[Dixielandjazz] The demise of jazz festivals - perhaps the REAL reason...

[Clive Smith]

Dear Chris.

You have hit the nail on the head. In August I attended the Bix Festival in
Davenport for the first time and certainly not the last. I sent the printed
program to a friend of mine in Argentina who will join me for next year's
Fest so cannot quote the number of bands that participated. True enough,
most of the attendees were not in the first bloom of youth but I can say
this - each concert on all four days of the Fest were sell outs. In fact,
for those that were presented in the Blackhawk Hotel you had to be there
early if you wanted to sit. And, here is the punch line - all, I say again,
ALL the bands were OKOM - no C&W, no Zydeco, no R&B, just OKOM. I believe
the organizers of this event are successful because they do not wish to be
all things to all people and attract 10.000 people - why do music Fest
organizers have to subscribe to the All American Thing that bigger is
better..... ist the yankee dollar bill their *only* interest ? I am sure
that during your sojourn in NOLA you saw the deterioration of our own New
Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest since its inception -  the J & H Foundation
should remove the word "jazz" from the title and call it the merely "The
Heritage Festival" - as it stands, they should be had up for false
advertising.

Regards,

Clive Smith
New Orleans

On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 5:27 PM, tyleman <tyleman at isp.com> wrote:

> As a musician who has played many jazz festivals, I can state that
> what I see with the demise of festivals really has more to do with the
> people who are running the festivals - not the festivals themselves,
> or the type of music being played.
>
> A large number of festivals are run by people who are retired, and
> after many years of dealing with the headaches of the festival, have
> decided to call it quits. I know for a fact that several of the
> festivals I used to play have decided to throw in the towel only
> partly because of diminishing audiences. The major reason is the
> person in charge wants to retire and there is no one to take over the
> leadership.
>
> I think the decision by Sacramento to make changes is a reasonable
> one. For one thing, IMO the festival has always been too big and
> had too many bands and venues. Even in the 1970s, there was no way one
> could hear all that was being offered, and patrons had to go all over
> the place to hear the bands. The concept was "bigger is better." And
> it was always difficult for the musicians, trying to get from one
> venue to another in a short amount of time. After 30 years, change is
> inevitable and likely a good thing
>
> So if "Mr. Moldy Fig" isn't happy, maybe he needs to find a festival
> that caters more to what he wants to hear. I've found that some
> festivals have done an excellent job in either offering a wide
> spectrum of trad jazz, or offering more of, for lack of a better term,
> "hard-core" trad that SHOULD make Mr. Moldy Fig happy. To diss the
> whole Sacramento festival because the band or bands you like are not
> there is ridiculous. If people are unhappy about the festival scene,
> why don't they take the initiative and start their OWN festival. Many
> of the festivals that have been going successfully for years were
> started by one person or a handful of dedicated people. It's my
> understanding that Sacramento was started by one person - Bill
> Borcher, and there was nothing like that going on in the US up until
> he started the ball rolling in the early 1970s..
>
> --
> Chris Tyle
> www.tyleman.com
> www.silverleafjazzband.com
>
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