[Dixielandjazz] Report on IAJE from a young 20 something who attended

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Hi Martin: and all:

  Here is a thought to emphasize what I keep harping on about them not 
being visible or speaking out loud enough to be heard or even noticed. 
JUST WHO and where are these "Traditional Jazz Educators" and where 
indeed and who are they Actually teaching Traditional Jazz ??    As I 
said, several of my own band mates are active members in the IAJE and 
so called Jazz Educators, and BLACK Americans, and I have never once 
since 1990 heard one word about anything even close to Traditional Jazz 
being discussed or mentioned in connection to IAJE and the conference.  
  I can also guarantee you that none of my Professors have ever heard 
about the Mississippi Rag or American RAG either.    And I would also 
bet they are not even aware of the Traditional Jazz Societies all over 
N. California.

  None of them are on this list either even though I have invited them 
to join it for several years. It is as if they buried this music along 
with all the pioneers when they got their teaching degree. And is not 
because they don't know the music, heck several of the, are from New 
Orleans, but left there 40 years ago because they could not make a 
living playing music there then.

  They settled in San Francisco and got teaching jobs and played for 
corporate and private parties and underground jazz gigs where they 
could blow Dizzy, and Coltrane, and Miles and ignored all the other 
good music and just let the scene dry up around here. Certainly have 
done nothing about expanding and teaching the Traditional Jazz in their 
own classes.  "I have even heard them remark that those kids don't 
wanna hear that stuff."   Well of course not, if nobody is taking the 
time to teach it to them and get them inspired enough to like it.

  So they simply resort back to EDUCATING the new crop of kids to what 
they think is Jazz with an honorable mention about Louis Armstrong on 
occasion.  I would dare say that the only Traditional Jazz these guys 
have ever seen has been in a fake book, and you can bet they don't have 
any Traditional Jazz Recordings on Cassettes or Cds ( except the ones 
they have stolen or borrowed from me to learn songs, and never brought 
back)  Did I mention that they can play it very well too, and without 
charts or fake books.  Great energy and improvisors most of them.

  You see they don't think this style of Jazz is important any longer 
even though they make far more money playing it with me than the have 
ever made playing modern, bop, or Big Band Jazz, They are happy to play 
chump change Salsa gigs in local Bay Area Latino bars and pretending to 
be oh so HIP while oggling all the hot young Latin chicks. Most of 
those bands they are lucky to make $30.00 to 40.00 for a four hour gig 
that usually last six or eight hours. The only guys in most of those 
bands even getting paid are the Trombone players, so all that noise 
about Trombone players with a pager being the ultimate optimist might 
not be correct :))

My point is that the Traditional Jazz genre has simply run out of gas 
and or stopped promoting itself to the masses long enough that the only 
folks they think are still interested in it and them is the ones in the 
cemetery or on their way to it.   Nothing is further from the TRUTH, 
BUT WE ALL HAVE TO GET UP AND GO OUT AND MAKE SOME NOISE, and drag 
younger folks to the events screaming and kicking if necessary.    You 
can take the horse to water but you can't make him drink they say, well 
the same thing is true of this music, we can take the kids to the music 
but if it ain't good and energetic and interesting they won't listen.   
But if it indeed is they will not only listen they will embrace it and 
make it their own once they "DISCOVER" it.

There are several bandleaders on this great list that know that and do 
it successfully all the time and we are making progress, but we can't 
cover the whole world guys, all we ask is all of ya'll git up and do 
the same and watch what happens.

 Cheers,

 Tom Wiggins
SAINT GABRIE'S CELESTIAL BRASS BAND

   Who likes to play ROCKIN, SWINGIN, FUNKY, BLUESY, ZYDECOZEE, DIXIE 
TRADITIONAL JAZZ WITH A DECIDEDLY MODERN TWIST.





 -----Original Message-----
 From: macjazz at se.rr.com
 To: mike at railroadstjazzwest.com; dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
 Sent: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 5:57 PM
  Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Report on IAJE from a young 20 something 
who attended

  I sent Tcash a private message but since it has come up again, there 
is a
  whole separate section of IAJE for OKOM. The Traditional Jazz 
Educators'
  activities are/were written up each month in the (paper) Mississippi 
Rag and
 I assume it will be resumed when the publication is on line.

 It is an active and happy organization.

 Mart

 Martin D. McKay (Designated listener)

 -----Original Message-----
 From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
 [mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com] On Behalf Of Mike
 Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2007 6:26 PM
 To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
  Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Report on IAJE from a young 20 something 
who
 attended

  Doesn't suprise me. I'm curious(as well as suprised) to how OKOM of 
any kind
 even got into IAJE. The people at IAJE don't care about trad jazz.

 Mike




 tcashwigg at aol.com wrote:
 > OK folks here is a first hand report from a young person working in
 > the industry who attended the IAJE Conference this week in NYC.
 >
 > Not one mention of Jim Cullum, or Traditional Jazz in his article
 > anywhere, which again tells me that the Traditional Jazz world as a
 > whole is simply not doing enough to Get Visibility within the
 > Mainstream Jazz world. Other than JIM CULLUM that we know about, how
 > many other Traditional Jazz players are even members of this
 > organization which is now pretty much running the Jazz World
  > politically all around the world and dictating what kind of Jazz 
music
 > gets exposure and played and who gets the nod or the gig and paid to
 > play it.



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