Re: concert attendance, etc.

[r l reid <ro...>]

Jeff, promotion - in the long term, not a short term blitz - is the key 
as you say.

If you book Khevrise into Merkin under the auspices of the World Music
Institute, they will sell out.  You'll pull some Jewish music people, but
you'll pull a lot of Upper West Side intellectuals and patrons and such
who enjoy and are educated about a wide variety of music.  These are 
people who are on mailing lists yesr in and year out, who get fundraising
letters, who see ads in the New York Times, etc - a constant presense.

If you then book - a month later - Khevrise into a CUNY auditorium - 
you get maybe two dozen hard core Jewish music folks - mostly 
non-professional players of Jewish music themselves who are to some
extent there to learn.

I realize the resources for Tonic to do like the WMI are not there.
But it's a shame, because even if they can devote the time to promotion,
there is no way a two month attempt to blitz an event at Tonic can
pay off the way large institutional situations can.

To me, things at Tonic are almost like house parties, which are my favorite
Jewish music events.  House parties don't pay the bills, though.  I've
seen people try very hard to promote something by doing all the right
mailings to the Jewish press.  I'm not sure that a notice in Jewish
Week has ever brought anyone to a show.  (An ad might, but now we're talking
about budgets).  Posters?  eh.  Calling everyone you know?  This is the
most effective way, but it hardly expands the horizon.

roger


-- 
r l reid        ro (at) rreid(dot)net


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