wants to miss
the long green gigs by refusing a short money gig. They know how to average.

There are all kinds of these "dance" gigs around Philadelphia. But very few
bands that know how to play them well. So these days, we get our share for
the rich and now anonymous. We had a 94 year old drummer come up and sit in
at this one and he said, "you guys are the Lester Lanin of the 21st century"
and that ain't all bad.

Perhaps there are many similar "dance" gigs available for Dixieland Bands?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone