[Dixielandjazz] A posting about What's Our Kind Of Music - a bit long

[Bill Biffle]

A few years ago I attended the NO Jazz & Heritage Festival and wrote the
following for the Barbershop Harmony Magazine.

Quote:
I was in New Orleans in late April for the 28th Annual Jazz and Heritage
Festival.  It was a hoot!  The most fun with music I've ever had without
performing it myself! 

We spent most of the weekend in the Heritage tent, wherein homage is paid to
traditional "Nawlins" jazz.  Non-stop, free-wheeling, high-spirited,
emotionally charged, foot-stompin', music from some of the best players I've
ever heard.  

Most every group had old heads and young Turks playing together with obvious
musical respect.  So, they're a little like us in age diversity.

There were PhDs in Jazz and players from the depression era who probably
never attended a music class of any kind.  A bit like us - all educational
levels, all income groups.

They were preserving a style.  There were groups that paid homage to their
roots by performing the "old" songs in the "old" style. Kinda like our
quartets and choruses who like to sing the old songs in the old way to keep
the original style alive.  There were also groups who used traditional
instrumentation but played everything from "Back Home Again In Indiana" to
"How Deep Is The Ocean?" and "True Love".  Kinda like our groups who want to
sing some newer songs in the barbershop style.

Every song played by every group - preservationists and perpetuators alike -
sounded like Dixieland.  Not every song fit the exact paradigm of songs
written before 1930 or whenever, but every song had a chord progression
which allowed for interesting improvisation and moved generally around the
circle of fifths - and had enough melodic interest to be a song you'd want
to hear again.

What they didn't play was "Music of the Night", "Blue Rondo Ala Turk", or
"Confirmation".  Why? - because those songs don't "Dixieland" well, that's
why!

So, they seemed to me to get it pretty well right.  Some strict homage to
the roots of the style, some pushing, however gently, at the edges of the
style, and no outright "beyond the pale" stuff at all.

Kinda like I think we ought to do.  Not get too crazy, not sing stuff we
can't sing well, not sing songs a cappella that are heavily dependent on
driving rhythms, not sing songs that only have one or two, or even three
chords, not sing melodies or lyrics that aren't interesting and worth our
efforts.

But also, not lock ourselves into a finite number of tunes, written before
an arbitrary date, with exactly the right number of "proper" chords.  In
short, use our heads - as well as our hearts!

The folks in New Orleans, admittedly, weren't saddled with the word
"preservation" in the title of their organization.  Heck, they don't even
have an organization.  There was also lots of other music going on in other
venues of the festival:  jazz, gospel, R&B, country, etc.  Plenty of styles
for everyone.  

Everybody had a ball.