[Dixielandjazz] Audience Applause

[Marek Boym]

Hate to admit it, but I completely agree with you!  moreover, despite
its detractors, I still love that Gonsalves' solo!  One day, at our
jazz evening, I played three versions of Diminuendo - the Newport one,
one from a Connecticut jazz festival of the same year, and one
recorded at a stutdio, and we all agreed that, despite there being
most noise, the Newport one WAS the most exciting.
Cheers

On 10/01/2008, Steve Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Interesting, the difference in opinions. Perhaps also, the difference in
> audiences. IMO, the audience should applaud, or whistle, or stomp their feet
> whenever they damn well feel like it. Isn't the performance for them? Who
> then, are the musicians, to say that the audience are the Booboise because
> they applaud or otherwise show appreciation at the wrong times?
>
> How can we expect the audience to know when a solo warrants applause. That
> is so very subjective. Can we, as individuals, ever adequately define "good"
> solo (applaud) or bad (punish with no applause) from an audience standpoint?
>
> If good is musical difficulty, wouldn't we then loudly applaud avant garde,
> and bebop and all the other virtuoso music that we disdain?
>
> And if we appreciate swinging and exciting wouldn't we then loudly applaud
> showy solos, because they swing and excite us?
>
> Applause to our band is always better than no applause. What is really
> exciting to us is when we generate applause in church services. The audience
> wants to be reverent, yet cannot just sit there. So if they interrupt the
> solo flow, by applause, or by dancing in the aisle, we love it.
>
> Perhaps a good example of a long and musically simple solo that generated
> enormous crowd response is that of Paul Gonzalves on tenor in Ellington's
> band at Newport RI in 1956. He took a  27 or so, chorus solo on Diminuendo
> and Crescendo in Blue. Mostly a loud, 27 blues chorus performance with a lot
> of honking and single note repetition.
>
> Yet it, plus the blonde who got up to gyrate to it, ignited the crowd. There
> is sustained applause, whistling, and shouting building as the solo
> progresses.
>
> By many of our standards, that solo should not have been applauded by the
> cognoscenti for it was relatively simple music and very showy. Kind of like
> Kenny G holding a note via circular breathing for 45 minutes. Big deal, we
> say. But what about the audience?
>
> Well, the audience went absolutely crazy. They got involved with the music,
> they became part of the performance. That performance re-started Ellington's
> career which had, for several years prior, been stuck in the mud.
>
> IMO, audience reaction is what it's all about. I was there back in 1956 and
> wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I strive to duplicate it, as a
> jazz musician, when I perform. IMO, that's what jazz is all about.
>
> As the incoming President of the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) said
> a while back, we artists spend too much time talking among ourselves and not
> enough time communicating with the audience.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
>
>
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