[Dixielandjazz] Lightening Rods

[Stephen Barbone]

Ron Wheeler writes (about Pepett's / Perry's post)

"Ah, another lightning rod speaks out.  I know this is the 'Dixieland'
Jazz Mailing List, and that and its direct offshoots are the core of all

I listen to, but there are those here who rail at the badmouth of any
jazzer.

Steve Barbone, I love him and his band does great things, is physically
incapable of completing a post without some reference to Monk.

I don't care anything at all for Monk, Miles and that lot, but I'd
rather talk about who I DO like and hear what others like rather than
sling mud at the unliked ones.  I get into trouble for saying how much I

like the current Dukes."

Ron, Perry and all who are here on the weekend:

Bad mouthing other musicians, by musicians, breaks one of the unwritten
rules. I agree with Ron that it is much more productive to hear about
music and musicians we do like, in the OKOM genre. Not that we have to
like what another musician does, or does not do, but we should always be
realistic enough to state that as a preference, not as a  "bad mouth".

Ron is also spot on about Monk. He is my personal favorite jazz
musician, bar none. He is also a direct descendant of OKOMers James P.
Johnson and Willie The Lion Smith in pianistic development. They were
his neighbors in NYC and his earliest influences. As a musician, I might
hear Monk differently than most folks, especially the influences that
"stride" have on his music.

Re Perry's opinion that Miles et al, turned jazz away from OKOM, I think
there is more to it than that. Basically, I see it as being changed when
swing started a trend away from dancing, toward "listening". e.g.. The
success of Benny Goodman, when all of a sudden the dancers quit dancing
and rushed the bandstand to look and listen.

Then WW2 came along and that 20% tax on clubs with dancing was levied.
Many clubs couldn't afford dancing once that 20% was levied and so they
eliminated the dance floors and put tables in their place. Result, no
20%, no dancing and OKOM becomes listening music. Like Ryan's, Nick's,
Condon's, (NYC) etc. Now listening venues only in the 40s, 50s, 60s.

Yet kids wanted to dance. What happened? Elvis Presley, Rock & Roll etc.
and horrors, dancing. So the kids gravitated to dance music once again
and we old folks became "listeners". Even today, many jazz societies,
festivals, etc., shunt the dancers to the back of the room as the word
is; "Don't interfere with the serious listeners", yet the serious OKOM
listener audience shrinks each year.

This "history" is simplistic at best and deserves a lot more thought and
codification. But as I see it, bop and subsequent forms of jazz really
didn't do much to OKOM. How could they, for that listening audience was
smaller than the one for OKOM. What killed off our music from it's main
audience is the shift away from functional music (dance).

One of the keys to the success of the Barbone Street Jazz Band is our
following among the young. Many come to dance, and/or to watch the
dancers. Some come to listen, and some come to party and have a good
time. That's why OKOM was mass audience popular in the 20s and that's
how it can still be mass audience popular today.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. Ron, I like the current Dukes too so we'll get in trouble together.

PPS. Also remember a neat dance club (latin jazz, Perez Prado etc) that
opened up next to Birdland, NYC circa 1960. many nights after gigging in
town, or listening at Ryan's, we'd go there to watch the dancers and
soak up the rhythm. The club, I forget the name, was a huge success, the
women beautiful, and the kids were loving it. Unfortunately the place
got busted by the police in a couple of raids and was forced to close
down. This was probably the beginning of my realization that danceable
jazz might well be the wave of the future.