[Dixielandjazz] Ranking the Music

[Steve barbone]

Luis Daniel Flores wrote to Ed Danielson:

> Ed,
> Want to know why you consider this tune Hotter than That to be as close to
> perfection as music ever gets. Do you think more than the solo of west end
> blues ?

Ed gave a great answer. (polite snip)

> Luis,

> There are a lot of recordings that I think are close to perfection, West
> End Blues among them, certainly.  I try to avoid ranking the music I like,
> because that way madness lies.  Mozart's 40th Symphony, Miles Davis'
> recording of Oleo on the Relaxin' album, Stolen Moments” by Oliver
> Nelson, West End Blues, Weather Bird, . . .how do you position those in
> any kind of order?

> Happy Thanksgiving.  Thank God there was a Louis Armstrong!

AMEN. There is so much music out there, how could it be ranked with any
certainty?  Which brings me to a question.

Just how many individual recordings of songs, of ALL types, are out there.
Does anyone keep that statistic? Could anyone possibly listen to them all?

And, among us, who is the top tune listener in the group. Bill Haesler? Hey
Bill, how many recorded tunes (including different recordings of the same
song) have you listened to? I reckon you are probably among the top five
listeners in our group. And how many hours have you spent listening?

Another interesting statistic might be for the players. On how many tunes
can you play reasonably well by ear, along with a band, say trio and up?
(WITHOUT READING THE MUSIC OR CHORD CHART?)

Might even split that one to a) melody and  b) individual horn part in a
Dixieland or Swing set-up.

My own melody list is just over 1000 (mostly Great American Songbook +
Dixieland + Bop. My "horn part" list is also over 1000 but could be much
higher as my ears are still very good and there are only so many chord
changes among the usual tunes. Have been keeping track since 1990.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone