Re: [Harp-L] Toots/SPAH 99



At a jazz jam:
- Showing what you can do is primary
- Pleasing the audience is secondary
- Selected by the title, the audience is there to hear and play jazz.
- The atmosphere is relaxed.
- Listeners can drop in and leave without giving offense
- Many performers with varying styles play briefly.


At a stage show with a mixed audience:
- Performers should know the audience.
- The performer has an obligation to please the audience. Stubbornly continuing to do what is bombing doesn't make any sense.
- A very few unfamiliar pieces to stretch the musical horizons of the listeners are OK but you can't do it relentlessly. When I came to hear Mozart and Beethoven, one Hindemith is enough!
- Pieces should be 3 or 4 minutes max. - There should be a variety of performers and styles.
- Don't confuse polite applause with real approval.


I would never leave while a performer is playing. However, a quiet departure between songs should be OK. The audience does not have an obligation to be there.

I don't recall an audience being rude to Toots, but on one occasion I recalled that the audience thinned out noticeably toward the end of one of Mauricio's sets. Mauricio was not blameless.

- His pieces quickly abandoned and never revisited the heads. It was all "way out." Only the most determined jazz sophisticates understood and appreciated this style.
- To the unsophisticated listener, this made every piece sound the same. There was a perceived lack of variety.
- Ten-minute plus pieces seemed relentless and interminable.
- The audience didn't start leaving until it became apparent that the remainder of the evening was going to be exactly the same.


I posit that a show should not persist with one performer and one genre for a long period of time. I suggest that variety is the way to avoid recurrences. Although you can't please everyone, you can avoid displeasing anyone for a long period of time.

Vern

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Stryker" <tstryker1@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 9:21 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Toots/SPAH 99



What was bad about it was the people who walked out of the performance of
the greatest Jazz Harmonicist ever. His performance was stellar. This is
not about Toot's, it is about the audience. Also, the same when Mauricio
performed.


You are right about "can't please everyone," although we sure try...
Seeking a balance with jazz and what others want to hear will always be
struggle. After all, Rock is still king. Not a thing about older or
younger, its all about likes and understanding jazz.


Stryker

<What was shameful about Toots? At SPAH 1999, his performance w/Kenny Werner
was stellar. The audience consisted of attendees and a very large attendance
by local St. Louis folk who were turned onto the concert via excellent radio
promotion from the local jazz station and media coverage. SPAH brought in a
lot of extra $ from the tickets sold for this event.


His workshop was well attended, too. We had Kenny give an Effortless Mastery
workshop as well - not as well attended and understood as, say The Hotshots
workshop, but it definitely was a few levels above what usually happened at
the Convention - in content.>


Perhaps you were referring to a few of the older SPAH members who complained
that Toots played too many notes and was too jazzy?


Can't please everyone.....



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