[Dixielandjazz] Acoustic music.

[Ministry of Jazz]

Amen, Kent!

I am always ragging and railling against amplification. I detest it. With
almost NO exception, there are ALWAYS problems when my group is forced to
play with a sound system. And in Israel, overamplifying bad music is the
national sport!

One example: We played a few months ago at an outdoor venue in Old Jerusalem
just south of the Temple Mount. The site is a large open area surrounded by
stone, and the stage and most of the audience are under a large canopy.
Previous times that we've played there we were unplugged except for a mike
for vocals and announcements. The stone created a natural resonation and
clarity that were brilliant. I suspect I could have sung without a mike too,
but we didn't try it.

But this last time, they had a new sound system that they just had to use,
without telling us in advance. We got there and it was set up already. I
don't see where we gained anything at all from the system, but it turned out
that we couldn't hear one another on the stage, and anyone who didn't play
into his mike was not heard in the audience, including the trumpet and
trombone -- all this in the same space that was wonderful when we were
unplugged.

I don't want to fight with these people, because they like us and we want to
continue playing there. But I will certainly request to play unplugged
except for the vocal mike on future gigs.

By way of contrast, I was in New York not long ago, and had the chance to
see 2 Broadway shows. In both theaters, we found ourselves to be completely
unaware of any sound system. There must have been one, because all the
voices came through loud enough and perfectly clear. But I heard nothing but
the natural sound ... no hissing, feedback, clicking, echos, reverb, and
none of that artificial too loud and too muddy sound. I was in heaven. We
also saw no microphones anywhere, no floor mikes, nothing hanging from the
ceiling, no Madonna mikes ... nothing to obstruct the beauty of the
performances.

Where are these guys when I perform?!

Shalom from Israel,

Elazar
Doctor Jazz Dixieland Band
Jerusalem, Israel
www.doctorjazz.co.il
+972-2-679-2537


-----Original Message-----
From: Kent Murdick [mailto:kmurdick at jaguar1.usouthal.edu]
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2009 7:08 PM
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Acoustic music.


I don't think my post about Loyola got to the list, so I'll repeat it.
I was at a reception at Loyola U. in New Orleans with my daughter.  It
was a large buffet affiair in a quite large room with high ceilings.  A
student trio was playing (they were quite good) made up of tenor sax,
string bass and drums. And no amplification!  It sounded great .  I
think that people are so grateful not to be subjected to amped sounds,
that they respond to the music better. Maybe I'm just old, but if I see
someone setting up a mike, I walk out.