[Dixielandjazz] African-Americans in Jazz

[Richard Broadie]

I think a question for today is "Why aren't there more black musicians
involved in any genre of jazz these days.  If jazz is "supposed" to be their
music (perhaps a presupposition of Leonard Feather) , why don't they take
better care of it?  Many of my favorite musicians are (or were) black.  But
there are very few playing jazz these days that I'm aware of who are young.
Dick
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Butch Thompson" <butcht at sihope.com>
To: "djml" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 12:46 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Leonard Feather, ersatz hipster


> On 7/17/03 2:00 PM, "dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com"
> <dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com> wrote:
>
> Bill Gunter wrote this:
>
> > I recalled saying something to Feather about the small amount of black
bands
> > available. I indicated that most black bands were not playing dixieland
(and
> > we were the "Sacramento DIXIELAND Jubilee"). Feather recalled that
comment
> > in his column and said that "it didn't wash" and he cited a New Orleans
band
> > called "The Dirty Dozen."  We were, of course, familiar with the Dirty
> > Dozen. We considered them but they demanded waaayyyy to much money and
that,
> > added to the fact they really didn't play dixieland, kept us from
booking
> > them.
>
> No surprise.  There seems to be a kind of deliberate obtuseness adopted by
> many writers and, unfortunately, musicians who claim to appreciate all
> styles of jazz.  I suspect that Feather deliberately mentioned the Dirty
> Dozen to show that he was hip to their music, but that the hicks in
> Sacramento just couldn't latch on.  Pretty sneaky, because I'm sure he
knew
> that the Dirty Dozen was an inappropriate suggestion. This kind of
> oneupmanship is a persistent and tiresome  feature of much jazz writing.
I
> don't think LF invented this kind of criticism, but certainly his ruthless
> use of it is unique among jazz critics.
>
> Butch Thompson
>
>
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