[Dixielandjazz] Pres. Hall's Stories

[Ron L'Herault]

I can't express what I like about N.O. bands and Preservation Hall bands
adequately.  It is too tightly wrapped up in emotion and other feelings
that are too hard for me to verbalize accurately.  I am sure there were
musicians who perhaps should not have played, due to lesser skill or
age/infirmities and should not have been the objects of adulation.  And
there were musicians who didn't want to be involved with the PH bands.
Was there not a long standing rivalry between "Up town and "Back o Town"
musicians, between the schooled Creoles and the self taught and/or part
time musicians?

There is something in the energy, in the way they communicate, in the
color of the tone, in the timing, in the rhythmic pulse of the bass
drum. It is the conversation, the interplay  ... I don't know.

Are folk artists (painters) bad because they don't paint in perspective,
or because they use odd color combinations?  If their subject matter is
as ordinary as people sitting at a table in a dining room, does this
diminish the impact of the work?

Ron L 

-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com] On Behalf Of
TCASHWIGG at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2003 3:30 AM
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Pres. Hall's Stories

In a message dated 7/12/03 2:25:20 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
drjz at bealenet.com writes:

> 
> "Preservation Hall" by William Carter (1991) presents the story of the

> New Orleans venue and bands, with several vignettes of the musicians, 
> the most interesting of which is Sweet Emma Barrett, the "Bell Gal" 
> (1897-1963) who refused to fly, and replied "None of your damned 
> business" when asked how old she was. She was paralyzed on her left
side 
> after a stroke in 1967, but continued to play with her right hand.
When 
> I saw her, the bass player was resting his gluteal region on the lower

> third of the piano keyboard! Another book is "Preservation Hall 
> Portraits" (1968), with 100 black and white reproductions of paintings

> by Noel Rockmore, and text by Larry Borenstein and Bill Russell.
Narvin 
> Kimball is shown resting on his instrument case, which is a shame 
> because there aren't many left handed banjoists. Regards.
> Fred
> 

And all this fodder feeds the MYTH of what a GREAT BAND they were or are

still purported to be, at best they were barely adequate players
consisting of 
unemployed musicians with no place else to work, because of habits and
problems, 
or not being good enough to play in the working bands around New Orleans
and 
road bands.

Somebody posted a comment by some great legendary New Orleans player
about 
why he never played with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and his comment
was 
"None of those guys were good enough to play with me twenty-five years
ago why 
the Hell would I want to play with them now."

That pretty much dispels the MYTH about the Quality of that Organization
and 
it's players no matter how much we try to glamorize the band.  They were
and 
are still a bunch of wannabes or never were players not quite good
enough to do 
anything better.

It is too easy to write a fictitious story about some old Black guy and
his 
years of long suffering and being a struggling musician in the shadow of
Louis 
Armstrong and other greats.  I am sorry folks but Being Old and Black
and 
holding a musical instrument having no teeth, and a cigarette hanging
out of his 
mouth does not make them a LIVING LEGENDARY Blues or Jazz Player.

I have personally seen many of these old folks trotted out to the
festival 
circuit as Legends
 and the audiences who never saw or heard them in their pitiful youth
forgive 
their arthritis and lack of skills in performing, merely attributing it
to 
their glorified status as Legends in the media to sell tickets.  When in
all 
actuality they never were very good.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins
The only White guy playing in a Black Band full of guys who know the
truth 
about Black musicians and Legends.
_______________________________________________
Dixielandjazz mailing list
Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz