[Dixielandjazz] Do records capture greatness?

[Stan Brager]

Recordings capture the musicians at a specific moment in time in much the
same way as a test "captures" the knowledge of a student. Many students are
intimidated by a test and some musicians do feel intimidated by the
recording process. A recording reveals any and all flaws for all to hear for
eternity. A flaw in during a live performance disappears with the next note.

Listen to Fats Waller And His Rhythm's many recordings. This is a group of
musicians who were self-confident in who they were and what they were doing
and the records capture this. It was also true of many of the Eddie Condon
sides as Steve Barbone pointed out. The same is true for Louis Armstrong -
listen to his first recording of "West End Blues".  If I could have only one
Louis Armstrong recording, this would be it.

On the other hand, listen to Jess Stacy's solo on "Sing, Sing, Sing" at the
1938 Carnegie Hall Concert. In my mind, listening to all the Stacy solos in
my collection, Stacy has never topped this moment.

It's true that there is the tension of performing before a live audience
which induces many players to take "chances" and try something different.
Too many musicians and bands want to "play it safe" in the studio.

Does being a great jazz musician preclude errors? No, it's not the error but
what the musician does next to incorporate the error into his solo and make
it seem OK. I remember a jazz DJ who used to play a recording by Eddie
Condon in which a cornetist (identified in the liner notes as Pete Pesci)
made an error. Every time, the DJ played that recording, he'd mention that
particular clam which detracted from listeners' appreciation of the
performance as a whole.

Do records capture greatness? Yes, they can and they do but only if the
musician can forget about the recording process and just make music.

Pete Pesci was in fact Bobby Hackett.

Stan
Stan Brager
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Burt Wilson" <futurecon at earthlink.net>
To: "Charles Suhor" <csuhor at zebra.net>; "Steve barbone"
<barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
Cc: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2005 9:26 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Do records capture greatness?


> Pardon the plug, but on the DVD I made of Anne Davison, "Wild Bill's
> Woman," there is a clip of Bill (rare) doing an interview with a Danish TV
> host in the club where Bill played. In the interview, Bill declares that
> the musicians never did their best work on recordings because of the
> pressure to get it right. He also talks about the fact that most recording
> sessions were at 8:00 AM. "What are ya gonna do." Bill exclaims, "you play
> until 4:00 AM, are you gonna sleep until it's time to go to the studio?.
> No. You just have a few shots of scotch and and stay up till it's time to
> go play. At least we were feeling happy. Well, at least I was!"
>
> Burt
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