[Dixielandjazz] Ball, Bilk & Barber

[Jazzjerry@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/7/02 17:09:28, brian.harvey5@ntlworld.com writes:

<< These three bands have been maligned in this list.  >>

Brian,

I certainly agree with you. Maybe to a certain extent this is the old 
argument often made in jazz that "commercialism = crap". All the Bs have had 
bands made up of excellent musicians over the years and the majority of the 
music they have played has been excellent jazz. They have made some pretty 
average commercial stuff as well which has been aimed at the great unwashed 
non-jazz public but surely we cannot criticise them for wanting to make a 
decent living. Let's face it the Count Basie's 'Bond' album, just re-released 
on CD is pretty naff and surely one would not say the band was crap because 
of that or the other commercial things they did.

Chris Barber has always had a musical policy which is stretching the 
boundaries of traditional jazz incorporating rhythm and blues and all sorts 
of other influences. For example a newly released compilation of his 
recordings includes four jazz settings of Shakespeare's sonnets as well as 
tracks with guests Jimmy Deuchar and Ronnie Scott.

Acker Bilk IMHO is one of the finest blues clarinetists that this country has 
produced and is still playing beautifully - witness the latest Lake album 
with him dueting with Wally Fawkes recorded earlier this year.

Kenny Ball, now unfortunately on the sick list with cancer, could blow an 
excellent jazz trumpet when required.

I don't like everything they recorded over the past 40 to 50 years and 
certainly would not consider it as good jazz but to write them off in the way 
John Farrell does is extremely unfair. 

Incidently if jazz had been included in the concert why not Humph or even the 
more modern British jazz musicians and there are plenty of excellent players 
around? 

Let's face it it was a 'pop' concert and featured a particular brand of pop 
music at that. Where was Rolf Harris, Slade, Tommy Steele, and the many 
hundreds of other British pop singers and musicians who played their part in 
that branch of music over the years. 

Cheers,

Jerry,
Norwich,
U.K.