But back to the demise of jazz clubs. The music haslargely moved to the concert hall whichunderstandably tends to showcase onlyperformers who have drawing power,leaving a host of talented jazz playerslooking for work.Insofar as concert halls are concerned,it’s interesting to note that there areevents coming to the outlying areaswhich normally you would have expectedto find only at a major concert hall indowntown Toronto.The Markham Theatre for thePerforming Arts on March 3 presentsArturo Sandoval in “A Tribute to MyFriend Dizzy Gillespie,” and the followingnight he is at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre,Centre for the Arts, Brock University. Michael Kaeshammer playsthe Rose Theatre, Brampton on March 7 and on March 8 he isat Brock. Then on March 22, also at Brock University, Dee DeeBridgewater appears the night after an engagement at MarkhamTheatre with “To Billie with Love: A Celebration of Lady Day,”which is, of course, a tribute to Billie Holiday. Looking ahead, onApril 3 in Markham it will be Chick Corea, solo jazz piano.If all of that is a bit confusing the following summary by venuewill help:• Markham Theatre for the Performing Arts: March 3, ArturoSandoval; March 21, Dee Dee Bridgewater; April 3, Chick Corea• Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Centre for the Arts, Brock University:March 8, Michael Kaeshammer; March 22, Dee Dee Bridgewater• Rose Theatre, Brampton: March 7, Michael KaeshammerNot bad for the ’burbs.BETTER GET It In Your SOULLooking over the concert listings for this month, I was struck by thenumber of “jazz vespers” at various churches. That got me thinkingabout how attitudes have changed over the years.In New Orleans, where many people say that jazz was born, alarge number of early jazz performers played in what were euphemisticallycalled “sporting houses.”Jazz started to get a reputation as being immoral and manymembers of the older generations saw it as threatening the old valuesin culture and promoting the new decadent values. In fact, in 1921Anne Shaw Faulkner, head of the Music Department of the GeneralFederation of Women’s Clubs, claimed the following: “Never in thehistory of our land have there been such immoral conditions amongour young people, and in the surveys made by many organisationsregarding these conditions, the blame is laid on jazz music andits evil influence on the young people ofto-day.”Professor Henry van Dyke of PrincetonUniversity wrote: “It is not music at all.It’s merely an irritation of the nerves ofhearing, a sensual teasing of the strings ofphysical passion.” Pretty harsh words fora music which one day would be regardedas America’s only truly Americanart form.But in history there have been severalgreat periods when music was declaredto be an evil influence, and certainrestrictions were placed upon the danceand the music which accompanied it.Genteel and proper society condemnedthe sensuousness of Strauss waltzes be-The New York AmsterdamNews, April 1, 1925.cause the intimacy of waltz dancing was considered to be immoral.Jazz then was given little respect, but over time it captivated theintellectual and cultural elites of America and Europe and eventuallywas accepted by the world at large. Part of that acceptance as a legitimateart form opened a much wider range of venues for the musicand that included places of worship. Some churches opened theirdoors to jazz vespers. In Toronto, for example, there are this monthfour jazz performances at Eglinton St. George’s United Church, twoat Christ Church Deer Park and a couple at St. Philip’s AnglicanChurch, all certain to be well accepted by the congregations.So, in the evolution of jazz, it has gone from houses of sin tohouses that forgive sin.Enjoy your music this month and make some of it live jazz.Jim Galloway is a saxophonist, band leader andformer artistic director of Toronto Downtown Jazz. Hecan be contacted at jazznotes@thewholenote.com.• St. Philip’s Anglican ChurchA casual, relaxing hour of prayer + great musicwith the city’s finest musicians● Sunday, March 11, 4pmCarol McCartney Quartet● Sunday, March 25, 4pmLara Solnicki Trio● Sunday, April 15, 4pmPeter Togni Trio• St. Philip’s Anglican Church | Etobicoke25 St. Phillips Road (near Royal York + Dixon)416-247-5181 • www.stphilips.net26 thewholenote.com March 1 – April 7, 2012
