[Dixielandjazz] Re: Dixielandjazz digest, Vol 1 #262 - 16 msgs

Wed, 9 Oct 2002 13:08:51 EDT

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In a message dated 10/9/02 7:12:19 AM Central Daylight Time, DWSI@aol.com 
writes:

> Finally, when I ask, "do we need this kind of analysis?" I'm not against 
> analysis, I just think it should be to understand what happened rather than 
> to dictate rules of what we should play. I also hesitate getting into all 
> the analysis stuff because I've found (by playing Dixieland mostly) that 
> any song can be made to sound okay in any style mainly by playing around 
> with chords. This often leads to "modernizing" some of the old great songs 
> to their distinct disadvantage (in my opinion); e.g., I just don't want to 
> hear Bill Bailey played as Bop with flatted fifths, or the  12th Street Rag 
> played as hip hop. I've heard some official jazz teachers call my kind of 
> music (rag and Dixie) boring while praising the steady 4 - 4 beat of the 
> modern stuff which to me is as exciting as listening to water dripping.

   Pianists playing extended and altered chords almost finished off Dixieland 
Jazz.
   The great trumpet player and band leader Phil Napoleon would not tolerate 
it in his band. I remember his nephew, Marty Napoleon, telling me that when 
he played with Phil, if he played a 'modern' chord' Phil would stop that band 
cold and would say, "that chord should be a C7, not a C13."  Marty Napleon 
was a fine pianist and essentually a modernist or bebopper.  He said that he 
went to work in his uncle's band so that he could learn the dixieland 
repertoire. He went on to work with Armstrong and many other great groups.

JIm Beebe 

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<HTML>In a message dated 10/9/02 7:12:19 AM Central Daylight Time, DWSI@aol.com writes: 
 
 
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Finally, when I ask, "do we need this kind of analysis?" I'm not against analysis, I just think it should be to understand what happened rather than to dictate rules of what we should play. I also hesitate getting into all the analysis stuff because I've found (by playing Dixieland mostly) that any song can be made to sound okay in any style mainly by playing around with chords. This often leads to "modernizing" some of the old great songs to their distinct disadvantage (in my opinion); e.g., I just don't want to hear Bill Bailey played as Bop with flatted fifths, or the&nbsp; 12th Street Rag played as hip hop. I've heard some official jazz teachers call my kind of music (rag and Dixie) boring while praising the steady 4 - 4 beat of the modern stuff which to me is as exciting as listening to water dripping.</BLOCKQUOTE> 
 
&nbsp;&nbsp; Pianists playing extended and altered chords almost finished off Dixieland Jazz. 
&nbsp;&nbsp; The great trumpet player and band leader Phil Napoleon would not tolerate it in his band. I remember his nephew, Marty Napoleon, telling me that when he played with Phil, if he played a 'modern' chord' Phil would stop that band cold and would say, "that chord should be a C7, not a C13."&nbsp; Marty Napleon was a fine pianist and essentually a modernist or bebopper.&nbsp; He said that he went to work in his uncle's band so that he could learn the dixieland repertoire. He went on to work with Armstrong and many other great groups. 
 
JIm Beebe </HTML>

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