[Dixielandjazz] The Lu Watters concert

[Stephen G Barbone]

> From: John Gill <smokewagon at yahoo.com> wrote
>
> 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

Hey John:

Congratulations on selling the event out with 350 seats. Maybe the  
folks at the Sacramento music festival could promote the band and a  
similar event in May?

Sounds like a winner to me.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband