Audience Quote by Tom Piazza
““Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr. John, once told me that when a brass band plays at a small club back up in one of the neighborhoods, it's as if the audience--dancing, singing to the refrains, laughing--is part of the band. They are two parts of the same thing. The dancers interpret, or it might be better to say literally embody, the sounds of the band, answering the instruments. Since everyone is listening to different parts of the music--she to the trumpet melody, he to the bass drum, she to the trombone--the audience is a working model in three dimensions of the music, a synesthesic transformation of materials. And of course the band is also watching the dancers, and getting ideas from the dancers' gestures. The relationship between band and audience is in that sense like the relationship between two lovers making love, where cause and effect becomes very hard to see, even impossible to call by its right name; one is literally getting down, as in particle physics, to some root stratum where one is freed from the lockstop of time itself, where time might even run backward, or sideways, and something eternal and transcendent is accessed.””
About This Quote
Source Interview: Music and Synesthesia Discussion, 2015
The quote describes how audience and musicians become a single, interwoven experience, each influencing the other in a feedback loop that blurs cause and effect, creating a timeless, transcendent connection.
In simple terms: Audience and band merge, influencing each other like lovers.
Embrace reciprocal creativity.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- live performances
- dance workshops
- improvisational sessions
- multimedia art installations
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How does this mutual influence shape artistic expression?
- Can this model apply beyond music?
The metaphor may romanticize the relationship, overlooking power dynamics or audience agency.