[Dixielandjazz] Things that make me cringe

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/28/04 9:20:49 AM Pacific Daylight Time, lherault at bu.edu 
writes:

> 
> It is sad to think that possibly some time in the future, people will have
> completely forgotten Armstrong.  If we don't do the (sometimes bad)
> impression, then the odd young person won't hear about him, won't seek out
> his music and learn.  If we don't do the impression, others younger than we
> are will not do the impression and the odd young listener will not wonder
> who this fellow Armstrong was or what he sounded like himself.  The listener
> will not seek this knowledge, will never know, will never learn.  Too sad.
> 
> Ron L
> 
> 

Can't necessarily agree with that synopsis Ron,  they used to say the same 
thing about BLUES music.  Most young people couldn't care less about Blues, let 
alone Dixieland or Traditional Jazz, they have simply not lived enough years 
yet to understand most of it.

It is amazing how most grow up on Classical, Pop, Rock, and Hip Hop, Folk, 
and now even Christian ROCK and Christian Jazz, ( seems like only yesterday they 
were burning those rock records in the streets while thumping bibles) of all 
things, how politically correct, etc., and then go to College and discover 
Blues and Jazz.

Ah what a difference a lyric makes!   

But Christian Instrumental Jazz????  Give me a break.  Usually comes from 
guys who can't compete in the Real Jazz World, so they slap the word Christian in 
front of their name and create a new following and market for themselves 
primarily in Churches and church related functions.   A pet peeve of mine :)

With DVD, Videos, and CDs Great artists like Louis will never disappear, and 
will continually be discovered and re discovered by new audiences all over the 
world with or without a bad imitator trying to sing like him.  Same can be 
said of Willie Nelson, another guy with a not so pretty voice but sold millions 
of recordings to plain folks who liked his delivery of the songs even if he 
did have a less than melodic voice.

Louis and Elvis are long gone but there are still millions of recordings 
being sold every year of both of them all over the world as new audiences discover 
them.

Believe it or not the World is a lot bigger than we think places like Taiwan &
 China have not even been exposed to most American Jazz yet, not to mention 
all the other places with millions of potential converts.  Russia is still a 
wide open country for the proliferation of Jazz, as is many parts of the Middle 
East.

If we had more folks actively Promoting and marketing Jazz to NEW audiences 
rather than trying to Preserve it and keep it hidden in obscure places with 
private little groups to enjoy it, it would once again flourish.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins