[Dixielandjazz] Re: GREAT 50'S REVIVAL PERIOD

[DWSI at aol.com]

So many of you listmates out there probably have something to add to what I 
am just now discovering about the 1950's. There was a great revival in 
traditional jazz forms and many bands and even styles were formed at this time. The Lu 
Waters / Bob Scoby / Turk Murphy west coast thing, the Fire House Five Plus 
Two, Dukes of Dixieland, the many New York bands of the era and many other 
lesser known bands all happened at this point. Yet another, related phenomenon was 
the old time, honky tonk piano style that, according to Dick Hyman, was 
supposed to sound like the old west bar room piano, but actually played 
out-of-copyright pop songs from a few decades earlier. The latter style had many big 
record names such as Joe Fingers Carr, Crazy Otto, Knuckles O'Toole, etc. Further 
behind the scenes was the early Ragtime revival led by Rudy Blesh's landmark 
book, They All Played Ragtime, and promoted by Max Morath in his one many show 
in New York. I grew up in this era yet was not aware of how special it was for 
OKOM. What now amazes me is that no one seems to talk about it as a great 
revival period. Why? Anyone out there care to add his or her thoughts or 
explanations as to how it all happened and why it's never been identified as a big 
revival? I'd love to hear.

Dan (piano fingers) Spink