[Dixielandjazz] selling Jazz

[Marek Boym]

I have already mentioned the following story, but, having read Jim's
posting, I'm repeating it.
Some time ago, a jazz band was invited to play as part of a music festival
in Tel-Aviv-Jaffa.  Some friends and I went, but the show was postponed
again and aagin, as two other groups were playing in the same club (it has
premises on two sides of the street, both open to the street, but the jazz
band was to play in another room, which was behind doors).  By the time it
started playing, the room was empty - we old ... were the only audience.
So the trumpeter-leader took the group marching out on the street, and in
two minutes or so returned like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, with a throng of
kids following (when I say "kids," I mean people in their twenties and
perhaps early thirties); the room became so crowded it was difficult to
turn, and the youngsters were dancing, too!   I asked two or three what
happened, and they replied that they didn't know there was more music, but
they heard good danceable music so they followed.  The evening ended well
past midnight!
Cheers

On Thu, 6 Sep 2018 at 15:07, <jim at kashprod.com> wrote:

> David, from Los Angeles, made some good points about getting the general
> public to pay attention to our type of Jazz.  I have found, over the years,
> that we often have to “win over” our audience first by playing some songs
> they know (not necessarily even Jazz tunes….things like The Flintstones,
> The Pink Panther), then once we have the audience in our pocket, we can
> sneak in a jazz tune that we really want to play for them.
>
>
>
> It’s not like we walk out on the stage, like say Paul McCartney does,
> where he has them all there just to see/hear him. Jazz audiences aren’t
> always jam packed with knowledgeable jazz enthusiast.
>
>
>
> We often play small villages in the deeps of Spain.  Imagine having your
> concert put off by an hour or so because the mother of the local shop owner
> died and the funeral was running late, and the whole town was at the
> cemetery!  Or, the whole town was tied up at the slaughter house as the
> yearly slaughter was running late!  Both of those things have actually
> happened to us!!!  So, you’re going to walk on stage & not give them a bit
> of show, a bit of enjoyment?  You’re going to convince them from the very
> start of the concert that they are going to love Jazz?  Impossible!  You’ve
> got to Entertain, then maybe slip in a bit of art along the way.
>
>
>
> The same thing goes if you’re playing in downtown Madrid, or downtown New
> York!  Some of the audience has never heard Jazz live.  It’s got to be
> sold! The Dukes of Dixieland did that in a splendid manner, becoming the
> face of Jazz during the outset of the Stereo LP player in the late 1950’s.
>
>
>
> End of my sermon!
>
>
>
> Jim
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