We're seeing the slow, painful death of a jazz concert series here in Kansas City.
The Folly Theater jazz series audiences are getting smaller and smaller. The hall seats about 1,060. The first concert this season, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (I know, I know...), sold about 600 tickets. The second, Jane Bunnett and the Spirits of Havana (well, that's better), sold about 500.
In better days, Sonny Rollins sold out the hall, Dave Holland and Don Byron drew 800 apiece, and Lester Bowie did 700.
What do you see as the problem here?
Is it that their bookings this season are uninspired? (Later in the series, Ramsey Lewis and Peter Cincotti.) Would things be better if the bookings took more chances? Have they retrenched into dullness?
Is it that they've failed to build a new audience as the old-line Kansas City jazz crowd ages (and dies)?
And I'd like to know: Are you seeing the same sort of thing where you live?
And what do we do about this?
A lot of questions there, I know. But this is really depressing me right now. I don't want this series to die. And after lackluster ticket sales last year, the vultures are circling.
Help!