[Dixielandjazz] Why Most Music Critics Don't Like OKOM

[Steve barbone]

john petters at johnpetters at tiscali.co.uk wrote: (polite snip)

> Steve Wrote:
> Bottom line view seems to be that playing/singing the
> old stuff, just like the old musos, is not enough. You must bring something
> new to the party if you expect to be taken seriously by the media critics.

>John Answered: 
> For that I read, get as far away from swinging jazz as quickly as possible
> and retreat into the safety net of square rock rhythms or latin wastelands,
> where you don't have to swing.

My goodness John, how ever do you read that into it? Certainly neither in
the context of the article, nor in my comments.
 
> Steve wrote:  I love Rene Olmstead's version of
> Summertime and have put a similar head arrangement together for Allison
> Landon, one of the 13 year old female singers who sits in with us from time
> to time. It includes a funky beat plus two modulations, each up a step for
>successive chorus', and we love to do it with her.

John answered: 
> Why? Isn't swinging in jazz time enough. There are thousands of bands that
> could play Summertime with a funky rock beat - but far fewer that can play
> it at ballad tempo and make it swing. Pop stars have been ruining the
> American songbook for years - when seasoned jazzers contribute to the demise
> of the music, then something is wrong.

My goodness, John "funky" is a US jazzers word applied to swinging jazz with
a beat. LONG before R & R was invented. You must be too young to remember us
old folks playing funky jazz in funky butt hall in funky New Orleans. If
your first memory is of the R & R folks using it, then please be aware that
they stole it from us. And who said that seasoned jazzers are ruining the
"songbook"? Unless you have listened to them, how can you pass judgement?
Why should anything be wrong with YOUNG FOLKS trying to sing the songbook?
Will they make mistakes? Sure, but that's how you learn.

> John Said: 
> I saw a documentary on Culham, who is flavour of the month with the BBC. He
> is only an average piano player and a vocalist of very limited ability. His
> pitching is poor. He is however very visual, to the extent of bashing the
> piano. No problem with that, but I lose interest because he cannot stay with
> a swinging rhythm. He is not naturally at home in a swing environment,
> relying on the aforementioned rock / latin beats to get himself out of
> trouble. . . Seems its fashionable to 'do' the jazz
> album, but the fact that so many pop artistes fail with this material comes
> down to a lack of paying ones dues.

I give him credit for trying. Plus, of course, how else does one pay ones
dues? The ultimate payment is performing in front of critics from within and
without, no? The ultimate determinant of Cullum's ability would be to see
him in live performance and/or buy his CDs. Besides, no doubt Armstrong,
Bechet, Dodds (both Baby and Johnny) and all our other heroes had early
failures too. And, I know I did and would bet the farm that you did too.
 
> I believe in playing the music in the traditional way. I am not in the least
> interested in getting up to date, selling out, or whatever. If my band
> sounds old fashioned then that is fine by me. My gigs are rock free zones.

If you want to play "traditional", that's cool. In fact, the article drew
parallels with Louis Armstrong, and how/what he did. Point being that to
bring something "new" to the party does not mean Rock or Latin, that's old
as well as corny. The point is simply that to do something the way Louis or
Baby, or Billie, or whomever did it, is exactly the opposite of what they
did. They did not COPY. They INVENTED. They spoke with their own voices.
I suspect that despite your cry of "traditional" you do in fact speak with
your own voice and therefore in the UK, are somewhat original.

So should we all be, because there are none among us that will ever equal
the originals unless we become, like them, original.

What is "The traditional way'? What style within OKOM shall we freeze and
call "traditional"? In drumming, Baby Dodds? Then what about Sparbaro? We
all love to quote Ellington's "It don't mean a thing" etc., but he evolved
later and was never traditional in any sense of the word. And as you know,
much "traditional" jazz both then and now does not swing.

What is "selling out?" Some, no doubt, even define it as playing the old
fashioned traditional way in order to retain the pseudo jazz literati and be
cheered and showered with money by them. But, I don't think being original
can ever be defined as "selling out". It takes a lot of guts for a jazzer to
go out on one's own without a safety net. Few have the stomach for it. Fewer
still, succeed. But virtually all are real jazz musicians. And virtually all
are warriors. Me? I salute them and applaud their courage under fire.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone