[Dixielandjazz] Lu Watters concert

[John Gill]

Hi
I need to sday something here. First of all I'm sorry once again if any one felt left out . It was not intentional. We were given a certain nunmber of seats we were allowed to sell for a certain price that was negotiated by Bimbo's and the group that organized the event. So even though Bimbo's can seat 750 or more, we were allowed 350 for the deal that was negotiated. For the price we got the use of the hall for 4 hours, the sound system and an engineer,3 security people, the full dance floor, two bartenders and a waitress, and 350 seats. The event was promoted on a very small local basis and it sold out very quickly. Ticket prices were very low and even though it was sold out the proceeds fell far short of actually paying for the event. The price of renting Bimbo's is astronomical and when you add that to airfare, hotels, etc., it's a big nut. The local media was not interested at at all and shame on them. That is probably why it seemed like an
 invisible event. The actual promoters are not savy to the Dixieland Mailing List, so that's why it was not promoted here. I take the blame for that because I'm the only member of the band that follows DJML. So I'm sorry about that. But I was the hired help and was not in charge of promotion. That said the event sold out because Lu Watters still looms large among people in San Francisco who like there jazz traditional.
Financial losses aside, it was a great event, the dance floor was packed, and for one afternoon in San Francisco Lu Watters was king again. I'm sorry everybody did not get to attend, it was not a secret event and I wish everybody could have been there. Maybe someone out there in Dixieland Cyberspace can throw their own Lu Watters 100th Birthday Concert and we can do it again. Or how about Turk Murphy, George Lewis, Kid Ory, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, Buddy Bolden, Wild Bill Davison, Eddie Condon, Jack Teagarden, Coleman Hawkins, etc. Do you all realize that most people don't even know who these people are?
John Gill
 
PS and it's spelled WATTERS not Waters.
JG