[Dixielandjazz] Marsalis & Clapton

[Robert Ringwald]

Dixiejazzdata" <dixiejazzdata at aol.com wrote in part regarding the well-known pop or Rock stars playing Jazz and Youth Jazz camps:

> They have the money, the means and a name big enough to convince many people to listen to Jazz & Blues
> and buy product and attend sold out concerts to see and hear them.   


I agree.  


> I doubt you will see any Jazz Festivals going broke
> for inviting these kind of Real Star players to sell tickets so they can continue to hire local mediocre bands and operate jazz camps
> to teach young folks how to grow up to play jazz with no possible way of every earning a living playing music.   Especially Jazz.


And why can't someone play Jazz for fun without having to make a living at it?  Is that some sort of a crime?  I play Jazz, and well I might say and I am not making a living at it.  

BTW- If you have ever tried to hire one of those big names, and I'm sure you have, you know that they cost a lot of money.  I doubt if many Trad Jazz festivals have that kind of dough.  

I know that we here in Sacramento have done a lot of pricing over the past ffew years.  We even had a partner with a lot of money wanting us to go in half with them.  But, if you don't have the money in reserve, and don't have the sponsor
with the money, you can't sign a contract agreeing to pay that money.  A certain amount of negotiation can be done and has been done, but we still do not have that kind of money.    
  
As far as putting on a youth Jazz camp, of course we do not expect every youth musician who attends the camp to become a professional Trad Jazz, or even modern Jazz player.  However, we hope that by being exposed to Trad Jazz, something other than the crap that big business forces down their throat, they will have some appreciation for OKOM (Our Kind Of Music) through their lifetime.    

Besides that, we have had many ex campers become professional musicians who are doing quite well.  They may not be becoming millioneres at playing music, but that is their choice.  

We have one excelent musician now playing in New York who was offered a full medical scholership to Johns Hopkins and turned it down to go to either Berkeley or Juliard.  But, that was his decision.  

The kids that go to our (Sacramento) youth Jazz camp love it.  They come back year after year.  When they turn 18, a lot of them come back as counslors.  We also had to start an adult Jazz camp as some of the youth campers wanted to continue with Jazz camp after turning 18.  And a lot of older folks also wanted to attend a Sacramento adult Jazz camp.  

--Bob Ringwald