[Dixielandjazz] stride vs. comp..rules???

[David W. Littlefield]

At 02:15 PM 1/23/2003 -0600, Pat Cooke wrote:
>Dave, you seem to have missed the point of what I said completely.  You have
>expressed enough "rules" to boggle anyone's mind.  Did you find these rules
>in a book somewhere, or did you just make them up?

I got 'em out of the music. The records, hundreds of hours of gig tapes,
live bands of various kinds. Always trying to learn what's the right thing
for me to do in the various contexts in which I play, that is, a balance of
what works best for the music, the other players, and the audience. Like
you I have my personal preferences, always have an urge to take an active
role and be "creative". But when I hit the bandstand, certainly when I'm
being paid, my personal preferences drop to the bottom of the hierarchy of
priorities. 

>Your "hierarchy" is really a new one for me. I tend to regard the
>rhythm section as the guts of the whole band. If you want to add a horn
>player or two, do so after you have a good rhythm section.  You put the
>drums on the bottom of your hierarchy...I would fire all the horn players
>before I fire a good drummer.  I can deal with a horn player who is not too
>good, but give me good players in the rhythm section!

So you like a different hierarchy, one based on what you wanna do. As far
as I'm concerned, OKOM isn't like rock music. If a rhythm cat (but not a
keyboardist, who's pretty close to the bottom, maybe just above the Sax)
wants be at the top of the hierarchy, play rock'n'roll; or if you wanna be
no less than equal to everyone else, play modern jazz. 

If I were hiring a 6-piece okom band, I think I'd be really po'd if I got
punk horns and a great rhythm section rather than vice versa. Of course,
were I one of the mASSES, it's possible I might not notice the horns so
long as I heard something resembling tunes and got my butt kicked, but with
that mess I wouldn't be getting any creative jazz...

>I find rules to be antagonistic to the spirit of jazz.  They stifle
>creativity, and lead to being permanently mired in the rut of mediocrity.

What you are calling "rules" are just some operating principles that give
at least a minimum sense of order, consistency and predictability so that
people can play together, and so the music sounds good. 

The rules of harmony and chord structure--now there's some RULES.

--Sheik