[Dixielandjazz] Mainstream

Anton Crouch a.crouch@unsw.edu.au
Fri, 03 Jan 2003 13:26:40 +1100


Hello all

The "Stanley Dance" hypothesis for the term "mainstream" is supported by
the OED, viz

1957  S. DANCE in S. Traill Concerning Jazz 55  Mainstream jazz, typified
by musicians like Basie, Ellington..Armstrong.=20

1957 Jazz News Apr. 2/3 Rising like a Pheonix [sic] from the dying embers
of the British modern jazz world is a musical form that has been tagged
=91Mainstream=92.=20

1960 Sunday Times 11 Sept. 37/1 Very broadly you can break up jazz
asymmetrically into the big, simple, driving noise of the traditionalists
and the
smaller, sophisticated, elegiac sound of modern jazz. In between, there i=
s
a discernible third group of =91mainstream=92 enthusiasts.=20

1961 New Left Rev. July-Aug. 42/2 Humph is authentic mainstreamer: he's
been influenced by everything in jazz up to the moment.   =20

All the best
Anton