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08-29-2006, 07:03 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago | | | Sad Day
It's a sad day for live music. This story will explain it all. Any well known jazz player (and even not so well known) has graced the stage at this club. Another example of the demise of venues willing to support jazz. The scene here in Chicago is actually vibrant, in a very superficial sort of way. You go to a club and hardly anyone is actually listening to what the cats onstage are doing. Is it just me?
Interested in opinions from other cities.
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....the notes are not the music. The spirit behind the notes is the music.
Bob Moses
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08-29-2006, 07:20 AM
| | | | I can agree with you, Christ. When people hear jazz at a club (even a Jazz club) they assume that it is background music, no matta how dang loud! That is a another Chicagoan's perspective.
The end of the article says that there is hope that the Jazz showcase will be moving to another location, though it may never be the same. |
08-29-2006, 08:59 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: NYC | | | The Jazz Showcase has been at about 4 or 5 locations throughout Chicago already, right? But I imagine that, like everywhere else, rent is kinda high. Running a jazz club isn't really something you do to make money, and if it costs more and more to do it I can see how you'd really think twice before making yet another move.
Somebody oughta give the mother****er a building, that way he wouldn't have to worry about rent...
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BECAUSE AWESOME CAT IS AWESOME!!!!!
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08-29-2006, 09:18 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago | | | I don't think it's been at that many locations although I'd been out of the city for a decade or so. I remember when it was at the Blackstone Hotel.
You're right, if the city had any kind of balls they'd ante up, declare it a landmark (the institution, not necessarily the building) and fund it. But......we all know that's just fartin' in the wind.
__________________
....the notes are not the music. The spirit behind the notes is the music.
Bob Moses
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08-29-2006, 09:44 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA | | There's a couple jazz clubs in the twin cities where people still pay attention for the most part. We just lost one that was fairly hip, Jazzmines. At most of the places I play, unfortunetely, we are expected to be background music; we're constantly gauging the yuppy crowd to assure we don't offend anyone with our volume and lose the gig..  |
08-29-2006, 10:24 AM
| | Inadvertent Microtonalist | | Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Portland, ME | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by christ andronis You go to a club and hardly anyone is actually listening to what the cats onstage are doing. Is it just me? | Nothing new. Listen to people gabbing all through Bill Evans' Sunday at the Vanguard.
You could say that they're giving you the same level of respect they gave Scott LaFaro . . .
Or you could just play a LOT of stop-time so that everybody looks at them . . .
Or just play anyway . . .
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"We can give to those who listen to the essence the best of what we are. But to do that, at each stage we have to keep on cleaning the mirror." -- John Coltrane
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08-29-2006, 11:07 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Kam There's a couple jazz clubs in the twin cities where people still pay attention for the most part. We just lost one that was fairly hip, Jazzmines. At most of the places I play, unfortunetely, we are expected to be background music; we're constantly gauging the yuppy crowd to assure we don't offend anyone with our volume and lose the gig.. | ...but they make sure they clap after every solo cause....they're INTO jazz..... Quote: |
Originally Posted by Sam Sherry .......Or just play anyway . . . | Agreed!
__________________
....the notes are not the music. The spirit behind the notes is the music.
Bob Moses
Last edited by christ andronis : 08-29-2006 at 11:11 AM.
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08-29-2006, 11:42 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Houston, Tx | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Sam Sherry Nothing new. Listen to people gabbing all through Bill Evans' Sunday at the Vanguard.
You could say that they're giving you the same level of respect they gave Scott LaFaro . . .
Or you could just play a LOT of stop-time so that everybody looks at them . . .
Or just play anyway . . . | The great UK drummer John Stevens (one of the founders of non-idiomatic free improvisation along with Derek Bailey and Evan Parker)
Had an exercise where you make the audience your "soloist" and acompany them, keeping your dynamic below them. Everytime I have tried it they stop talking and listen, thus defeating the concept...
Last edited by damonsmith : 08-29-2006 at 11:53 AM.
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08-29-2006, 11:53 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Chicago | | | I think there have been at least 4 locations. The current one, the Blackstone, Rush St, and I believe the orginal location was on Lincoln Ave though that was before I was born. |
08-29-2006, 01:05 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Philadelphia, PA | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by christ andronis ...but they make sure they clap after every solo cause....they're INTO jazz..... | Well, they don't at the background places. Once in awhile there's a few strays that are actually paying attention. Of course, there's alot to be said for playing quietly but with great intensity. Plus I enjoy playing with the lowest amount of amplification necessary, so it works.  |
08-29-2006, 02:14 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Kam Well, they don't at the background places. Once in awhile there's a few strays that are actually paying attention. Of course, there's alot to be said for playing quietly but with great intensity. Plus I enjoy playing with the lowest amount of amplification necessary, so it works. | Kam...you're right. I'm just in one of those moods today. Sorry. Maybe it's the gloomy overcast. I'm usually much more upbeat about it cause, like you, I just enjoy playing. I am not the strongest jazz player so I wasn't really talking about myself; but I know plenty of musicians who ARE really fine players and every once in awhile I get bitter about the fact that because they're not playing the style d'jour, they don't get recognized for being the creative persons they are.
Enough...be gone darkness....let's party!!! 
__________________
....the notes are not the music. The spirit behind the notes is the music.
Bob Moses
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