[Dixielandjazz] Re: The Great Revival

[Charles Suhor]

I agree with Brian Towers that most folks who talk and write about the
revival of the 40s and 50s are referring to the POPULAR revival of the
music, not saying that it re-arose from the ashes after it died. There were
always enclaves of early jazz-style players performing, if nowhere else, at
each others' houses and at spot gigs. When the popular revival came,
though, many more musicians were able to work more steadily. Also, many
like Bunk Johnson, who had stopped playing were revived, almost literally,
and recorded by jazz buffs like Bill Russell & Frederick Ramsey. This
happened as an underground movement in N.O. in the early 40s, but there
wasn't a [popular] revival until the postwar period. (Bunk had little to do
with that local revival, seldom playing in N.O., but that's another story.)

I agree with Steve that there aren't clear demarcations that start and end
popular music revivals or other artistic movements (although there can be
some benchmarks). The "40s" revival, he pointed out, was linked to gigs at
Condon's, Nick's, etc.  Vernon Hollis argues that the Bob Crosby band's
late 30's hits ("S. Rampart Street Parade" for the big band, "March of the
Bobcats" for the combo) and their popular gig in Chicago were important in
the revival that followed. Still, the crescendo grew in the 40s in the U.S.
after the swing era had passed its peak and was losing major popularity to
vocalists.

Hey what about the original added question of "honky tonk" piano. Was there
a popular revival of that? Was it more than a blip on the screen? Ws the
music too commercial to be of interest to jazz fans?

Charlie Suhor






Nice post Steve Barbone  but I think we need to clarify what most of us mean
by the term "Revival"   You and I seem to differ on this.

I agree that traditional styled jazz has always been there and always been
played in the USA and Europe.  However it was a revival of INTEREST in
the1940's and 1950's - yes a revival of interest whereby the kids adopted as
popular music.  In the U.K. trad' jazz numbers were reaching the top of the
hit parade -  tunes like "Midnight In Moscow" "Stranger On the Shore"  "Bad
Penny Blues" etc were the singles being bought in great quantities and
numbered among the top of the pops.  Many of the kids buying "hip hop or
rap" today would have been buying Humph, Barber,Bilk or Ball in those days .
This is what I personally mean by "Revival"
At weekends teenagers would camp out in tents or sleep rough in country
estates like Beaulieu, to attend festivals with headliners like "Acker Bilk"
, "Chris Barber",  Kenny Ball". We even had riots!
This is what I mean by "REVIVAL"  It became a cult, almost, which embraced
the way one dressed, the way one spoke, the way one danced or jived etc.
Even the BBC featured it and you could hear featured in places like the
Albert Hall or the Festival Hall.    The 1940's and 1950's was the time of
jazz revival because, all of a sudden  the "man in the street" , the average
Joe or Judy, knew what it was and could even name a trad' band  -this was an
amazing happening.  It was a REVIVAL for jazz.    The young generation found
traditional jazz, besides being intellectually stimulating and rich in
historic interest,  was also fun, lively, had a melody and you could dance
to it.  For them it was new and exciting.
Swing music and the big bands of the 1930's had become "ho hum" to them and
the new pseudo-intellectual music under the mystical title of bebop was just
an irritating and pretentious noise - totally incomprehensible to the vast
majority.
There was always good jazz in the UK - in the 1920's and the 1930's and in
the war years..  Players like trombonist George Chisholm or saxists like
Freddy Gardener, pro's playing populasr music in dance bands for a living,
knew how to rip off the hot stuff we call Dixieland, when they played in
small groups for their own pleasure.   The masses were into swing and
dancing was the popular thing.  The true jazz was there and kept alive by a
smallish group of devotee fans, musicians, collectors, rhythm clubs etc but
it was not big time, just a tiny dedicated minority.   It swept the world as
popular music in the1950's, having had its re-birth of popular interest in
the 1940's, thanks to the likes of Bunk Johnson, Turk Murphy, George Webb,
Humphrey Lyttleton, Sidney Bechet, Graham Bell, Claude Luter, Kid Ory,
George Lewis etc who showed a new generation that jazz could be fun and
entertaining - great days!
Sorry to ramble on......
Brian Towers
Toronto

P.S. Does the jazz of Fats Waller; 1920's Ellington, Benny Moten, Earl
Hines, Art Tatum, James P Johnson, or the ragtime of Joplin, Lamb, Scott etc
etc   all fall under your umbrella term of dixieland?   Using the term
"dixieland" to embrace all the old jazz is a bit daft, as well as confusing,
in my opinion but then all the old DJML members will know that already!
The great trail blazer himself - Turk Murphy,  fervently denied that his
music was "dixieland" and I believe he was the first to coin the expression
'trad?

Steve wrote (small snip)
> 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".
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone


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