[Dixielandjazz] ODJB

[Jim Beebe]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Loerchen2 at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 7:27 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] ODJB


> I think it's difficult for anyone today to hear the ODJB and not think of
all the bands that came afterward.  We're so used to hearing Armstrong,
Oliver, etc. in the late 1920s and after, that we can't hear the ODJB in its
historical context.
>
> I spent last Friday going through Nick LaRocca's original scrapbooks of
press clippings from the band's early days, and there's no doubt that they
were influential (and controversial).  Outside of New Orleans, ODJB records
were most people's first exposure to jazz--like Bix.  As they were the
highest-paid band in the country at the time, someone must have thought they
were pretty good....
>
> So, instead of comparing ODJB to its successors, try listening to some
earlier original ragtime and popular records from 1915-17--then listen to
ODJB and try to imagine how revolutionary this music was to people who heard
it for the first time!
>
> Sue Fischer

Good post, sue.  I'm wondering where you accessed the LaRocca's scrapbooks.
Are they in a library somewhere?

Jim Beebe