[Dixielandjazz] Miles Davis - OKOM - Leonard Feather

[Stephen Barbone]

Thanks Jim Beebe, for a great post about Miles Davis and Leonard
Feather. Very interesting insights which many on the periphery of the
jazz world ought to read thoroughly.

Basically it is the job of media types like Feather was, and others who
now are, to stir up controversy on subjects about which they write so
the mass audience will read it. So a great myth grew up about how OKOM
musicians hated Modern Jazz guys and vice versa.

For example, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong were often painted by
the media as hating each other and each other's music.
That was all media BS. They were great friends, lived close to each
other in Corona, Queens County, NYC and visited each other often. There
was a great mutual respect between them. The history of Jazz is filled
with crossover players, Miles with Scobey, Monk with Pee Wee Russell,
OKOMers Roswell Rudd and Steve Lacy who went on to careers in ultra
modern jazz etc.

Charlie Parker is still often painted as one who disliked OKOM and OKOM
players. Not al all true. He often quoted the Alphonse Picou piccolo
derived "High Society" solo during many of his solos. (e.g. starting
with "Koko", the seminal bebop tune)  In interviews he stated his
admiration and understanding of earlier forms of jazz. (OKOM)

And so on and so forth.

As most jazz musicians will attest, the more they know about the
totality of the music, the more they are able to "say". Those who might
usually disparage a certain form are usually ignorant of the musical
language contained in that form and that ignorance results in fear and a
subsequent lashing out that the form is no good.

Jazz music is like a conversation. And the harmonic construction and
syncopation a player uses is his/her language. Those who understand the
language usually like it. But like the written or spoken language, many
a listener doesn't understand it. Fine, let them say so, without
disparaging the player or style or creating artificial controversy, like
the critics do.

After all, most of us (I think) don't understand the writings of
Einstein either, but we only look foolish trashing them.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. Re Bob Zurke. Didn't he win a Downbeat or some other Poll around
1939 as "best jazz pianist", or is my memory faulty?