[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland was George Lewis

[Stephen Barbone]

Hi Brian:

I don't disagree. The trad jazz educators site and Wyndham are pretty much in
agreement. The trad site a little too structured and complicated for my taste.
Example, "New York Style" is different from "Nicksieland"? To me they are the
same thing with minor differences. And two different Chicago styles?  For me,
all the bands playing a particular style play it differently, however, that
does not justify another "style" name. And some folks might argue about the
site's contention that the later Chicago style was developed in New York.

Stride pianists playing in a Dixieland band play Dixieland. But played alone,
Stride takes on a distinct musical style and it is not Dixieland. Same for the
singers, if they sing in a Dixieland Band, it is Dixieland. If singing in a bop
band it is bop, blues band it is blues etc.

There is room for all musicians within "Dixieland", if they play polyphonic
counterpoint. Trad jazz may be an all encompassing term but to the 40 year olds
today, it means Bird and Diz.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

briantowers wrote:

> Hi Steve,
>
> I have seen these sub-divisions of dixieland before and the concept falls
> short, in my opinion. There is no place for the New York stride of Fats
> Waller, James P, willie the Lion etc; No place for the blues of Bessie Smith
> or the Jazz singing of Ethel Waters nor early swing nor Buddy Bolden's
> ragtime, etc etc. - none of these styles can be called dixieland. Seems more
> suitable to me to have the term "traditional jazz", as the
> umbrella,  with dixieland as one of the various styles.
>
> The best attempt (and it can only be an attempt!) at defining the various
> OKOM jazz styles that I have seen is
> "A Traditional Jazz Style Guide"  by Dave Robinson.  it can be seen on the
> Traditional Jazz Educators network web site.  Anyone interested can view it
> at http://www.prjc.org/tjen/styleguide.htm
> In my opinion this is a more meaningful explanation than the attempt by Tex
> Wydnham