Duty managing at the BJC

Last night i did my first duty manager shift at the Brisbane Jazz Club. It involved getting there before the band started, letting the volunteers do their thing (they were all experienced and knew what they were doing better than me), and then listening to the band while I had a drink, and chatted with various people at the club. Once the band finished, I helped close up, pack up, and then was on my way. I was also fortunate that a few of the committee members turned up last night as well, and I had a chance to ask more questions about the club and what things have been happening and the way things have been going. It was really quite a good night.

The band last night was a trio consisting of Rohan Somasekaran on the piano, Andrew Shaw (?) on the bass, and I can't remember the name of the drummer.. backing up a vocalist called Angela Fabian. Angela Fabian had that US jazz singer presence, sassy, and hip, accompanied of course by a great voice. I also thought the trio was brilliant, and the bass player was really one of the best that I've seen. He had a pretty amazing stage presence as well, so I'd been keen to see these guys again. Not all swing, a few jazzy numbers, a couple latin influenced numbers. I might go and see their quintet performance with Melissa Western at the Press Club on the 29 Nov.

I had to announce my first ever raffle draw as well last night. When I got up on stage my knees were literally shaking, and I was cringing at the idea of speaking into the mike and hearing my voice through the speakers. So I made the announcement, forgot to mention what the prize was, but as a percentage, we sold more raffle tickets than we had in ages, which was fanstastic. During the next break I announced the draw of the raffle, but having put a Coopers Pale Ale in me (I love Coopers) in the meantime, I was feeling much MUCH better about going on stage. I think I'm going to have to make sure I always have an alcoholic beverage before I do things like this. Or until I get more used to it.

What I was thinking though, was that even though I have a vested love of swing jazz, I have seen so very little of the stuff live. I have a pretty reasonably sized collection of swing music that I keep growing, but there's something so much more special about seeing these performers out there expressing themselves, and hearing the music in its purest form.

I'm beginning to think that us swing dancers are a bit selfish when it comes to seeing live music as well. As swing dancers, we want to go out and watch a band that plays for us; plays swing song after swing song, and not much else, and then we're happy. But really it's the opposite: we're dancing because of them. If the band wants to do their instrumental bits and showcase their skills, they've got every damn right to, and us as dancers should stop and pay attention and appreciate the skill and talent we've got in front of us. I'm saying this because in the past, not only myself, but a lot of people grumble at whatever band may be playing because they're doing so many jazzy bits in the interim which we can't dance to. That's part of the music appreciation part of dancing to the musicians: one part is the dancing, another part is the listening. Unfortunately I feel like this element doesn't get conveyed to the dancers, at least, not in my own scene. I think we're also so used to hearing dj'd music that we just inherently expect every song to be danceable, which can't always be the case when seeing a band.

Bearing in mind, this is an element that needs to be reciprocated on both sides. As much as the dancers should appreciate the musicians, if the musicians are playing for dancers (especially at a dance specific gig), they need to be aware that this is who they're catering for.

Anyway so my next shift is next Friday for Oz Manouche. There are going to be some HOT gypsy jazz acts, and I'm going to love it!