Doug, your asking my opinion about the demise of jazz record sales? Actually it is a very simple formula. Dancers buyDoug Elerath wrote:When jazz was "danceable", it was America's music. It was hugely popular across all across
america......Do you have any comments??
records. This has been true for any American pop music. The dancers lost interest in going to see live bands after
WWII; for a variety of cultural reasons. The next generation of dancers wanted something different. The infectious
rhythms of R&B and then into rock and roll were the in thing.
Without doing much research on record buying music trends, I would guess there is a definate change in taste every 10-15
years. As an older generation matures, priorites change and the music of their youth is not translated to the younger
generation. This seems to be the way the American pop music culture has evolved over the last 80 years.
The bigger question (and this is WAY off topic), can big band swing music ever have the dominate pop status like it did
between 1935 and 1945? The answer to me is clearly no. The music that the pop dancers want has to be a reflextion of
their taste and generation.
I will say this, and I have lectured this to some jazz history classes, I feel the next popular wave of jazz will be a
highly integrated fusion of more latin (especially Puerto Rico influenced salsa) and jazz. With the ever increasing
latin population in American and the love that culture has of horns and infectious salsa/merengue dance rhythms, it
becomes a natural extension for jazz horn players to play more latin jazz music.
That I have never questioned. You hit upon my thoughts below:Jerry: I think that you may have missed the point made earlier that many of the dancers, and especailly the DJs
on this forum, have _very_ broad musical tastes when it comes to listening.
This is my point, the swing style is much broader than the taste of the current generation of swing dancers. Thus theMuch of the discussion on this board is influenced by: What can one most enjoyably dance to?
narrow appeal of just swing dance music is limiting. As evidence by the musical clips I placed on the web page
(especially the Harry James clips), the general consensus of the posted messages was the music really was not good for
the current dancers. Yet the music is clearly swing and even was appealing to an older generation of swing dancers.
The board name is 'Swing DJs'. The evolution of the board discussions has naturally evolved into discussions of swing
dance DJ'g. Swing dancing by the younger generation is a definate force upon the swing music scene. I don't doubt that
at all. I get frustrated by the narrow definition of swing music as it applies to the current generation of swing
dancers. That is my point.
I really appreciate the effort to get me on the dance floor. My enjoyment is much more based in listening rather thanSo I strongly urge you to learn to dance and to understand first hand the drive and visceral feeling of the
dance music.
dancing. I generally go out maybe 2 or 3 nights a week to listen to live jazz in some form or another. One of my
nights is taken up with the radio station. That leaves me 3 or 4 nights a week to fill in with family, home
cleaning/laundry or just vegging out at home. The desire to dance is so low that I don't forsee learning how to dance
as being significant enough to replace my live listening evenings out.
I'm planning on coming to the Saturday June 12th night right now. The Boilermakers from Pitts. will be playing live atAll Bal Weekend is happening in early June right there in Cleveland. The beginner track will take you from walker to
dancer in just 9 short(!) hours of instruction with one of the worlds best instructors (Sylvia Sykes). Show up and
learn.
the Bohemian Hall. This is a gorgeous, turn of the century, ethnic community hall that has been renovated. My father
used to perform in community plays and just hang out at the hall back in the 1930s. I'm really looking forward to
hearing the Boilermakers live. I just heard some samples from the group online and really enjoyed it.
I hope so. If you have some free time during the weekend, let me know and we can get together for lunch/dinner atI'll be there both dancing and spinning. See ya there??
someplace around town. I'm certain I can round up some swing friends around town to join us also.
Again Doug thanks for the dialog.