[Dixielandjazz] Re: Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 30, Issue 19

[Charles Suhor]

On Jun 9, 2005, at 3:38 PM, Patrick Cooke wrote:
> Judy writes:
>> Chris reckons that jazz in New Orleans has moved on
>> since the days when Ken Colyer was there.
>
>    I have to admit I don't know who Ken Colyer is/was, but I was 
> living California and Florida for about 45 years, and just returned to 
> New Orleans 11 years ago.  New Orleans has advanced to using PA 
> systems, and there are a few purists who even stay to listen when 
> there is more than one microphone in use.  There are still a few smug 
> "elitists" who still would rather hear an out-of-tune acoustic piano 
> than an in-tune electronic one, even though the new keyboards can 
> sound like a concert grand.  There are a few other silly notions 
> harbored by a few that make them feel they are above those of us who 
> live in a world of electric refrigerators, TV, computers, and 
> automatic transmissions.
>    But basically the music has survived and even advanced a little, 
> somewhat to the dismay of a few who feel that improvement is 
> impossible. Come to the French Quarter Festival.....It's mostly local 
> New Orleans musicians.  They still play a lot of the old chestnuts, 
> but most of the musicianship is superb.
>     Pat Cooke

English trumpeter Colyer was in N.O. in '52 or '53, just as the local 
popular revival of early & Dixieland jazz was starting to wind down. A 
noteworthy point about N.O. players "moving on" is that the 
international revival of the 40s and 50s took a very specialized form 
in the city. First generation black players were revived, some of them 
mainly to record on labels like American Music, a few (like Papa 
Celestin and George Lewis' bands) getting gigs and exposure. (Bunk 
rarely played in town.) Seasoned white players, mainly a little younger 
(Sharkey Bonano's and Tony Almerico's bands), did very well.

The point is that the younger players didn't emulate Oliver or the Red 
Hot Peppers. Nothing resembling Lu Watters, Turk Murphy, or Claude 
Luter, or the Firehouse Five. Tubas and banjos were seen as old or 
corny, or even commercial, suggesting minstrelsy. The fluidity and 
invention they were seeking weren't as easily achieved, the youngsters 
felt, with the insistence of a strummed banjo and the enforced "2" 
feeling of a tuba. And marching and brass bands were years from getting 
the attention of young players.

Most black and white kids were in fact attracted to modern jazz, many 
black youngsters to the new R&B as well. The was cultivated in the city 
by a good number of white youngsters who took up the Dixieland style 
and "moved on" with it--Fountain, the Assunto brothers, George Girard, 
Roy Liberto, Connie Jones, Murphy Campo, Al McCrossen, Pee Wee 
Spitelera, Paul Ferrara, and others. Exceptions existed, of course. Dr. 
John was a young white R&B comer. The Last Straws used a banjo but the 
band in its early incarnations wasn't taken seriously. Like many 
revivalist bands, they could "play hot," but they didn't swing.

It was the largely the influx of young foreign musicians in the 60s 
that turned interest back to earliest jazz styles, instrumentation, and 
repertoire. Many of them hung out with Preservation Hall veterans after 
it opened in 1961. Lars Edergan, Barry Martyn, and others contributed 
greatly to this. (Tom Sancton was one of the few locals.) Danny Barker 
later worked to bring kids into marching bands, which also "moved" on, 
sometimes nicely, sometimes in R&B and other strange directions, and 
regressing at times to the glorification of arrested amateurism.

The local jazz scene today is a very mixed bag, but updated Dixieland, 
though sometimes too facile, is often the most driving and interesting 
force. I don't get the N.O. that often, but typical bands I've heard at 
the Palm Court are a good example. Musicians integrate many styles into 
the ensembles and solos--listening to each other very well, often 
sounding very modern, all the while keeping the spirit of freewheeling 
Dixieland jazz. You can hear a lot of Clifford Brown in Leroy Jones' 
trumpet, Ray Brown in Bill Huntington's bass, etc. It's good, deep, 
feelingful jazz. Another way of saying that: it's to my taste!

Charlie Suhor