[Dixielandjazz] African-Americans in Jazz

[john petters]

Jim said
> None of our other members of the bands ever took a stab at early jazz,
> preferring to hit it right from the top...with Miles' style, or J.J.
> Johnson as their mode of operation.  My comment...no background,
> therefore no foundation for building the tall house they wished to
> construct!

What they forget is that Miles or JJ did not arrive fully formed. They came
out of the styles that preceded them and built on those. The attitude of
many players around today is that they try to run before mastering the art
of walking.

> I've played with some of the old fellows...Ponty Pointdexter & Hal Smith
> on sax, to mention a few, plus a white guy by the name of Tony Scott on
> clarinet (louder than Louis on trumpet...honest!), and all these guys
> could hit it on all our Dixie tunes.  They'd paid their dues, played the
> older stuff, and decided to go into the more modern stuff.  Fine.  But,
> pay your dues, first!
>
the late George Chisholm (one of our great trombonists) told me that he was
playing a festival with one of the award winning young saxophone players.
This was a guy who had learned all the Coltrane licks and had the technical
facility on the instrument. There was a jam session and Lady Be Good was
called. Geo. told me this guy hadn't a clue. He could not play it.

Jazz is not like other forms of written music where you can play the notes
on the paper. Jazz is about soul emotion and swing, all things that take
time to find and master.
On a positive note, my 19 year old son David took up trumpet about 2 years
ago. The downside is that he has raided my Armstrong CD Collection. We live
in the middle of nowhere so finding a teacher was a problen and he has to
travel 30 miles for his weekly lessons. He is learning the instrument
properly and getting the formal grades - but he is also absorbing the jazz
and played his first gig with a local amateur band last week Given a couple
of years he could become a good player. He loves Louis, Red, Mutt Carey etc.
cheers
John Petters
Amateur Radio Station G3YPZ
www.traditional-jazz.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Kashishian" <kash at ran.es>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 10:40 AM
Subject: FW: [Dixielandjazz] African-Americans in Jazz


>
>
> I haven't had much chance to verify or not verify the A-A contribution
> on jazz as I've been in Madrid for 37 yrs, however, before that I did 8
> yrs in the Air Force Bands.
>
> In both of my AF bands, I was called upon to improvise on The Saints as
> a closing song for many of the band's concerts.  In both bands, this
> "solo" bit was frowned upon by the black guys in the bands.  They
> commented to me (or behind my back) that this wasn't jazz.  (They also
> may have been envious of the attention I was getting, and that I got
> promotions ahead of time due to the exposure!!! )     :>
>
> Never mind the fact that I WAS AT LEAST IMPROVISING, when most of them
> had only the ability to read.  Ok, some will argue that the ever-hated
> Saints isn't Jazz, but I don't go along with that, and this bit of
> exposure of jazz contributed to awareness amongst the public at our
> concerts, and certainly drew applause, not to mention clapping to the
> beat (on  2 & 4 in the States, and on 1 & 3 in Spain!!).
>
>
> Now, in Europe, if you're black, they just assume you play jazz.  When
> the Canal Street heard our AF Band at a Univ. concert, they came up and
> asked the black trombonist if he played Jazz.  He turned them over to
> me, and I joined them that very night....35 yrs ago!
>
> Jim
>
>
>
>
>
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