[Dixielandjazz] The World in a JUg

[Stephen G Barbone]

Bob Brodsky asks if anyone on the DJML read his new book.

I just got my copy Bob and am mid-book. Also, I know Norm Vickers read  
it  as well as Ken Waltjen. Among our 600 plus or minus members, IMO,  
you will be fortunate if 30 buy and read read it.

Example: My band played a Dixieland Concert before an audience of 6 or  
700 last night in Ocean City New Jersey. I think MAYBE 1 list mate was  
there, and MAYBE 2 members of the two local jazz societies were there.  
If Barbone Street had to depend upon the Jazz Society, or DJML  
members, we'd be playing to empty houses.

Like you, "knowledgeable fans" (as we like to describe ourselves) are  
getting old.  We "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" (except for certain  
musicians like me who at 76 years old will drive 260 miles round trip  
at night to make a well paying gig) and getting very passive about  
"new books" or "live music." For the most part, we are no longer  
adventurous and stay within our own little circle of friends and gigs  
by our local jazz societies. Go to hear music in a club, or on the  
outside? Hear a new band? Read a new book? Nah, there are very few  
(Marek Boym is one) who venture outside their cocoons to hear live  
music.

The answer to enlarging the audience, as we see it, is to target those  
regular folks, young and old, who think jazz is limited to elevator  
music and what they hear on the radio. When you get them to read your  
book, or we get them to a concert, the repeating phrase we hear when  
they come up after their experience is" Wow, I didn't think I liked  
jazz, but what you are playing is wonderful."

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband