[Dixielandjazz] Barber Bilk & Ball

[John Farrell]

I think it was Pat Ladd who complained about the absence of these three
gents from a certain UK concert programme.

In my youth I quickly tired of listening to their formulaic, predictable
brand of traddypop (Barber's band in particular was just downright boring to
my ear). Alex Welsh - now that was a world-class band. So was the Graham
Stewart 7. Unsung heroes like hornmen  Mike Cotton (the man with the iron
lip - he could hit high Cs and Ds all night) and Rod Mason were fiery
Armstrong-inspired players who made Pat Halcox (tpt in the Barber band)
sound like a Boy Scout bugler.

Note that I am not condemning BB&B for what they did - they found a way of
earning a handsome living and naturally did everything they could to
maximise their earnings, but they were primarily theatre and concert
performers who once they had made it commercially only very rarely played in
"real" jazz clubs attended by dyed-in-the-wool jazz fans.

I've played piano with the Kenny Ball band. He is a great soloist - you
should hear him do the opening cadenza of West End Blues, wow !! - but the
jazz slant of his band's repertoire was diluted considerably (for
instance Midnight In Moscow, Samantha etc.) to make it more palatable to the
general public and to increase the likelihood of getting airplays and into
the pop
charts.

BB&B's offerings were easy listening music, Muzak material, wallpaper, but
not hard core jazz.

John Farrell
stridepiano@tesco.net
http://homepages.tesco.net/~stridepiano/midifiles.htm