[Dixielandjazz] Re: The Great Revival

[Stephen Barbone]

> DWSI at aol.com  Dan Sprin wrote:
>
> 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.

My two cents is that here in the Eastern USA, there was no "Great Revival." Because Dixieland, or
Trad Jazz never died here. By way of explanation, let me define "Dixieland" as ALL styles of
early jazz (Buddy Bolden et. al., through the current style that our band plays, "Modern
Dixieland".

In NYC, Eddie Condon was a fixture at Nick's from about 1937 until the mid 1940'w when he opened
his own club in Third Street. And that place swung with Condon groups into the 1960s. It was
later relocated to East 56th Street in the City. In effect Condon, was immensely popular in NYC
from say 1937 to the 1970's.

Likewise, Sidney Bechet appeared at Nick's and Ryan's and other places from the late 1930's till
the early 1950's when he moved to France. And Nick's became home to Phil Napoleon, Billy Maxted,
Miff Mole, Pee Wee Irwin, and a whole host of others from the 1930's till the 1960's.

There was no need to revive "Dixieland" in NYC because it was always there, and still is.

As I see it, what was revived were certain styles of Dixieland.  Conrad Janis and Wilbur DeParis
revived "New Orleans Jazz during that time and built a following. Similarly, on the West Coast,
Lu Watters and Bob Scobey revived the King Oliver style of New Orleans Jazz.

And, as I opined in an earlier post, the black musicians in NYC (and elsewhere) found gigs
decreasing with the slowdown in Big Band Swing and the new music of Bebop. (which they could not
play) What to play? How to make a living? Well, there was always an existing audience for
"Dixieland" and so Eldridge, Hawkins, Young, Dickinson, Shavers and a host of other played their
own fiery brand of Kansas City/Chicago/New York style of Dixieland at places like the Metropole
and elsewhere. Many of us who heard that still think it was the absolute best form of the genre
ever played. Born of economic necessity and not a revival of anything.

"Dixieland Revival"? "Trad Revival"?  A problem of semantics as I see it. The music was always
there and a few folks just picked out certain niches, hyping them as a revival. On the west coast
that meant banjo/tuba two beat which some folks today believe is the only "real" Dixieland while
the rest is not.

Perhaps the greatest error we make in talking about, or defining jazz genres is that of believing
that there are precise moments in time when one jazz form supplants another. And that the new
form flourishes while the old form dies. I don't think that is the case at all. The old form is
still there, the lines blur and both forms survive.

Well to remember that Swing came into being, but did not kill Dixieland. Bebop came into being
but did not kill Swing or Dixieland, etc., etc.., etc. After all Bebop started in the late 1930s,
early 1940s. At the height of Swing's dominance. We only heard about it after WW 2 because of the
record bans. And at the same time (1937 -1950) the big bands as well Dixieland were also
flourishing across the USA.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone