[Dixielandjazz] A Funny Bit and a comment on Jazz societies

[Marek Boym]

May be so, but I have attended jazz shows where the band (or bands, as
at the opening and closing balls of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival) just
played their stuff, and the dancers fit in.
Cheers


On 07/04/2008, Randy Fendrick <jfendrick at bak.rr.com> wrote:
> At our monthly dance (gig) yesterday, a dancer asked us to play a cha cha,
> our leader was looking through the book, when I saw "Hey, Look Me Over"
> which had been placed in the book as a special request for one reason or
> another.  Anyway, we played it as a cha cha.  Later, I was chatting with a
> regular member who commented that we had rehearsed some new material since
> our last gig. I assured him that we hadn't, but made up the arrangement on
> the spot.   Which leads to a comment on the plight of jazz societies.  Our
> society was started as a jazz society, but as the cliental began to die off,
> the jazz members are being replaced by dancers.  Dancers are o.k., but they
> bring requests, that really don't mix with the Chicago style jazz that we
> play, or for that matter, dixieland.  Yesterday, for example a man came up
> and asked for a tune that had a western swing beat, at 120 mm.  Which is
> much too fast for that type of beat,  the leader told him to "get lost" in a
> rather sarcastic way which passed over his head.  We later played
> "Caledonia"  at the agreed upon 100 mm beats per minute.  Our singer quickly
> got the tempo up to his correct tempo.  The point being listeners understand
> that jazz is an improvised music, where performers dictate the tempo.  There
> is really no correct tempo, only how the performer chooses to take it.   An
> example is St Louis Blues, many folks recall the Miller band playing St
> Louis Blues in the Glenn Miller Story as being used as a march at about 120
> beats per minute, or march tempo, whereas the Count Basic Band played it on
> one recording at about 80 beats per minute.  We do it ala Basie! at the 80
> beats per minute.    My point is as in economics there is no such thing as a
> free lunch, or there is a cost to everything, and if you choose to make your
> jazz society a dance society then get ready for less jazz music.
> later,
> rf
> Randy Fendrick
> Southside Chicago Seven
> Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, ret
>
>
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