Band Marketing 101jACk macqUARRIEWith spring just around the corner, many community bands,even while still in the midst of rehearsals for spring concerts,are already contemplating and even planning for various specialevents during the summer months. What form will these take?And how will they differ from the events such bands participated in50, 75 or 100 years ago? Will thesame types of events that attractedaudiences in those days be ofinterest in the year 2012?When I first started playingin a band, we were almostoverwhelmed with the numberof summer events. My summerswere filled with out-of-town bandtattoos every weekend, frequentparades, occasional competitionsand finally the trip to Toronto forthe annual competitions at theCanadian National Exhibition.It was almost as busy for theadult bands. However, timeshave changed.Five years ago in this columnI stated that one of my hobbyhorses was to foster the recognition of bands in this part of the worldas serious musical organizations. At that time, I quoted an author ofan article on bands published about 20 years ago. In it, the authorrefers to “the Golden Age of band music that flourished during thelast decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th.”In a later paragraph, this expert states an unequivocal fact: “As weall know, the original town band fervour has since gone the way ofvaudeville and other populist art forms.”True, bands and their activities have evolved, but town bandscertainly have not gone as that author suggests. Just as the societywe live in is constantly changing, so has the role of the town band.I would say that the primary role of these bands now is to providea regular recreational outlet for those who love to make music, butnot in isolation. They want an audience, and not just to pay a part oftheir expenses. Much of the satisfaction comes from performing foran appreciative audience. What is the magic formula? Bands don’thave the resources to get involved in sophisticated market research,but they still would like to know what will attract an audience andfill the seats.Having taught marketing, and having been employed as managerof marketing communication for the Canadian subsidiary of a largemultinational corporation, I would like to suggest some fundamentalprinciples of marketing when planning a band’s special event. Astandard starting point is defining “your goals, your product andyour market.”Your Goals: Define your goals for the event and the longer termgoals for the band. In my opinion there might well be four statedgoals. The first is the somewhat obvious wish to make music withlike-minded friends. The second, equally obvious, is to entertain anappreciative audience. A third goal would be to acquaint the communitywith the band’s record over the years and to make all citizensmore aware of the band’s potential to continue and to expand its rolein the life of the community. The final, all-important goal wouldbe to make everyone in town, especially the town council, aware ofthe band’s desire to have a home that they can call their own. Manybands rehearse in schools, and while they are grateful for the use ofthis rehearsal space, there are usually significant limitations in size,storage space and accessibility outside of rehearsal hours. Thereare a few notable exceptions to this last situation, reported on aftera visit a couple of years ago: the Cobourg Concert Band and theOshawa Civic Band have excellent homes of their own with greatsupport from their communities.Your Product: What are you selling? Is it concert entertainment,an outlet for persons of all ages to hone their musical talents withlike-minded friends, or what? When the band was established and,hopefully, recognized by the town, what was its product then? If theband is over 100 years old, it probably started out as a major sourceof musical entertainment for the townsfolk. There was no radio,television, movies or records, let alone the plethora of portablemusic sources of the present day. If it started 75 years ago, therewere probably still tattoos, but there would have been some competitionfrom movies and a bit fromradio. If 50 years ago, televisionwas in the entertainment picture,with fewer channels than now,but in full force. What about theproduct in 2012 and beyond? Theone attribute of the communityband that has remained constant,is its ability to provide an outletfor the personal satisfactionof performing for an audience.What does your community bandhave to offer to its community in2012, and in the years ahead?Your Market: Define your marketand your niche in that market.Milton Citizens’ Band 1953.Remember that the role of thetown band has changed drasticallyin the past 150 years — yes,there are town bands who can claim their service to the communityfor that long. We must recognize that “the town band” is no longera principal source of musical entertainment in the town. For thatA. PerrOTTMarch 1 – April 7, 2012thewholenote.com 27
