[Dixielandjazz] Playing too loud

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Elazar wrote:

> I just saw a post today on a local Jerusalem list by the host of a
> private
> event who hired a band with the specific provision in the contract that
> the
> host (I.e., customer, the guy with the money) will determine the
> appropriate
> volume level, and the band must lower the volume at the host's request.
> The
> poor guy says the band played so loud that his guests couldn't hear each
> other even if they screamed, and when they told the band to lower the
> volume, the band either ignored them, or turned it down a little bit and
> then raised it back up again a few minutes later.
>
> It is a known problem in Israel that party bands play way too loud, and it
> is a rare event that one does not go home without a headache.
 (snip)

Elazar,

Most bands in the US also play too loud.  With the younger generation 
growing older, it seems that they are just used to it.  Or perhaps they are 
losing their hearing at an early age because of the volume at which they 
listened to music as teenagers?

In restaurants, it is the style to have a loud place.  The room is designed 
not to suppress sound.  It is the hip feeling that eating in an upscale 
restaurant, where you have to yell to be heard across the table, or read 
someone's lips, is where it is happening.  A live, vibrant happening place. 
Bull hockey.

As for bands, even OKOM bands seem to not be able to perform without a PA 
system.  I can't tell you how many times I have seen a band stand around 
until the sound people get the PA set up and adjusted.  Whereas, they would 
have sounded much better without the PA in the first place.

And, what is wrong with a band using dynamics when a clarinet or piano is 
soloing, or when there is a vocal?  If people want to hear the band louder, 
they can get closer.  If they want it not to be so loud, they can get 
farther away.  But with a PA, that is much more difficult.

As I have quoted several times here on DJML, "Dynamics, hell, I'm playing as 
loud as I can..."

In about 1981, when my daughter was under contract to NBC, we went to a 
party to celebrate the new TV shows on NBC that season.  Doc Severnson's 
Tonight Show Band was performing for the cocktail portion of the event.  I 
could not believe how soft this great 17-piece band was playing.  It was 
perfect for a cocktail hour setting with everyone able to converse.

Later when the party got wound up, the band got louder.  But it was done 
gradually and at the right time.

--Bob "Where's my ear plugs?" Ringwald