[Dixielandjazz] Stereotyping

[Stephen G Barbone]

Hello Marek:

In the USA, most of the bands playing Dixieland are part timers, who  
are in large measure trying to reprise what the white bands of the 20s  
and 30s played, or trying to emulate King Oliver, etc., etc., etc.  
Their main audiences are white people at OKOM festivals, or cruises.  
(I know it is a generalization but IMO pretty accurate)

My band, and many other "working" Dixieland bands, are not limited by  
those boundaries. Since we play numerous gigs, mostly Dixieland, but  
some general music gigs also, we circulate among the mass audience and  
other "working" musicians. And most gigs are in our own area, rather  
than travel based.

"Working musicians" would be defined as those who make their living  
performing music. And, there is a huge pool of black musicians among  
"working musicians". Some folks who have not heard us play, might even  
call us "commercial" Dixieland.

What do working musicians play? Any kind of music that pays a decent  
taste. Bands like mine do indeed pay well and easily compete  
successfully for the best players available. (That's why I am so  
against playing gigs on the cheap, or free)

Do lots of black jazz musicians play Dixieland? Of course. You and  
others on the list are not aware of this basically because you don't  
go to the venues where bands like mine perform. General audience  
venues/concerts that pay decent money. Our local audience is therefore  
much larger and much more of a rainbow than that of the many bands  
that play only the OKOM circuits

My current Dixieland musician list is 44 players, of which 9 are  
black. Thats just about the current ratio of blacks to whites in the  
USA.

Many black players went to OKOM in the 1960s when the big bands in the  
USA folded and Dixieland experienced a revival.  Reason? To Make a  
living. Same thing happens now in a lot more places than you might  
think.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


On Aug 30, 2008, at 4:34 PM, Marek Boym wrote:

> Not very convincing.  There are indeed excellent OKOM musicians of all
> colours and races, but the percentage of blacks among them is smaller
> than in the entire population, or in other types of music.  Still,  
> there are plenty.
> I remember a time in Amsterdam when my wife and I entered a cafe
> (before the days they started selling grass), and there was that young
> kid from Philadelphia (cannot recall his name, but he was in his late
> teens) playing and singing boogie woogie.  I was surprised, and told
> him so.  He just laughed.  And when asked why he had chosen that kind
> of music, he gave the best reply possible: "Because I love it, man!"
> Cheers
>
> On 29/08/2008, Stephen G Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Folks, shouldn't put too much credence in DJML posts that blacks do  
>> not play
>> OKOM. Nor should they stereotype "the current crop of artists".
>>
>> The concert our 6 piece Dixieland band played, with Jonathan  
>> Russell as our
>> guest last Sunday, had 3 black OKOM players. The concert I did  
>> Monday had 4
>> black OKOM players. They are gentlemen as well as excellent jazz  
>> musicians;
>> don't use "slang vernacular and rhetoric that would draw a lawsuit  
>> against
>> most non black people" but probably would not be surprised such an  
>> unfair
>> characterization by a white Dixielander.
>>
>> Sometimes I front a band version where all the other players are  
>> black. Same
>> story.
>>
>> Point being, there are idiot musicians of every color, race, creed.  
>> And
>> there are wonderful musicians of every color, race and creed. As a  
>> working
>> jazz musician, with a network of both black and white jazz musicians,
>> working every one of my 160 gigs this year with blacks in my band,  
>> I speak
>> from actual experience, not some theory of pre determined opinion.