[Dixielandjazz] Some People Want To Dance

[Peter Sr. De Bruyn]

In medical terms, we could be talkin about "Musicolalia"........
AKA The SB-Syndrome.

Happy New-Year from Belgium

Peter De Bruyn Sr




2007/1/2, Steve Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>:
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
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