[Dixielandjazz] playing for young audience

[Stephen G Barbone]

Dear Robert:

Please continue as long as you like about this subject. Note that I  
have removed Bob Ringwald from the addressees. He may not be  
interested in this subject matter and certainly has heard it all  
before since it has been discussed on the DJML for decades. However, I  
and perhaps some others am vitally interested in sharing opinions  
about audiences with people who have not heard it all before.

It's kind of like "Old Folks" in general. They have heard it all  
before and so do not wish to discuss it, and/or listen to certain  
types of jazz. Band leaders like Tito Martino and me (and others) are  
always glad to share opinions. And we realize that the DJML is a  
living and dying chat list. Of the 600 or so members, the new folks on  
the list who have replaced those who have died off, certainly have not  
heard all these discussion points before. IMO, those new members  
should neither be ignored, nor dismissed with "we've heard all that  
before". Basically because some of us old boys on the DJML have heard  
most of the subjects discussed on it before. As for me, soon to be 78,  
so what?

One thing for sure, the older audience is dying off. Who else but  
younger folks will be around to listen and dance to the music? I  
personally enjoy sharing opinions with you and urge you to continue as  
you see fit since I believe that your opinions are valuable.

I also urge you to join the DJML. No doubt every discussion on it will  
not be of interest to you and so I urge you to do what I do. Get it in  
digest form and just skip by those discussions that are of no  
interest. Takes me only 15 minutes or so to go through each digest and  
there are usually 2 or less digests per day.

BTW, we routinely play Original Dixieland One Step for young dancers  
and that tune was recorded by the ODJB in 1917 and is probably about  
100 years old. They LOVE it.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


On Aug 19, 2011, at 1:38 PM, Robert Duis wrote:

> Some (maybe most) members in this list do not like me to speak about  
> this subject. So I will stop.
>
> Last thought: Playing to youngsters is different of interest  
> youngsters of music older than 20 years at a maximum.
>
> robert duis.
>
>
> Op 19-aug-2011, om 18:41 heeft Tito Martino het volgende geschreven:
>
>> Hi Steve
>>
>> oh, my!  you've been extremely restrained and modest in that mail!
>> You're actually a champion of living Jazz, oposed to dead Jazz and a
>> well succeded leader of a band working 150+ gigs yearly !
>> And with higher fees than any other band around there !
>>
>> So your words are to be taken very seriously, YOU are clearly  
>> REALISTIC in your OPTIMISM.
>>
>> I try to do the same around here, in a much lesses scale.
>>
>> That's why I can't agree with our listmate Robert Duis.
>>
>> Dear Duis
>>
>>  I saw your Band playing in youtube, like very much, there
>> is the old arranged big-band style;
>>
>>
>> and  here you can see my Band
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD_mAlG8k9c   Since my Best Gal
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZAPnDhnLjs&feature=related      C  
>> Jam Blues
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWnX6O1_tEY     Bourbon St. Parade
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxmbmbVStjc       Rose Room
>>
>> I wish you remark the YOUNG people in the audience and see their  
>> reactions especially to CJam Bues.
>>
>> These clips are a little old but my Band is basically the same today
>> and we keep playing to young audiences!
>>
>> You can see the difference between the kind of Jazz you play and  
>> the kind of Jazz I play
>> and that it reaches to the youngs.
>>
>>  keep on swinging!
>>
>> Tito Martino
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 11:53 AM, Stephen G Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net 
>> > wrote:
>>
>> On Aug 18, 2011, at 2:39 PM, Robert Duis wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>      Dear "ALL"...........
>>>
>>>                   Regarding the Interesting discussion about the  
>>> OH YEAH DAY:
>>>                    
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>                    My name is robert duis (74) and fanatic amateur  
>>> traditional jazz performer as the leader of the www.limehouse-jazzband.nl
>>>
>>>                    I think an "Oh Yeah Day" (Tamas ' idea) is  
>>> "better" than a Louis Armstrong or a Duke Ellington or a Bix  
>>> Beiderbecke Day....
>>>                    ................when trying to interest younger  
>>> people to the Traditional Jazz but I am a realist and I am a  
>>> pessimist in this respect:
>>>
>>>                    Better put energy and activities in trying to  
>>> enlarge the 60+ market for OUR music than thinking to reach a  
>>> younger 30- market. NO CHANCE!!!!!
>>>
>>>                    Mozart / Beethoven / Chopin / Louis Armstrong  
>>> and even The Beatles are "stations" that do NOT come  
>>> back..............
>>>
>>>                    Invite your neighbour of 60+ instead of her /  
>>> his son of 30- for your concert.  Thinking of 20 / 15 / 10 year  
>>> young girls and boys is not more than STUPID!
>>>
>>>                    The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam has 2.000 seats.  
>>> Give 2.000 tickets free of charge to young people for a concert of  
>>> the very best Traditional JAZZERS in the world
>>>                    and the Theatre stays empty or will be full of  
>>> the parents and the grandparents of these kids who gave their  
>>> tickets away and .......... do not be disappointed and/or angry  
>>> about that.
>>>
>>>                    Nobody stops the "Wonderful World of Louis!"
>>>
>>
>> Dear Robert & others:
>>
>> I respectfully disagree and have posted many examples over the past  
>> 10 years of how to play for YOUNG people. By simply playing at  
>> venues where they are, drinking, dancing and having a good time.  
>> Not to belabor the point, see the below jpgs.,etc. My band does  
>> these kinds of gigs MANY times a year and this explains why we have  
>> so many gigs in comparison to bands that only court old folks.  
>> Young people venues is where the action is. Been like that ever  
>> since the ODJB hit Chicago and NYC circa 1917. Most old folks don't  
>> go out any more.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Steve Barbone
>>
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>> -- 
>> Tito Martino Jazz Band
>> www.titomartinojazzband.com.br
>> titomartino at gmail.com
>>
>