[Dixielandjazz] Washboards - Novelty Instruments?

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

well Steverino mi amigo of the outcast of the okom set.

I am sitting here  tonight listening to a Cd I bought on the net hoping 
to find some new and wonderful inspiration  for some New Orleans Style  
Christmas songs for my band to play this season.  It is entitled New 
Orleans Christmas, and about the only thing on the Cd resembling New 
Orleans is the photo on the front cover of a Frecnh Quarter street not 
like any I have ever been on with a set of Christmas lights hanging off 
of one balcony.

The music is even worse,  but then I look at the credits and find that 
it is produced by a guy named Sam Levine who also plays Clarinet and 
Soprano Sax.  What a bunch of technically correct slick arranged charts 
of syrupy renditions of Holiday classics like I have never heard 
outside an elevator in my life.   This stuff would not lend itself to 
swing even in the small enclosure of an elevator.   Nothing wrong with 
the music or the fine instrumentalist playing it except it has NO BALLS 
and definitely does not even come close to swinging  EVER EVER EVER.   
This is a typical offering of what in my opinion has decreased the real 
audience for authentic swinging good time New Orleans Jazz.   Pathetic 
dinner hour music that folks often play when they don't want the music 
to interfere with their chatter.   Unfortunately it has become the 
accepted NORM in OKOM music as to what the Hell Dixieland and OKOM New 
Orleans in particular sounds like.   I am sorry folks but I have rarely 
heard anything further from real New Orleans music in my life, Hell I 
have heard some pretty shitty New Orleans bands in my life that sounded 
more authentic and better than this stuff.

This stuff sounds like Lawrence Welk on Qualudes laced with Morphine.   
It is put out by a company called Village Square Music

The company is out of Nashville, but the internet listing for the Cd 
was on a site about New Orleans CHRISTMAS MUSIC.  WELL MAYBE SAM WENT 
THER ONCE TO MAKE A POHOTO FOR THE COVER BUT IT IS OBVIOUS THAT HE 
NEVER SPENT ANY TIME THERE LISTENING TO REAL NEW ORLEANS MUSIC.  And 
they must have not had any music playing at all the night he was there 
to make the photo.  :))

I have been ripped off for $6.99 + shipping and handling, and in the 
words of the TREME BRASS BANDS SONG
"I WANT MY MONEY BACK"   Buyer beware, just because it says and looks 
like Nawlins don't mean it is nawlins.

Cheers,

Tom Off the Streets Wiggins
Saint Gabriel's Celestial Brass Band

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: DJML <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 23:47:02 -0400
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Washboards - Novelty Instruments?

    Oops, I stand corrected. But not by the published treatises who 
invoked the
great washboard players in comparatively little known bands.

Yes indeed, Like Baby Dodds is not revered in the jazz world for his
washboard, but rather for his drumming. Ditto for the other doublers
mentioned.

And as good as they are, South Frisco JB, Uptown Lowdown etc., are not 
what
I would call well known bands. Nor are/were their washboard players.

And there is a world of difference between Coleman Hawkins and what he 
did
for Saxophone compared to what The Great White Hope will ever do with a
washboard.

Washboards have been around for about 100 years and have not made much 
of a
dent in the jazz world, other than to clean clothes.

HOWEVER, THAT BEING SAID

List mate Janie McCue Lynch rightly reminded me off list that there is
indeed a virtuoso washboard player on the small and  ever decreasing 
OKOM
jazz scene. AND HE IS AN MAJOR INTEGRAL PART OF A JAZZ BAND.

Gerald Bogot of "Paris Washboard". Those of you who have seen him live 
in
performance were no doubt impressed by his musicianship. Sadly for the 
jazz
world, there are few others, if any, that even come close.

Meanwhile, I stick by what I said. Given the choice in a Dixieland Band 
of a
drummer like George Wettling or a washboard player, even of Bogot's 
talent,
I'll take GW. Same thing with Dodds, he used washboard only when the 
novelty
mood struck him.

And if folks think washboards swing, they don't know what swinging is, 
which
is perhaps why OKOM is stuck in the mud.

Cheers,
Steve (ducking for cover) Barbone




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