[Dixielandjazz] Guitars and Dixie

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

Guitar players that might remotely fit in a Traditional or any kind of jazz group are really scarce around here.  Not that there aren't a couple but most can't read and have a limited knowledge of chords.  It's because they don't have to read and they don't need many chords for today's music.

I walked into a music store one day and there was a guy a little bit older than myself (old) and he really knocked me out with his style. He was playing the coolest chords and lots of tunes.  The problem was he was so out of tune I almost couldn't stand it.  I wanted to go over and ask him if he would mind if I tuned his guitar but this man was really, at least at one time, a fine musician and that would have been an insult to him so I just walked on.  That brings up the next thing.  Most of these guys can't get even close without a meter and haven't a clue on how to tweak the instrument so it sounds right.

It boils down to the guys that play the instrument well, read fake etc are dying off and the new guys aren't paying their dues in the practice room. If they are any good they head for the coasts.  The two best jobbing guitar players  that I ever played with got religion, decided that playing for dances etc was sinful and went into gospel music.  They knew each other and did it together along with their bass player and vocalist.  Today's music simply doesn't require the finesse that music of the swing era required.  Some of it doesn't require instruments at all.

The only guy that I know who can do all the things I would want a guitar player to do just isn't interested in gigging any more.  He gets his kicks playing with a bunch of guys that eat lunch on a Thursday each month and jam.  (I did hear a guy with the local Air force band that was pretty good this past weekend)

We might be actually talking past each other.  I see traditional jazz in a set framework a lot like the big band (5 saxes etc).  It has more or less a set instrumentation.  Yes you can play the tunes on anything but electric guitars would I think degrade the older tunes.  Some guys don't like amplified upright basses either.   Now if you are talking tunes of the 30's and 40's then guitar usually fits ok as would older blues of the 20's on.  An example, I probably wouldn't play alto sax in a traditional group even though it might be OK for some tunes.  I prefer banjo to guitar for Dixieland.  Another example is ragtime.  Personally I have never seen anyone play ragtime guitar.  Piano yes, banjo yes but electric guitar?  I could go on and on.  You can play the tunes but there is a loss in sound at least the sound I want to hear out of this kind of group.

I guess it boils down to, I am so tired of hearing guitar bands that I could scream.  It's almost a non instrument.  The rock players seem to think that huge very loud block chords repeated endlessly to the same mindless beat are cool.  The country western guys learn about a dozen licks and play them over and over in their tunes.  I hear some guys on the jazz stations doing cool things but they don't live here. 

You are  fortunate if you have a good player that can work your jobs.  I think if you moved your band to St. Louis you would get 50 -60 gigs which seems to be average for most bands here.  There are a few that play regular gigs but I don't think any of them are traditional jazz groups.  So you are doubly lucky to be in an area that supports musicians well.  St. Louis is a town that traditionally has not supported musicians.  Today's Musician Union here is just a shell.  We have few shows although that is improving.  Big names really don't come to St. Louis but that's improving too.  The casino's are starting to book some acts in.  The Dixie band that I worked with for several years got cut from one of our river boat casinos and was replaced by nothing.

I said and you said:
> Don't get me wrong I really love swing too but in my opinion a
> ride cymbal has about as much place in traditional jazz as electric guitars
> have.  Of course some of the newer tunes done in the style could of course use
> a ride with no problem.

What, no electric guitars? Shoot, that finishes my band. Been using one as
the chord instrument 4 years now. No wonder we can't get more than 160
Dixieland gigs a year. Any banjo players out there at liberty? :-) VBG