[Dixielandjazz] THE POWER OF OKOM

[David W. Littlefield]

At 07:45 PM 7/24/2002 +0200, you wrote:
>Russ wrote:
>With a guitar instead of a banjo, do you really sound like Tra Dixieland
>or, more like a swing band with a swing jazz feel?

Jim Kash wrote:
>Oops!  Here we go again.  Do we have to have a banjo to be a Dixieland
>band?
>Jim

The question is legit, but not worded quite right. Trad Dixieland can sound
like it should with either banjo or accoustic rhythm guitar. 1930s
"Chicago/New York" Dixieland by nature was to a very considerable extent a
style of small-group swing; certainly the boundaries of the 2 sub-genres
are very blurry! And both used accoustic rhythm guitar. As I sit here, I
have an impression (no statistics) that one significant difference between
the 2 forms (at least on records) is a much greater use of ride cymbal by
the dixielanders, whereas the small swing group drummers used brushes to
the extent that the Condonites used ride cymbals. 

If the guitar is amplified internally so that it sounds like Charlie
Christian rather than Eddie Condon or Freddie Green, then the overall sound
of the band is changed significantly and loses some of its dixieland
flavor, certainly it is no longer "traditional", and is moved within the
boundaries of swing...Of course all this is conditioned by what the horns
are doing, chordings, etc.

--Sheik