[Dixielandjazz] THE POWER OF OKOM

[Stephen Barbone]

Dave Littlefield wrote:

"The question is legit, but not worded quite right. Trad Dixieland can
sound
like it should with either banjo or acoustic 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 acoustic 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."

List mates & Dave:

Yes, solid logic if one defines trad jazz so as not to include small
band swing. But a further question arises. What is small band swing?
And  even, does trad jazz differ from Chicago (Condon) Style.

Dick Sudhalter makes a couple of excellent points in "Lost Chords",
while writing about "Dixieland" from page 274 to 299. Well worth a
re-read if you have the book.

On page 285 he notes that sax player Toots Mondello and critic George
Frazier talking about "Dixieland" in the late 1930s meaning "an approach
to small-band hot playing whose textures, repertoire and general
allegiance reflected the ODJB". And Orrin Keepnews is quoted: "We said
dixieland to distinguish a certain kind of small-group jazz from what
the big dance bands were doing. We had two terms, 'dixieland' and 'small
band swing' which were supposed to mean different things but which
actually overlapped all the time. The truth of it is nobody really
thought much about definitions then."

And on page 279 Sudhalter notes; "Often such compartmentalization
ignored the very sound of the music. When a 1937 pickup group led by
Teddy Wilson recorded  . . . "I've Found A New Baby" with Buck Clayton,
Buster Bailey and Lester Young as the horns it was heard and discussed
as small-band swing. When two years later, Bud Freeman's Summa Cum Laude
Orchestra, with Max Kaminisky, Pee Wee Russell, and Brad Gowans in the
front line recorded the same number in much the same manner, it was
Dixieland.

The two performances, similar in structure and feel, draw on ensemble
polylinearity and band riffing. Both spot rhythmically vigorous solos .
. . . etc. As Bud (Freeman) put it many years later, "You can't say to a
jazz performer whose talent is worth anything that he plays avant garde,
or dixieland, or that he is a modern, or even a proponent of Chicago
style. A substantial musician will say, 'I just play'"

Trying to define what is Trad Jazz, Dixieland or Small Band Swing is
interesting to say the least. What do we play? Darned if I know, but we
use "Dixieland / New Orleans Jazz / Small Band Swing / Trad Jazz / Hot
Dance interchangeably. And to borrow Condon's phrase, we also call it
music.

Anyway, if list mates are interested about what Barbone Street attempts
to sound like, what the New York Dixieland scene was like from 1945 to
Condon's death, read Sudhalter's Lost Chords, pages 295 to 299. In those
few pages, he says it all, and we try to fit that mold with our
amplified guitarist.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

Note also that we Dixieland / Small Band swing players in NYC in the
40s, 50s, 60s called what we played traditional jazz and/or dixieland
without thinking about banjos, guitars, tubas, string basses, saxophones
etc. The only distinction we tried to make was that it was not bop or
progressive jazz, then also on the scene. Also those who categorize
styles of OKOM, eg Tex Wyndham, make no stylistic distiction for "Trad
Jazz.", other than British Trad.