careful what you ask for

I'm involved in a lot of things and I care deeply about them all. There's my Post and Courier column, JazzBeat(s), the Charleston Jazz Initiative, the Charleston Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Artists of Charleston, a small, private nonprofit presenting and advocacy organization.
I'm most active right now as a aboard member with JAC, given its repeating presentation schedule, organizational development and administrative work. Along with the column, it is my highest profile endeavor so it attracts quite a bit of attention.
Things are going extrememly well with JAC. It is only a year-and-a-half old but it's already a fixture on the Charleston jazz scene, especially as it presents a night club series in the spring and CJO concerts every quarter.
The biggest plus, however, is that constituents - musicians, fans and supporters - have really bought in to our mission. They applaud us all the time about our success and our leading the charge in advancing jazz' presence in Charleston.
They also regale us for our efficiency and production values with regard to live shows. They have come to expect high quality shows that are well presented.
At the same time, our success has heightened expectations from people. While JAC continues to scratch, claw and generally struggle to do what it does, things seem effortless by the time they reach the stage. It seems as if these concerts come about from some kind of magic.
Poof. They just appear.
This is perhaps why we get requests from people for videos, pictures and recordings of our events all the time, sometimes the morning after a show.
Well, it doesn't quite go like that.
We do shoot, tape and record. But it's primarily for archival purposes. And we're so busy, as are our technicians, we rarely see tape and pictures or hear audio from programs until weeks or months after a concert.
When told this after a request for copies, people often look incredulously at us as if to say how can these things not be ready. Then their body language says we just don't want to fulfill their request.
Not true.
To us, material we capture is for our future use in producing CD's, commercial videos, documenatries and books. We are in no rush to do that. It's all we can handle to keep up with imminent demands for the day-to-day operation of the enterprise.
Needless to say, that goal would never be reached if we handed out raw material from our shows for social purposes. Not to mention the fact that music or images could end up on someone else's commercial venture, even if not intended.
We live in fear of that, not in fear of musicians, family and friends just wanting to hear and see reproductions of a great musical experience.
Ironically, these requests probably wouldn't be at play if the music weren't performed and presented so well.
We're a victim of our own success, I guess.
With all the heartache that comes from denying the requests, we're holding out for the long term.
Then we'll share.