[Dixielandjazz] Music Teachers was IAJE and TJEN

Tue Jan 23 12:02:22 PST 2007

Alas, Many women have those same fantasies.  I have done my best but with so few of me and so many of them I will probably never finish my assigned task in life.  

By the way the Scottish Rite Youth Wind Ensemble is a Band.  You should go down and sit in with your Bassoon if you want a real work out. (Wednesday nights)  Those kids are playing some really tough stuff so don't think this will be a ho hum thing.  If you wanted to give it a try let me know and I'll have a book made up for you.

I'm not sure that such a group would float.  I have talked to young people several times about getting gigs after school.  I have often thought that a group of let's say six musicians could go out after school and book the nursing homes for around $200.  That would pay them about $30 each for an hour.  I personally think the old people would love them playing TKOM.  I think that they would be in demand if they did it right.  I have suggested this to several kids that I thought could do it but they get that Deer in the headlights look and really don't seem to have much interest.

I suggested this on the list some time ago to a young lady that was lamenting that she couldn't get anything going with her HS bandmates.  I never heard if she tried it.  Musicians will go to the money and I told her if she did it the musicians would suddenly think she was the greatest thing since white bread.  While $30 isn't a princely sum it's better than they can get anywhere else for the same time.  They could even book five of them for $100 and I know they could work just about as much as they wanted.

It takes entrepreneurial spirit and I'm not so sure that the HS kids have it today.  In the olden days (when I went to HS) there were several bands in my HS that played fairly often.  While I think that things have changed and opportunities aren't as numerous there is still opportunity out there if a kid wanted to take it.  On the other hand there are almost no HS bands that work gigs.  They are all stage band types.  No longer can kids work bars or venues with liquor which limits them some but there is no reason why they couldn't pick up weddings and nursing homes.  I work at a Lutheran School and I would bet that there are many wedding receptions that they could work.  I did a bunch of WR's when I was in HS.  A lot of these things are in church basements after a Sat. afternoon wedding.  Play for an hour or two and leave.  Then there are picnics and a lot of other stuff around they could do.  

I think the problem is that they just don't need the money when they can hit the old man for bucks easier.

I'm not a lot interested in having just another stage band.  There are lots of them around.
Larry
St. Louis
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gluetje1 at aol.com 
  To: larrys.bands at charter.net ; dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com 
  Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 2:32 PM
  Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Music Teachers was IAJE and TJEN

  OK, Larry, I'll confess I've been having fantasies about you this morning.  'Cause see you have access to a Shriner's Youth Orchestra--I think it is, rather than a band.  I would like to see a 20's dance orchestra for youth, member composition and arrangements on the order of sound samples one can check for San Francisco Starlight Orchestra. SFSO has full complement of four violins.  Then I would like to see them doing tunes like the one on YouTube of Egyptian Ella by Pasadena Roof Orchestra ( ?, but they have no violins).  Also was checking some sound samples of New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra where their tenor sax player also uses bassoon.

  As my fantasy continues, we have some senior jazzers volunteering to sit in with these youth as this group gets underway.  I'm even fantasizing about getting a grant from somewhere, Missouri Arts Council for example, or the Missouri Apprenticeship Program for lost arts/crafts.