[Dixielandjazz] audience participation

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

Just a comment to say how much I relished this post by Jim.  Not only  was 
the audience having a great time, they were being surreptitiously trained to  
listen better to every future performance they would hear!
Ginny
 
 
In a message dated 1/16/2007 8:15:25 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
jim at kashprod.com writes:

I just  saw an excellent "audience participation" example on tv.  It  was
filmed at the 25th Montreal Jazz Festival....
Chick Correa on piano,  John Patitucci on bass, and Dave Wecki on drums.  The
song was  Rodrigo's "Spain".  Chick got the men in the audience two sing  two
notes (prompted by playing each note on the piano)...one note for each  side
of the auditorium.  Then, he split the females into 3 sections  & three
notes, creating a 5 note harmony.

During the song, then,  he prompted the crowd by playing the harmony (one
note at a time), and that  set off the different moods & sections of the
song.  Excellently  done, and very much enjoyed by the audience.

Not suggesting any of us  do anything as complicated, but it was great to see
that some "modern jazz"  guys also worry about audience participation, and
understand it is a good  thing.  He also did the old trick of getting the
crowd to imitate the  licks he was doing, and of course, ending with one that
was too complicated  to replicate.

The participation by the audience at this concert, of  course, was due to the
fact that Mr. Correa had every one of the persons in  the audience "in his
pocket" before he even walked on stage.  Many of  us more "common folk" have
to "win our audience over" before we can get  that kind of cooperation, and
passing crowds at Mall concerts, etc., make  it almost impossible to achieve.

Jim