[Dixielandjazz] Audience Connect 101

[Stephen G Barbone]

Thanks Gary Kiser, for that note about how Bobby McFerrin connects  
with his audience. He is a master at it. We bandleaders should all be  
so good at it.

To relate the importance of Connection to OKOM audiences, the late  
Kenny Davern was also a master at it. Those of us who saw Kenny as a  
Band Leader during his life can well attest to that. He knew how to  
get an audience in the palm of his hand. One of the components of his   
success in OKOM was that practiced and preached his realization that  
there was more to a jazz performance than just playing music. He opined:

"You must relate to your audience, you must communicate with them, you  
must know what their pulse is, what they feel. They're there to see  
you and hear you,. and it's the least you can do to involve them. It's  
veery important to cause a relaxation, a tension and a rapport. . . .  
the music we play has been relegated to a sanctified role, where  
everybody is supposed to sit there and not talk. You are supposed to  
deliver some kind of emotional message to them. Its garbage. You are  
supposed to dance, have a good time, talk. Get up, flirt, whatever. "

SOURCE: Interview (interviewer unknown)  on Nov 14, 1985 at Heresford  
UK, broadcast on BBC.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband