[Dixielandjazz] What music to listen to

Phil O'Rourke philor at webone.com.au
Wed Mar 24 10:51:39 PST 2004


Brian,

I suppose I was trying to make the point that there are, in my opinion, no
"jazz tunes", it is how they are played. Some bands won't play songs they
associate with country or western music or rock or any other silly reason.
There is a lady I know that loves "Tiger Rag", she wants a copy of as many
versions as she can get. I played her a version by a symphony orchestra and
she didn't recognise it. That version of Tiger Rag was definetly not jazz
but most people only think of Tiger Rag as jazz.
I won't go on about this as I tend to get on a bit of a "high horse" on the
subject; How many Hank Williams songs are played by jazz bands etc.
A band with a half decent repetoire must listen to other styles of music and
adapt them to their own style.

Ain't music grand!

Phil O'Rourke
Australia


> Phil,
> I cannot disagree with what you say, however I still maintain that Colyer
> did not  get tunes like "Over the
>  Rainbow" , "Cheek to Cheek" "Poor Butterfly" etc into his repertoire by
> listening only to Bunk, DD, Kid Thomas. Lewis, Handy  etc   Nor did he get
> his beautiful ragtime arrangements from that source.         I reckon he
> listened to many different styles (obviously excluding Parker, Gillespie
and
> the boppers).   One can hear it in his jazz, his blues and his skiffle
> recordings.
> Cheers,
> Brian Towers




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