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Survival (Doom & Gloom part 9) D&G 1 : D&G 2 : D&G 3 : D&G 4 : D&G 5 : D&G 6 : D&G 7 : D&G 8 : D&G 9
18/01/20 - Hi Fred I've believed for some years now that young enthusiastic musicians and dancing was the answer to saving our jazz clubs and festivals. This ensemble, 'Jack and Jill's Swing Band' ( see Youtube, 'I've got my fingers crossed' ) show their style well and the dancers are loving them. I know they are booked for FestJazz Brittany and Trevor Stent tells me the Festival's pre-booking for this year has already far exceeded any other year. That I find amazing, but, when the programme so far is checked out, it's not surprising. I believe a band I've been following for some time on line, 'The Hot Teapots', will also be joining the line-up, and Ryan Baer, leader of the Frog & Henry Band, says he will likely be joining them. I know some UK festivals have recently booked bands such as 'The Shake'em Up' girls and 'Mama Shakers', but they could have so many more from here and over the Channel. - Norman Gibson 18/01/20 - Personally I don't think the answer is to put young and old together and hope they will all get up and dance, or even enjoy each other's socialising. I've visited several long standing traditional jazz clubs around the North West since I started this site, and if I've seen more than two people dancing, it's been unusual. Strangely enough, as can be seen on the photograph sent in today by Pete Lay, this is not the case down South. I think it's for young people to find it for themselves, like I did 60 years ago, by joining a jazz club catering for young people, and take it from there. I was told by one club promoter that he started to encourage young dancers, and either some regulars told them to be quiet, or complained that they were spoiling the view! Unfortunately it didn't last long. Of course I enjoy seeing new young talent on the scene, and it's fairly obvious that many of my peers do, viz Frog & Henry band, but equally there are some in our clubs that struggle to walk let alone dance. So if we all start dancing and bring in these young bands, does this mean we should discard those who have provided us with enjoyment, in my case, for the last 25 years? No I don't think young people will save our jazz clubs, but they may well generate a new generation of clubs and fans and save the music. What do others think? 18/01/20 - At Jazz Club 90 in Albrighton we have a few ideas as to what makes us reasonably successful for both the audience and the bands and the future of jazz. After 25 years at the Harp we moved to the Social Club in 2015 and will be celebrating our 30th anniversary in October so we must be doing something right. First of all our gigs are on Sunday lunchtime (no driving home in the dark which Marie and I don't like let alone the audience!). We vary the programme around traditional jazz, blues and boogie, occasional Django or Grapelli style, young bands playing "our" jazz but with different line-ups, the likes of Frog and Henry and Tenement Jazz Band, bands from the continent, not forgetting Marla Dixon and James Evans from New Orleans.....one thing that we have noticed is that some clubs stick just one style and in some cases the same band week after week or month after month. We are lucky that Albrighton Sports and Social Club make us most welcome and go out of their way to help us.
We try to make new people feel welcome by making sure one of us
speaks to them and hopefully make sure they want to come back! The same applies
to musicians which seems to work very well as we have more bands want to play
for us than we have gigs for, a nice situation to be in. All of this, and the hard work of Marie and the people who help out on the day, means that the majority of sessions pay their way and for the ones that don't we have a kitty to top up the takings.....at the end of each year since w have been at the Club we have finished up with more or less the same amount in the kitty so it must be working. We don't get many younger people in the audience (and no dancing!) but do seem to be attracting new "older" faces to supplement our hardcore regulars and hope our encouragement of younger musicians such as Alex Clarke, Jack Cotterill, Liam Byrne, F&H, Tenement and others will help provide the bands for the future. Best wishes to
you and Barbara, 20/01/20 - Further to ideas on how to keep traditional (or all styles of jazz ) alive, I feel the music needs to be taken to the younger generation. Thanks to the lack of media attention they have little chance to hear any kind of jazz. Now that many of us are semi or fully retired a trio quartet or full band could approach the head of music at their local comprehensive and offer a session in lesson or assembly time. These could coincide with Louis Armstrong's birthday. Mardi Gras etc. Similarly local youth leaders would be only to glad to point to the nearest youth club (do they still exist?) or whatever has replaced them. Important however would be to have some kind of follow up, where could anyone interested go, who could they contact and so on. I realise sterling work has been done by bands in the past on similar ideas, perhaps it is time for a more prolonged effort. As an ex teacher if anyone wants ideas on how and who to contact in schools they can contact me. (details on the deps page under Grand Marshals) Jeff Roberts 20/01/20 -
I'm now finding that dancing works very well at
the Bardsea Malt Kiln Jazz. I'm in touch with several
jive clubs. The dancers are a very useful punter source. All ages. I now arrange
for the dancing area to be behind the seated audience. No blocking of view. 20/01/20
I have to say I was somewhat bemused to read Pete Lay's letter of
18.01.20. Having been very successful over 12 years being involved in jazz
evening promotion, I have to say that back in late 2017 , when I determined I
should make efforts to bring Ryan Baer's Frog and Henry band into the UK, I
didn't know anything of that side of the business. So I contacted several people
in the 'professional' jazz bigger events trade, including Peter himself.
Needless to say, I did not get the response I hoped for. But having made a lot
of jazz friends over the years (we Irish tend to make friends easily) one, who
shall remain nameless, let me know that someone I had approached had commented
'we'll leave that to the amateurs'. I do not know who said it, but, if they read
this letter, I say 'thank you', as it was the spur I needed to succeed. So,
Peter, ' the folk up North' have no need to 'wait for F & H to appear at their
venues', they have been doing just that since Feb. 2018. And, this time, where
North led, the South followed. Now that Peter loves them so much, as we do, I
would expect to see them engaged sometime on one or two of his big festival
events, where they could be paid sensible money perhaps ! 20/01/20 - I’ve read and heard many views and opinions about saving our clubs (and our music) so, as someone who has started and run a new, younger band (average age 45) I thought I would offer my thoughts. It is true to say that we need younger people, both musicians and audiences but this needn’t be at the expense of older, more established jazz stalwarts. In order to keep things going both the clubs and the bands need to take responsibility. In terms of encouraging young musicians I think all of us are delighted at the emergence of musicians like Alex Clarke and our latest find, Michael Grant ( definitely a star of the future) and I know some of them are doing a lot of jazz gigs. However, there is another age group of musicians (which, largely though not completely, the jazz scene misses out on) say in 30 – 50 age range (dare I say still young by jazz standards) who have day jobs and families. For these people midweek daytime jobs are pretty much impossible, and travelling long distances to gigs, returning home in the small hours with a car full of PA equipment when they have work in the morning is also difficult. This group contains some truly outstanding musicians, many of whom like jazz but rarely perform in jazz circles because they play mainly at weekends when most of the work available is for rock/pop music.. I know it’s difficult finding venues but perhaps putting on more Friday night/weekend gigs would attract more of these musicians to the scene and strengthen the population of jazzers. With regard to audiences it is not true to say that young folk don’t like jazz. The fact is that there is so little traditional jazz played in the media that many young people have never heard it and think of jazz as be-bop or it’s more modern forms. However, when they do hear trad, they like it, so we must emphasize the fun and entertainment factor of the music when we promote it. The popularity of jazz among students seems to be on the increase and there are several universities and colleges with lindy hop groups or swing clubs, and these young fans are happy to come and listen as well as dance – many students, and younger folk in the general community are on the look out for somewhere they can go to be entertained, with the main factors being how much it costs and whether or not they enjoy it. So, and I know some clubs are already doing things like this, how about advertising at local colleges – their student union would be happy to help, and perhaps offer a student discount. Also, jazz regulars persuade your friends to come, ask your sons and daughters, your grandsons and daughters and their friends – persuade them to come. Then it’s down to us, the bands – what can we do? The club have booked us and persuaded a decent audience with some new faces to turn up. We have to remember, first and foremost that we are there to entertain, not to educate or indulge ourselves. We must think about the program – make it entertaining. Saying something is corny is not a reason to not play it if that’s what the audience wants. Find a way to play it that is musically satisfying as well as being entertaining. And yes, introduce the odd new number, both for ourselves and the stalwarts in the audience who want to hear something new or different. But keep it entertaining and be professional. Maintain contact with the audience and don’t hold debates among the band in between numbers to decide what to play next. Balance the program so you interest the aficionado and entertain the newcomer. When those new faces come send them home happy – they will come again, maybe bringing friends and the club regulars will be pleased they asked them. That way attendances will increase and jazz clubs will build a profile and good reputation in their community. Sounds simple, I know – it’s just thoughts and opinions and nothing is that easy, but if we follow these principles – work hard to attract an audience, then work even harder to entertain them, we can keep our music and clubs alive. John Percival 23/01/20 - I can confound the idea of a North-South divide by citing Edinburgh’s Jazz & Jive club, I would suggest that the majority of its patrons take part in dancing! Whilst it has the usual age group for a jazz club they have also encouraged a younger element by welcoming a “Lindyhopper” group. I Was thinking about it this AM and I remembered something else that I think is different about Edinburgh - they usually divide the evening between two bands thus providing more work for musicians. I don’t know what the musicians think about that, presumably they still have to travel and earn less! - Fraser McCombe |
