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

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

 the leader told him to "get lost" in a
rather sarcastic way which passed over his head.
____________________________________________

Then again maybe it didn't --------- 

I sympathize with what you say in many ways but this kind of attitude and 
unbending quality that you are implying IS the very reason why OKOM and Jazz 
in general can be a tough sell and drives people away.

If that guy had any influence other than taking his personal money somewhere 
else the band might not work there again.  Over the years I have seen guys 
do this kind of thing dozens of times and it's always a bad idea.  I saw a 
band leader do the exact same thing at the MAC club (very exclusive) and the 
person went directly to the officer who was throwing the party.  Well that 
band has never been asked back.

While jazz to the purist is sacred and the listeners be damned is 
unfortunately a theme that resounds down through the years.  Virtually all 
of the bands that do that eventually grind to a halt.

Personally I don't care if a band leader or musicians want to shoot 
themselves in the foot and be my guest but it muddies the water for the rest 
of us.

Sunday night I played a concert for our local Jazz society.  It wasn't Dixie 
but rather Big Band Jazz.  The leader isn't known for his people pleasing 
music but he always includes several tunes on the program for the non jazz 
oriented audience.  We did about a dozen more familiar tunes in the three 
hour concert that people could dance to.  They did dance and all seemed to 
be happy and it wasn't any skin off of our noses to make the audience happy.

Personally I always have a plan B for myself.   If you are going to hitch 
your wagon to this guy I suggest you too have a plan B.

There's a whole lot more to music than just playing good.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randy Fendrick" <jfendrick at bak.rr.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 11:11 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] A Funny Bit and a comment on Jazz societies


> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz 
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>