[Dixielandjazz] Cut & Paste on Recordings

[Stephen Barbone]

> Rocky Ball wrote Bigbuttbnd at aol.com (polite snip)
>
> Would any of you fail to run your posts through a spell-checker because you
> felt it might compromise the 'art' of your writing to correct any clams you may
> have made by mistake? (Keeping in mind that the spelling or mispelling
> doesn't change your original idea... only the execution of it...)

And others opine that they want a "perfect" product out there so they fix it, even adding or subtracting a chorus, which BTW does change the original idea. So, they cut, paste and otherwise electronically enhance the music.

Look at the other side of the coin. Writing is a visual "art". Playing music is an aural art. Correcting the written word for typos, errors, etc., is exactly the same thing as correcting a written piece of sheet music, but not the same as "correcting" something one has already played.

Therefore, any change, especially on a live album, is a somewhat dishonest change. Is it closer to changing what a person said in a "speech". More like changing Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman" to " I did have sex with that woman". Or like changing "Iraq has weapons of Mass destruction (Jan 22, 2003, Bush) to Iraq may have weapons of Mass Destruction.  Or Churchill's "I have nothing to offer but blood tears and
sweat" to "I have nothing to offer." Who knows what the original "idea" was? Certainly not the revisionist historian, or the man in the mixing booth.

I figure if electronic enhancement is OK, then I am going to my musical computer in dial in my "ideas" about how I want to play clarinet. First dial in Artie Shaw's tone, then Pee Wee Russell's harmonic ideas, then Kenny Davern's control over the instrument, then Edmond Hall's fire, and finally Eddie Daniels facility. Why not, that's my "idea" of how I want to play, I just can't execute it right now (or ever). But since it is
my original idea, I'll just do it on computer and patch it in. Heck, I'm only changing the "execution, not the idea.

And while I'm at it, I think I'll dial in the rest of the band, have a computer generated "World's Greatest Jazz Band" in absolute terms and sell the hell out of these perfect CD products.

Then I'll figure out a hologram band of young, good looking folks, 3 black, 3 white, a drop dead gorgeous girl singer with an electronic voice mixing Sassy Vaughn, Bessie Smith, Doris Day and Barbra Streisand and put her in dancing body like Tina Turner's 30 years ago.

Hey Wiggins, you want a piece of this money making scheme? We can show the world how to really play Dixieland in venues all over the world. We'll call them the Fantasy Five plus Two. Appearing "live hologram" in a stadium near you. ;-)

Cheers,
Steve Barbone