[Dixielandjazz] Out from lurking, but why??

[Charlie Hooks]

On Monday, June 13, 2005, at 01:18 PM, Stan Brager wrote:

> As a musician, do you find as much satisfaction striving to play a 
> great
> (personal opinion) solo as some of those other clowns you mentioned 
> like
> Bunny, Artie, Coleman and others whose solos were recorded?
>
> If so, is that the real reason you continue to play?
>
> I wonder if Armstrong was ever disappointed that his other recorded 
> "West
> End Blues" intros did not come up to the quality of first recording 
> of "West
> End Blues" (and that was the 3rd take of the day)?


Well, Stan, I must admit right away that I have not the foggiest 
notion "how much satisfaction" anyone other than myself ever got from 
anything; I'm sure only that I'm happy with and thankful for the few 
recordings of mine that came out right and wish there had been more 
of them.

The "real reason I continue to play" is the same reason I started 
playing in the first place down in Texas in 1938 when I was 9: I 
enjoy it.  I enjoyed it then, and I enjoy it now.  Come on: that 
can't be too hard to understand.  I never think I'm "striving to play 
a great solo"; but I always try to play as well as I can--don't 
you?   Usually it comes out pretty ordinary; but sometimes it's worth 
keeping, and unless I'm being recorded, guess what: I ain't gonna be 
able to keep it.

I must admit that I'm puzzled by just what it is you think I said 
that is worth writing about.  My point was a simple one: we have 
plenty of examples of great solos recorded, so there can hardly be 
any question of whether they exist.  Of course, I was being ironic in 
the lead sentence, but surely you picked up on that!

cordially,
Charlie


____________________________________________
"That all men are equal is a proposition to which, at ordinary times, 
no sane individual has ever given his assent."--Aldous Huxley