Jamie Cullum creates some noise
Should background chatter at jazz gigs be tolerated?
Sarah Kirkup 10:14am GMT 6th May 2010
I went to a Jamie Cullum gig last night and it was great. (Before you ask, “What’s this got to do with classical music?” please bear with me.) I went to a Jamie Cullum gig last night and it was great – at least, what I could hear above the constant babbling, gossiping, laughing and clinking of glasses was.
The venue was The Grand in Clapham, the Victorian-era listed building that originally opened as a music hall in 1900. Its ornate balconies and swirly patterned carpet gives it a unique atmosphere – as does its resonant acoustic. Which is fantastic for hearing musicians strut their stuff – an acoustic improvisation of “Cry me a river” from Cullum and his band down amongst the crowd to complete the show could be heard from every corner of the theatre – but not so great when it comes to background chatter. Every whisper, every comment, becomes amplified, so that you’re in no doubt of what your neighbour thinks during every second of the performance.
This wasn’t a problem during the upbeat, big-band numbers. The drums, the double bass, the brass – a fantastic jazz trumpeter and an equally adept sax player – and Cullum’s riffs on the piano, together with his surprisingly strong, raw-edged voice, could hold their own above the din. But it was when Jamie slowed things down with some beautiful ballad numbers – often involving just him and the piano – that things went awry. While he was crooning away, doing his utmost to create a special, intimate atmosphere, people carried on chatting.
Which brings me to my point: are we, as audiences, only entitled to ask for peace and quiet from our fellow listeners during a classical concert, or does this extend to other musical genres, too? Some of us last night were clearly put off by the noise and by what seemed like a blatant lack of respect, even resorting to tell others to “shhhh” at times (to no avail, I hasten to add). While the rest clearly felt it was their prerogative to enjoy the music in a way that felt right to them – even if that meant to continue talking and drinking with little attention to the musicians on stage.
To be fair to the noisy culprits, Cullum didn’t seem to care in the slightest. He was “in the zone”, and his rapport with his fellow musicians didn’t seem to suffer. So was I being unnecessarily “stuffy” or did I have every right to feel miffed that my enjoyment was being ruined by others?
Comments
All chatter at gigs whether Jazz, Rock, Pop, Classical, or anything should mean you are ejected and banned.
I pay to listen to the music, not some drunken idiots talking through it. Really annoys me and has ruined many concerts.
Ah, the age old problem of people talking during jazz gigs! Ronnie Scott used to apologise - in a pointed, withering tone of voice - to chattering audience members at his club if the music was "disturbing what I'm sure is a really fascinating conversation". The problem is, of course, that because jazz clubs promote a more informal atmosphere than concert halls, and serve food and drink, the less informed think the music on stage can be treated as background wallpaper, as though a great artist like Lee Konitz, Kenny Wheeler or Stan Tracey deserves less respect than the Arditti Quartet, Paul Lewis or Emma Kirkby. That said, at my one Jamie Cullum gig, I did overhear someone say: 'I wish that piano would hit him back'. Which kinda summed up my own thoughts.
Sad, but predictable. It shows in a way how undervalued music is. For so many people it is an ambience and a background gesture, a lifestyle prop, hence why not talk over it. The relative informality and aura of hipness of the jazz world has the unintended consequence of sending a message to its audience that this is okay. After all, much preferable to that [irony alert]stuffy air of forced concentration at a classical concert...
Consider the comparable idea of a 'background novel' or 'background film'.
The central thing about noise at concerts is this: music is an art form made from sound. Talking, coughing, etc (all the ghastly inconsiderate things audiences do) is also sound. It contaminates the material out of which the art is made. You don't go to an art gallery and spit at the paintings, and you don't stand up in the projector's light at a cinema.
I'm really surprised at how different the atmosphere at different gigs can be at Cheltenham he was successfully, completely grabbing the attention of the audience and whipping up their enthusiasm
Here's my review
http://bit.ly/9rEuIn
Making a broader point, there seems to have been a traditional division between music at which silence is expected - CM in the concert hall is the obvious example - and music which has become mere background noise behind conversation. One gathers from historical novels that dancers etc chattered during the playing of Strauss waltzes and we know that opera overtures were merely opportunities for shouted greetings from people as they took their seats. 'Dinner music' at hotels and on liner cruises forms a similar function today, and alas most people in churches as they leave talk through voluntaries, however well they are played by organists.
Look. There's a difference between attending a concert to listen to a piece and the incidents you mention. Church? Isn't God the main attraction? The music is great but just part of the service which for too many ends with the final "Amen". Strauss's waltzes were written to dance to, at events meant to party, i.e., a bal - would you maintain rapt silence at a Saturday sock hop just because there's a band? As for the dinner music, that's been on for years and some music was written to be background by many of the greats: we are the ones who have turned it around into concert music.
If I'm paying for the cost of hearing the music: shut up. It's a fuzzy line in bars but many make it clear with the cover they charge. Is the bar known more as a performance venue or one that people come and go while the shaggy chanteuse hopes to eventually make it big? When listening at jazz concert in a concert hall, suddenly most people are well behaved.
And I say most. I disagree as well that CM in the concert hall is the obvious example. Cell phones, ear buds and home creature comforts (where one can tap, hum and chatter freely without complaint or, for that matter, put any music on as background) have eroded basic etiquette even there.
Daniel,
Good heavens, I'd never suggest rapt silence at dinner music sessions or balls featuring Strauss waltzes. But I do think a Bach Prelude and Fugue at the end of any church service should command respect, from a musical as well as a 'religious' point of view: if people want to chatter, they can always do it outside.
I've yet to see anyone wearing ear buds at a classical concert and people seem to switch off their cell phones beforehand (though time will tell, I suppose). The potential disapproval of other concertgoers should act as a deterrent anyway. As you say, when you pay for it, you are entitled to the optimum conditions for hearing it without interruption or distraction.
Micos69 wrote, 'As you say, when you pay for it, you are entitled to the optimum conditions for hearing it without interruption or distraction.'
That's very well expressed.
I dunno, there has to be a middle ground here. I really object to cell phones at any concert, noisy kids who obviously don't want to be there, and latecomers/early leavers drive me nuts at classical gigs. But jazz or rock? Some of the best jazz/rock concerts I've attended have been the noisiest, including open-air venues where half the audience is rocking. Performers feed off audience reaction - remember Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue at Newport?
Perhaps the distinction is between noise that happens in response to the music, and that which competes or is irrelevant. I took a friend of mine, a decent jazz trombone player but no classics fan, to see Alan Civil years ago at Massey Hall. Poor Mike couldn't restrain himself and would periodically turn to me with stage whispers like, "Chee, this feller's really good! D'you hear that?" to the evident displeasure of one particular neighbour. It certainly made a change from people dozing off or staring around to see who's wearing what.
Keith Jarrett once nearly caused a riot in Paris by refusing to play an encore - his reason: the audience talked and seemingly ignored his playing all through the concert. Good for him...
It reminds me of when I saw Salome (the opera) a few years ago; the chap next to me fidgeted and whispered to his wife all the way through the performance, yet was one of the loudest applauders at the end and even yelled Encore!
At my last opera, The Elixir of Love in Aberdeen's HMT, I was amazed to see they now allow people to take drinks in to the auditorium. It is bad enough with the boxes of wrappered sweets they sell in the foyer. How can anyone concentrate and pay the proper attention to a performance while drinking and eating? I hope this isn't a trend that reaches the concert hall: once people start drinking during classical concerts I'll be off!