[Dixielandjazz] Now You Has JAZZ !

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Well yes David you probably do know someone who will quickly answer it 
but not necessarily the one you thought.

  While yes there are some excellent OKOM bands outside the USA, there 
are also just as many Shitty ones as there are in the USA that continue 
to perpetrate mediocre and terrible renditions of Traditional Jazz upon 
the public who simply do not know any better, because they have been 
fed mediocrity and often totally inept music cheaply by hobby bands for 
so many years that they now think that is the REAL DEAL. There are 
Mickey Mouse Bands all over the world that could not play their way out 
of a Wet paper sack.

  And there are many wonderful high caliber and entertaining bands that 
do not belong to this list, or that simply choose to be lurkers, that 
never chime in because they realize that the list is permeated with a 
bunch of malcontent amateurs who actually think that they know 
everything about this business because they have had a steady gig in a 
pizza parlor or coffee shop for one night a week for twenty five years. 
This Ladies and gentlemen is a list of nice folks, and some very 
knowledgeable ones as well, but it also has some real idiots who come 
back to post from time to time and feel like they can actually 
challenge the professionals who do this for a living seven days a week 
while they play at it.

  The dwindling audiences that ya'll keep talking about are the ones 
that keep deserting this music because of the mediocre amateurs playing 
to mostly mediocre non musical audiences in the first place, in other 
words you got a bunch of dead beat bands playing to a bunch of dead 
beat audiences that are getting old with you and dying, often faster 
than the musos playing to them.

  There is a live and viable audience out there for this music but they 
demand it to be fresh hot and swinging to embrace it and the bands that 
play it, if you can't or won't step up to the plate and deliver that, 
then sadly you are gong to die off with your current audience.

  Commercial forces are a way of life like it or not, and if you don't 
establish yourself as a commercial force worthy of being paid the 
prevailing rate for professionalism in this market then perhaps you 
just ain't ready for Prime time or never will be and should bow out 
gracefully and keep your day gig .

  The divisions are not artificial, there are only Two kinds of Music 
"GOOD and SHITTY" and there is no shortage of either you just need to 
look harder to find the Good because the Shitty is more visible because 
it usually will work for less just to get on a stage and play to 
ANYBODY. well guys ANYBODY is not a musical connoisseur nor an 
immediate jazz authenticator of even what they are hearing.

And I do not mean to belittle the audience here folks, they generally 
only understand Jazz to be what ever they have been exposed to and 
programmed to believe is Traditional Jazz, good bad or mostly 
indifferent presented by hobbyist fulfilling their own aspirations and 
ego machinations and trying to convince the audience that they are 
indeed JAZZ MUSICIANS who often have a day gig which supports them so 
that they can play a little Jazz on the side for extra beer money.

And this scenario is far from limited to Jazz music folks, it is in all 
music, even classical "GOD FORBID"  the elite of the elite!!!  why some 
of them even resort to playing Jazz on their days off from their 
salaried gigs.  :))   But that is perfectly acceptable because they are 
UNION Members.  :))

Oh well enough of this rant.

If da shoe fits wear it.  :))

Rev. Tom Bob has given his sermon of the month.



 ----- Original Message -----
 From: "David Dustin" <postmaster at fountainsquareramblers.org>
 To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
 Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 5:10 PM
 Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Now You Has JAZZ !


  Given the bleeding landscape of world events as we head into the Ides 
of
 March, 2007, it¹s beyond unfortunate that an amazing community of music
  lovers, united around the world in reverence for ³OKOM² jazz, should 
have to
  contend with voices who glory in sowing artificial divisions. 
Certainly in
 the U.S.A., ³our kind of jazz² appears threatened so sufficiently by
  commercial forces that one would not expect patronizing and 
exclusionary
 attitudes toward excellent European jazzers such as the Bratislava Hot
 Serenaders. (Kudos to these superlative bands for their dedication and
 artistry.) Per-capita today, it¹s conceivable that there are more great
  OKOM jazz bands and musicians keeping the music alive OUTSIDE the 
borders of
  the United States of America than are left scuffling for dwindling 
audiences
  within. (I bet we know someone who will quickly supply the answer to 
this
 question.) To the extent this hypothesis is in any way valid, one could
  argue that any Yankee¹s entitlement to be the arbiter of when ³You Has 
Jazz²
  is diminished or entirely bogus. If it feels like jazz, sounds like 
jazz,
  and makes you want to dance like jazz does, it¹s JAZZ whether played 
in New
 Orleans, Liverpool, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Madrid, Budapest, Moscow,
 Beijing, Sydney, Perth, or Tokyo.

  I sometimes ask my Japanese friend if anything I played in a gig 
sounded to
 him like OKOM jazz. So far, he¹s unwilling to concede that I am even
 playing in a recognizable key, given that I am cursed with a trombone
 instead of his beloved piano. But if I keep woodshedding long enough, I
  might reach a point where Goro says it almost sounds like Jazz. And 
that¹s
 my goal.

 Bells up,

 David Dustin





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