[Dixielandjazz] Mainstream - Bop - OKOM

[Stephen Barbone]

David Littlefield asks:

"Most genres, like Dixieland and Bebop, have their own repertoires. I've
had
the impression that "Mainstream" has some special standards. What are
some
tunes that might help us separate Mainstream from Bebop? I'd find it
helpful in helping prospects sort out the options. I have no trouble
with
pop tunes from the 60s-70s when I'm trying to determine whether my dance

band is what they really want, but am pretty much at a loss when it
comes
to post-swing jazz..."

All I can do is give an opinion. No, mainstream does not have special
standards. Any tune with a melody is fair game. Rodgers & Hart, The
Beetles, Gershwin, McHugh etc. It is not so much the tune, but how it is
jazzed up.

My best attempt atan answer is to say that mainstyream is mostly melodic
improvisation along with slight bop influences, including some advanced
harmonies, some (not much) chordal improvisation but not all the bop16th
note runs. Set mostly to a swing style rhythm, although here too, some
bop influence may alter the rhythm. Hard to pin down, but mainstream is
definitely not bop. Very, very few people play bop these days. It was a
short lived innovation. IMO Clifford Brown played "bop", or "hard bop"
and has he lived, we might have had an entirely different jazz evolution
than that which we hear today.

Some examples: Buddy DeFranco plays bop, Kenny Davern in quartet form
plays mainstream. Parker playing "Just Friends" plays bop, just about
anyone else playing the tune currently plays it as mainstream. Contrary
to popular belief, Monk does not play bop, nor does he play mainstream.
What does he play? Who knows, some other form of jazz.  Of people you
know, Mac McClaeb did not play bop, he played Mainstream. You can
probably dance to most mainstream, but rarely to Bop, though there are
exceptions.

Complicated subject, complicated definitions. Closest to mainstream
OKOM? Perhaps Eddie Condon's Bands in the decade prior to his death.
What he himself jokingly? called "Modern Dixieland" at the Newport Jazz
Festival.

One final question or thought about categories. Gerry Mulligan, a fine
musician, and his group did a lot of polyphonic counterpoint. Does that
mean he played Dixieland?  Or Modern Dixieland?  Hmmm. ;-) VBG

Cheers,
Steve Barbone