[Dixielandjazz] Is Jazz Like Ice Cream?

[DWSI at aol.com]

This may sound weird, but I offer an analogy that makes sense, maybe, from  a 
business perspective. To explain: The dumbest thing I've ever done is to open 
 my own ice cream store in a town near the GWB, just outside of New York. I  
offered homemade ice cream and high quality yogurt--the kind of products I 
would  have died for many years ago growing up outside of Chicago. 
 
But my high quality ice cream store failed. There are too many places you  
can easily buy ice cream now; you don't have to go to or look for, "an ice cream 
 parlor." In fact, the supermarkets are bulging with choices, including 
high-end  brands, often on sale. Is Jazz, or any music genre, suffering a similar 
fate?  There are too many places and opportunities now that you can hear, 
obtain,  and/or get to any and all kinds of music. Last night I continued to  
explore Youtube.com and discovered more choices--i.e.,  the Firehouse  Five and 
Teressa Brewer tapes I love from the 50s. 
 
Wow! AT&T advertising made the word, "ubiquitous" almost a  household word; 
e.g., telephones are ubiquitous (everywhere all the time).  But isn't all 
(popular forms of) music ubiquitous now? The only thing that  separates "hits" from 
the rest, IMO, is "celebrities." The rap  stars, the singers, are all 
personalities or celebrities. Maybe that's  the only way to climb back on the Lucky 
Strike Hit Parade these days. If you  want to make a hit record, (or CD, or 
video), you gotta become a  celebrity. It may help to have an above average 
musical ability too.
 
Dan (backup piano) Spink