[Dixielandjazz] Jazz, tires and the young

[Marek Boym]

What a wonderful way to promote jazz!
Cheers

On 29 April 2012 01:38, Gary Kiser <gary at kiser.org> wrote:
> 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
> www.mojobrassband.com
> www.martapiker.fr
> www.facebook.com/gary.kiser
> www.myspace.com/garykiser
> www.massifjazz.com
> www.youtube.com/massifjazz
>
>
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