[Dixielandjazz] Sweet Dixie - The Band

[Stephen G Barbone]

>  David Richoux <tubaman at tubatoast.com> wrote
>
> Steve,
>
> I think Marek and I were looking at the links provided (or as guessed
> at by Google) for this year's festival. Seems like maybe the webmaster
> didn't try too hard for better info about the bands in question. (That
> can easily happen with that many listings.)

Dave:

Google can be a tricky site and one should be careful when using it.  
Like you say, Google <Sweet Dixie> and you come up with a US Blue  
Grass Band that while very popular with their fans, has nothing to do  
with the Montreal Jazz Festival. The Canadian Band, Sweet Dixie,  
appearing at the festival, is a Dixieland Band and much harder to find  
on google.

How Le Dixieband got identified as a vocal group, who knows. <grin>  
And I agree, you correctly explained "cocktail Jazz" while another  
list mate inferred that because Montreal Dixie also plays it, it was  
somehow not a real OKOM band.

My point being that the correct information about the bands appearing  
at the Montreal Jazz Festival is readily available on the Festival  
website. One can go through the entire program (13 days), or one can  
click on the performers and get their schedule. Either way, once you  
click on the band's page/picture, a band bio comes up. That is the  
best information source for those who may never have been to this  
great jazz festival..

It does a disservice to the Festival to incorrectly categorize bands.  
The 13 day Montreal Jazz Festival is the PREMIER jazz festival in  
North America and may be the largest jazz festival in the world. It is  
not an OKOM festival, yet has more OKOM that most North American OKOM  
festivals. It also has other genres of jazz. It also has other genres  
of music. In short, it markets to and pleases the jazz audience as  
well as the jazz challenged audience..

And what an audience. By way of comparison to US Festivals, It draws  
over 2,000,000 people to over 500 concerts. Some single concerts draw  
100,000 audience while a few have drawn over 200,000.

The festival is well run by a great group of professionals and an  
absolute joy to attend. 2009 is its 30th anniversary. Many shows are  
free, but the big boys like Tony Bennett cost from $75 to $125,  
Marsalis or Brubeck from $49 to $79, etc.

No wonder Steve Heist felt that some of us must be kidding him. <grin>

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband