[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Takes a back seat

[Stephen G Barbone]

> "Robert Ringwald" <rsr at ringwald.com> wrote (polite snip)
>
>
> Be aware that my comments below are strictly mine alone.  Even  
> though I am a member of the STJS Board of Directors, I am not  
> speaking in that capacity.  I am strictly giving my personal views  
> on the subject.  Also, my comments below are perhaps not as polite  
> as Charlie Hull's and Jim Roberson's.  But I have never been known  
> for not saying it like it is...
>
> Needless to say, after being involved with the Sacramento Jazz  
> Festival and Jubilee for some 38 years, being on the Board of  
> Directors of its sponsoring club STJS (Sacramento Traditional Jazz  
> Society) for 10 years this time and a similar length of time in the  
> 70s, being closely involved with most aspects of the Festival  
> including the budget, seeing how hard the members have worked to  
> keep a Jazz festival in Sacramento, the COMMENTS above REALLY,  
> really . . . . PISS ME OFF.
>
> Jim, Scott, Karen and Rae Ann are good friends, but I still have to  
> speak my piece and say shame on you for publicly degrading the  
> Sacramento Festival and insulting the many people who have worked so  
> hard to keep a Jazz festival in Sacramento.
>
> Over the past 38 years since the Sacramento Festival first started,  
> all of you, including me, have seen the Traditional Jazz scene  
> change.  We have all seen Festivals that refuse to add music other  
> than Trad Jazz, either struggle or go away completely.
>
> You all know, including everyone else on DJML, what the Trad Jazz  
> scene is like in this country.  Some of you all know that Sacramento  
> barely escaped bankruptcy 8-years ago.  But through very hard work,  
> we saved it.
>
> Everyone knows  that Sacramento has added other forms of Jazz  
> related music that bring in paying customers because the amount of  
> paying customers who buy tickets just for Trad Jazz has declined.
>
> You know all of this but still choose to denigrate the Sacramento  
> Jazz Festival on a public forum which has close to 600 members world- 
> wide.
>
> Have you not noticed how many OKOM festivals have either gone broke  
> or have cut down the amount of bands and musicians that they now hire?
>
> Here, from the Festival web site, is just a portion of the list of  
> bands and musicians that will be featured at the 38th annual  
> Sacramento Jazz Festival
> May 27-30, 2011.
>
>
> Banu Gibson Hot Jazz including Bill Allred and Jon-Erik Kellso
> Black Dogs
> Carl Sonny Leyland
> Hal Smith's International Sextet
> Neville Dickie from England
> Vince Bartels All Stars
> 101 Army Dixieland Band
> Big Mama Sue Quartet
> Bill Dendle & Eddie Erickson
> Blue Street
> Catsnjammers Jazz Band
> Cornet Chop Suey
> Dr. Bach and the Jazz Practitioners
> Dutch and the Gramercy 6
> Fulton Street Jazz Band
> Margie and the Hot 5
> Natural Gas JB
> Pearl Django
> Red Skunk Jipsee Swing Band
> Royal Society Jazz Band
> Shelly Burns Avalon Swing
> Sister Swing
> St Louis Rivermen
> Stompy Jones
> New Low Down
> The Professors
> Wally's Warehouse Waifs
> Yve Evans and Co.
>
> Plus the Ragtime Corner with many Ragtime pianists.
>
> With these 29 bands playing OKOM plus many other types of bands  
> playing Blues, Zydico, Western Swing, Novelty, What more do you  
> expect us to Do?
>
> Sure, your favorite band may not be there this year.  If we hired  
> everyone's favorite band, and brought back all the bands who have  
> performed in past years as some folks want us to do, we'd be 2  
> million dollars in debt and that would be the end of the Festival.   
> There would be one less OKOM festival on the already shrinking  
> festival scene.
>
> BTW- How many of you have put on a successful Jazz festival?  All of  
> you live in the SF Bay area.  Why is there no Jazz festival in SF,  
> or surrounding area that hires OKOM (Our Kind Of Music)?  If you  
> four know so much about putting on and maintaining a Jazz Festival,  
> that you can criticize Sacramento, why don't you get together and  
> put on a Jazz Festival in the SF Bay area, San Jose and Marin County  
> area?  After all, you have so many more people to draw from then we  
> do here in Sacramento.  I'm sure that with your vast knowledge of  
> how to successfully run a Jazz festival, you guys could make a go of  
> it.
>
> And while I am at it, why is there no major (Classic Jazz,  
> Traditional Jazz, (Dixieland OKOM) festivals in other large cities  
> such as Chicago, Miami, NY, Houston, Las Vegas, Philadelphia,  
> Boston, Dallas, etc?  And only one in Los
> Angeles that is shrinking every year.  I am sure that there are a  
> lot of folks sitting around saying, "I could do it better than  
> Sacramento."  Well...
>
> Reminder, for complete info on the Sacramento Jazz Festival and  
> Jubilee
>
> www.sacjazz.com
>
> For info on the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society

WELL SAID BOB!!!

Too many complainers and not enough trad fans that actually walk the  
walk and attend festivals, or get off their duffs to hear live jazz  
locally,. other than at their tired, old jazz society's events.

You and your group saved the Sacto Festival by attracting the young  
and putting it on a sound financial footing, after previous management  
pissed away close to a $ million surplus. by hiring too many bands  
that were not drawing audience, not attracting swing dancers, etc.,  
etc., etc. The saving feature was attracting a more diverse audience.  
The path you chose was to cut some of the dead wood trad bands that  
did not draw and expand the musical offering.

Yet Sacto still has the largest group; of Dixieland Bands of any  
festival in the USA. Maybe not 130 Dixieland bands any more, but then,  
perhaps 100 of those 130 were mediocre, or worse, to begin with.

What thanks do you get? Hmmm.

All we band leaders love OUR Trad Band Sound. Problem is that most of  
the music audience in the USA doesn't. And so, to get some of that  
trad sound out in public, one has to compromise. Then  after saving a  
festival, you get a ration of S***, much of it from fans who don't  
attend, and/or bands who don't draw fans.

Bob, THANK YOU for what you do and what you have done regarding Sacto.

As for the complainers, quit complaining and find out how you can  
assist in saving other festivals, or ASSIST with Sacto through  
constructive help.

Funny how many folks, have for so many years, to turned a blind eye to  
the fact that the OKOM Festival scene here in the USA is shrinking. If  
festival producers keep doing the same thing regarding trad, year  
after year, why should they, or we, expect to get a different result?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

(BTW, I remember personally posting about the decline in attendance  
for OKOM festivals about a decade ago, and drawing a large amount of  
"denial" responses. Some from folks who attended and/or organized  
festivals and boasted how strong they were. Yeah, now, many of  those  
festivals no longer exist.)