[Dixielandjazz] Flirting With The Audience

[Robert Ringwald]

Roy Taylor wrote:



Last weekend we played a walk-around gig at a local golf club family fair.

We got a few curious and positive vibes from the audience.  One young girl

was watching my sousaphone with some fascination...so I stopped playing

briefly and asked her if she knew what song we were playing.  She said no.

So I told her, "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby".

She must have been warned about lecherous old men, for she turned and

walked away without any further comment.

Just got me to thinking, we were playing to an audience even whose parents

don't know the songs.

(snip)





Yup, that is the way it is. We are now playing museum music. When I started playing OKOM as a teenager, the “Jazz Age” was only 30 years away. Now it is 90 years away. Even the 60 year olds were born in 1953 and think music started with the Beatles or even later with bands that I can’t stand and never listened to. 



Sure, there are some young bands playing OKOM. But still, “Our Kind Of Music” has not penetrated the general public’s consciousness. And, other than a few live performances, how can it. It has almost disappeared from radio and TV. Record stores where you might accidently run across an OKOM recording have all but disappeared. 



Well, that’s progress…





-Bob Ringwald