[Dixielandjazz] Jazz, tires and the young

[Gary Kiser]

Hi y'All,

Just got home from a corporate gig chez Michelin. I play for Michelin at 
least a half dozen times a year. Their corporate headquarters are here 
in Clermont-Ferrand. The event tonight was their annuel 'students day' 
which is half PR event and half recruiting event. Each year, around the 
end of the school year, Michelin proposes a challenge to the 
technical/engineering schools in France and the schools that accept the 
challenge face off in a competition on the Michelin property here. This 
year, the challenge was to construct a one person vehicle that would go 
the farthest with one liter of fuel. The participants were lodged and 
fed on site and they had full access to the Michelin factories for any 
construction needs they may have had after their arrival. They also had 
access to the Michelin race track where Formula 1 tires are tested.

Michelin spent a small fortune on the event and, in return, they got a 
whole lot of very cool press and got to scout some very imaginative 
future engineers that may end up as Michelin employees. We played for 
the 'last night' banquet where all the teams were united for a closing 
night 'good luck' bash. The actual competition in tomorrow morning and 
Monday, everyone is back in school.

We had a great time. There were 350 'kids' between 18 and 25 years old 
and when they saw me pull out my tuba, many started to giggle. But, when 
we started to play, everyone had a great time. The house rocked. We sold 
quite a number of CDs and we had countless younguns have their pictures 
taken with us.

We have a 'camera crowd pleaser' that turned out to be a problem 
tonight. When we see someone taking a photo of the group, a front line 
muso that may not be soloing at a given moment will signal to NOT take 
the photo. He then exchanges his instrument for the camera, places the 
once-photographer-now-'musician' in the front line of the band and takes 
a photo of the group with the audience member in his place. This was a 
hit tonight and it caused us problems. So many of these young engineers 
wanted their photo taken with the group that we weren't able to play. We 
had to excuse ourselves and say that we would not take anymore photos 
with instruments. They continued to come in numbers and have a friend 
take photos with their cameras.

All that to say, jazz is far from dead here in Europe, or at least, here 
in France. When we finished, every member of the band had young 
techno-talents that also play music for fun, talking to them about the 
music we play and how to learn to play like that. We didn't force 
anything on them. They came to us. They loved what we played and they 
want to play like us. I talked with a 19 year old future engineer that 
plays tuba in a community wind ensemble for fun that never heard jazz 
and/or funky tuba live before. He was enthusiastic to learn to play like 
me (a form of flattery that just cannot be equaled anywhere), and wanted 
one of our CDs but didn't have the money. The lad touched me with his 
enthusiasm so I slipped him a free CD and told him not to tell anyone. 
What was I supposed to do? What a great night and I am generally bored 
at corporate events.

Ok, that is all. I just wanted to let you know how I spent my evening.

All the best, Gary



Gary Kiser
34, rue du Président Wilson
63100 Clermont-Ferrand
09.53.99.80.73
06.63.60.11.44

www.sacapulses.com
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