[Dixielandjazz] Why is it that big business always gets a hold of art and take the life blood out of it?

[Ministry of Jazz]

Shalom Jazz Fans,

So far I agree with everyone on this thread.

You want to play music for a living, you have to treat it like a business.
You don't have to sell out to corporate bottom line thinking, but if you
want people to buy something, you need to sell it. That's how it works.

You want to innovate and play art for art's sake -- that is, *your*
interpretation of the kind of art *you* like -- you might not be able to
make a living at it. Doesn't mean it's wrong to do it. You just have to face
the facts. Not everyone will buy your product if you are producing it
primarily for yourself and not for them.

You want to preserve a piece of musical history for posterity, then you
probably need sponsors because public interest might be limited. But future
generations might pay a fortune for your work after you're dead. And you
will have served history well even if nobody knows your name at the moment.

We who love the music of a certain time period and place and style(s) have
to do a delicate dance around these three pillars of the beast. We want to
keep what was good about the music then. We want people now to like it and
pay us to play it. And we want to enjoy ourselves while we're doing it.

Well, you can't always get all of the above. That's life. We can argue about
it, or we can get out and do it. I play all the time for pay for people who
never heard the music before, who don't know what it's called or who played
it or when. I am in a relatively virgin market. They won't even know if I
change anything or not. The older Anglo crowd over here may like the jazz,
but they rarely pay for me to play it for them (though I sometimes get asked
by them to play for free). I am much happier playing for younger to middle
aged Israelis, natives and immigrants from other middle eastern countries,
who generally pay what I ask without arguing, treat me and my players like
kings, and they'll dance and clap and play along with us and have a grand
time and so do we. Sometimes they make such an effort to feed us that we
have to remind them they're not paying us to eat!

But for this local audience, I have to do something to connect with them.
First of all, if I run an ad in the paper offering Dixieland jazz, nobody
will know what it is. So we take the music to the streets and play for them
in public. Today in less than two hours playing downtown at lunch time, we
booked 2 wedding gigs for the coming month. And I pre-sold one of my new
CDs. Someone looked over the home-made sample I made, gave me money and his
address, and I'll send it to him next week. (Did I mention I have a new CD
for sale...?)

When performing for an Israeli audience, we speak to them in Hebrew between
the songs. We give very brief descriptions of the song and what's special
about it. Now and then we translate an OKOM song into Hebrew. And we
incorporate a few Israeli and Jewish tunes into our repertoire that are
familiar to them in an OKOM style, and this helps them to connect to us and
our music. But we do not alter the essential traits of our songs. As someone
pointed out, then they would no longer be the same style that we know and
love.

Just yesterday I accepted a booking to do a solo Hanukkah musical comedy
show at a new comedy club in Jerusalem. I'm not even sure what I'm going to
do yet. But I will tell the Hanukkah story in a humorous way using trad jazz
songs with a new twist on their meanings to fit the story. I've done it for
Purim and other holidays. It will work for Hanukkah too. And as a result of
this negotiation, we will probably get the chance to try doing a monthly
jazz night at the same club with the whole Doctor Jazz band.

As others keep saying on DJML, we have to know our audiences; we must
respect and love them; and we have to take the music to them. Nobody is
going to knock on our doors to pay us to play for them. We who want to play
the music have to get out there and do it. Initiative + promotion + a bunch
of hard work + having a good product to offer = paying gigs. The formula
usually does not change. So let's get out there and make the music!

"If you build it, they will come!"

Elazar Brandt
Doctor Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Brass Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz
+972-2-679-2537