[Dixielandjazz] Jazz - The Spiritual Side vs. Technique

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/6/04 6:30:10 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
julepjerk at surewest.net writes:

> .  It is a feeling or spirit that
> comes through the music, and speaks to the internal spirit or soul.
> Technique is good, but the spirit and soul shines through every time, no
> matter how many times it is heard.  (Louis Armstrong is the classic
> example...)
> 
> Please deliver me from sterile, technically-correct performances, and let me
> listen to those in which the performer has put a bit of his/her unique self
> into it.
> 
> 

Exactly right Tim, if the artist or group has it they have it. If not all the 
technique in the world and sterile studio controlled recordings will reflect 
it anyway, as the music will just sit there and never swing or move anyone.

I personally love to sit in an audience and see a group of guys push 
themselves to their conceived limits and then watch the light come over their faces 
when they magically push it  even further on any given performance and delver 
something from within that they never knew they had.

The player that can touch you with the melody of a ballad so that you sing 
the words as he plays it or the one who boogies and swings so hard you can't sit 
still and have to get up and dance or pop your fingers or beat time with the 
rhythm with your wooden leg.

Those are the ones we remember long after the others have faded into 
obscurity.

Cheers,
and make every performance a LIVE one.

Tom Wiggins