[Dixielandjazz] Young audiences

Marek Boym marekboym at gmail.com
Thu Sep 1 06:34:09 PDT 2011


Hello listmates,
Last night a friend an I went to hear New Orleans Function at its new
weekly gig.
Organization was lacking - the band only started playing at 10:20 PM,
although the gig was variously advertised as startin at 10:00PM (on
the message sent to the band's distribution list), 9:00PM and 9:30PM
(on the Facebook page).
The place itself was quite full, albeit not bursting at seams.  And,
apparently, not only that I, at 70, was the oldest person in
attendance - my 15 year younger friend seemed to be the second oldest.
Originally, the gig was advertised as a dance for people over 30.  On
the first night (last week) that rule was strictly enforced, and all
the swing dancers and band followers were turned away.  The
significance is clear - the band's followers are almost all under 30!
Despite the band leader's announcement that yesterday would be
different, they did come back.  Eventually a few came, but mostly men,
and there was no dancing (not that there really is much room to
dance).
It is to be hoped that they change their mind - othewise, theg may not last.
The show itself, once it started, went very well.  Only four people
were playing rather than the full band - the job does not pay for
more.  So there were the leader Eli Preminger (trumpet) and Arnon de
Bouton (trombone), ably aided by Yaakov Hoter, the leader of Swing de
Gitanes on guitar and Noam (cannot recall his surname) on double bass.
 The playing was great; it seems that adding new players prevented
falling back on routines and pushed the band to new hights.  The band
played traditional standards - Careless Love, Dr. Jazz, etc., but it
all sounded different than on its regular gigs with the full band.
After all, theplayers had to compensate for the missing clarinet, and
had another excellent solo voice in Yaakov, who easily fit with the
traditional style of the band.

Future?  Well, if a kid with a sort-of Mohawk hairstyle (sort of -
because his went on downd his neck) tells his girlfriend about Louis
Armstrong and his playing, things don't really look all that  bad!

Cheers



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