[Dixielandjazz] Accoustic performance was Volume

[D and R Hardie]

Hi Elazar.
                 It was a 700 seat auditorium on two levels about 3/4 
full. Seven piece band,violin, cornet, clarinet,
valve trombone, bowed bass violin , Spanish  guitar, traps (skin head 
bass drum, 1 snare drum, 1 cymbal).
best wishes
Dan Hardie
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~darnhard/EarlyJazzHistory.html

On Saturday, June 9, 2007, at 08:37  PM, Ministry of Jazz wrote:

> Say, Dan,
>
> Thank you for confirming what I have always believed but have not had 
> enough
> opportunities to prove it yet. Can you tell us, just how large was that
> auditorium? how many people in the audience? how many players in the 
> band?
>
> On various occasions when I have played against my will with 
> amplification,
> several times some miracle has happened where we had to continue 
> without the
> amplification. I think every time this has happened to me or my band, 
> people
> in the audience have told me we sounded better acoustic than with the 
> amps.
>
> My 5-piece version of the Doctor Jazz Band played at our national folk 
> music
> festival a couple summers ago. We were on an outdoor stage littered 
> with
> microphone stands and monitors and direct boxes and whatnot. In the 
> middle
> of the performance, the wind kicked up and the tarp above the stage and
> audience became unstable. So they told us to end the show early. At the
> request of people in the audience, we got off the stage and quickly
> regrouped on the grass, and finished our show unplugged. It was a 
> completely
> open area on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. We got great compliments 
> on
> the unplugged part of the show, and sold a bunch of CDs afterwards.
>
> On the other side of the coin (and the world), I was recently in Las 
> Vegas
> and went to see Phantom of the Opera. Their hot new theater was touted 
> as
> having been specifically designed for this show. I was impressed to 
> see the
> elaborate set, special effects, and how they integrated the audience 
> into
> the show. However, it seemed to me that they sacrificed the theater to 
> the
> special effects and set design, then tried to make up for it with a 
> killer
> sound system. Well, the music was loud ... way too loud ... but you 
> could
> hardly understand a word the actors were singing or saying. I could 
> not help
> thinking that 100 years ago or so, in a theater of that size, the show 
> would
> have been performed without any amplification, since there was none, 
> and it
> would have depended upon proper projection, enunciation and balance 
> between
> the musicians and the actors, and respectful silence from the audience.
>
> Speaking of which, I played a rather small gig for a group of American
> seniors here in Jerusalem once in a sukkah. About 30 people sat around 
> a
> table inside the sukkah while we played and they were supposed to sing
> along. My band was me on banjo and bone, and a partner on accordion, 
> and we
> both sang. We should have been plenty loud enough for such a small 
> space and
> group, but the people would not stop talking (and they must have been 
> hard
> of hearing because they talked so loud), and they kept complaining 
> that they
> couldn't hear us. I was too polite then (not sure about now) to tell 
> them
> that if they would shut up for a couple minutes they might be able to 
> hear
> us just fine. Instead they blamed us for not having a PA system.
>
> I could go on, as you know, but I think you get the idea.
>
> Elazar
> Dr. Jazz Dixieland Band
> Tekiya Trumpet Ensemble
> Jerusalem, Israel
> www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz
> +972-2-679-2537
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D and R Hardie [mailto:darnhard at ozemail.com.au]
> Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 1:42 AM
>
> At  a recent concert for the
> Southern Highlands Classic Razz and Ragtime Festival the Buddy Bolden
> Revival Orchestra
> did a 2 hour concert in a large theatre with good accoustics. For
> various reasons we decided to dispense
> with amplification...
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland 
> Jazz Mailing list, or to find the online archives, pleas visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>