Jazz in your neighborhood

[morjaz]

I'm curious.Is there much jazz played in your area?.Are there good inexpensive gigs to go to? People playing good jazz guitar to go and watch?
I live in a small town in NZ but it's quite good for live music.I guess that's because it's a tourist kind of place(people come here to check out the whales ,seals and dolphins).Next weekend I am going to see a jazz outfit called the Vibrasics in a smallish venue called The Sonic.
NZ doesn't have a lot of pure jazz...but there's lots of jazz fusions.
There's a couple or so Jazz schools in NZ and the standard is quite high.The audition to get in is pretty thorough.I've seen a few jazz school lineups do their thing and it's always been good.
It looks like that after graduating a good proportion of students then go into adding jazz to hip hop and reggae which are much more of interest to the gig going public.
"Fat Freddy's Drop" is a very popular NZ oufit and a good example of what I'm talking about.Wer'e talking South Pacific jazz flavors here......mmmmmm...tasty
But anyway I'd love to know what's happening in your corner of the woods...and what you think of it

[Professor]

Well, I'm a graduate music student at UNT. Just a few weeks ago, I walked out of a Schenkerian analysis class, went 30 feet down the hall and heard "Blue Lou" Marini play. So, there's alot going on. I sub in a jazz dance band when I get a chance, like all this past summer, for instance. I also play in a big band at a local junior college. Around Dallas, there's lots of music happening, and lots of great players. What's not here at all is paying venues. Any intelligent musician will refuse to play when everyone else is getting paid except the band. So, for the casual observer, and in reality, the music scene is long since dead as a doornail.

[namaste]

There is zip for jazz here. I'm in a little jazz/folk trio, and there's only a couple of other little duo/trio combos competing for a very limited market in my city of 70,000. And the money is poor. To hear any jazz I have to travel to Calgary, which is 2 1/2 hours away. Diana Krall comes often, and I've seen Joe Pass there. Edmonton, our capital city has the most jazz, sporting a jazz festival every summer. But it's close to 6 hours away.

[morjaz]

yeah....it's a pity there isn't more money in it for the jazz players.
Funny though.....I would have thought that there would be more people who liked to listen to live jazz.
For many of us It looks like we learn and play for love,often rather than money.It certainly is for me.Although with the blues band I'm in I can put in some jazz here and there including original stuff.
I think having a great front person who is a good singer gets the money gigs.A few years back I was with a band that had a pretty nice looking female vocalist who sang well...and we had no problem getting work.That was fun.Unfortunately she developed nodes on her vocal chords and had to give up.
Namaste mentioned Diana Krall.....she's pretty good....and has played in Christchurch(2 hours away).See what I mean tho'...imagine being part of her band!
There are lots of vineyards around here and they can be good paying venues too.They like to come across as "cultured' so they often put on little shows to attract the wine enthusiasts.Maybe California is like that too.
I'm beginning to ramble on here...but it is good to hear of what is happening(or not) elsewhere.
It would be good if more of the members would post something of their neighborhood jazz experiences.
We're a kind of community....so lets hear stuff! Comeon...jump right in ...the water's fine

[morjaz]

BTW Namaste.....I'm intrigued by the mention of your Folk/jazz trio.Could you tell us a little about the music?In what way is it folk?Would that be folk tunes played in a jazz fashion?