[Dixielandjazz] Re: "In the Mood Sax Solo"

[Steve barbone]

on 6/23/05 12:22 AM, Henry Mason at hcmsjo at gmail.com wrote:

> On 6/22/05, LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing
> <sign.guy at charter.net> wrote:
> 
>> I agree that the tunes are boring and have little jazz quality about them.
>> I think that most popular music isn't written with Jazz in mind and solos
>> and jazz arrangements come later.  Pop is all about the buck and it hasn't
>> changed.  Miller was no different.  If Miller had lived
>> another 30 years how many times do you think he would have had to play In
>> the Mood?  I think he would have grown to hate it.
> 
> I asked Woody Herman that very question about "Woodchoppers Ball"   He
> said and I quote "If you had a tune that had been as good to you as
> "Woodchoppers" has been to me you would play it on every gig too".
> Later on, I asked Buddy Morrow the same question about "Night Train"
> and got essentially the same answer.   The people who REALLY hate
> night train are the sax players on the Dorsey band, because when
> Morrow calls up Night Train they have to do the sax waving
> choriography that goes with it.

For the opposite view, consider Artie Shaw who quit music because of the
constant "demands" of his audience for his hit tunes, "Begin the Beguine"
and "Frenesi". Lordy, I get requests for them to this day by audience
members in my age bracket (or older).

Sudhalter's interview of Shaw: (snipped for brevity, context retained)

"Let's say you'd have been free to organize ensembles, commission
arrangements . . . do what you wanted, all with out the pressure . . for the
acceptance of popular audiences . . ."

"You mean no Beguine, no Frenesi . . . No people tugging at me, reminding
me. 'We made you'"?

"Just so. Just music. No obligations or compromises . . . underwriting
enough to allow you to do what you wanted, musically . . "

. . . "I'd have probably stayed with music the rest of my life." . . .

The complete interview (a gem) is in Sudhalter's "Lost Chords" - Oxford
University Press. If folks don't have this book, it is impossible for them
to really understand either the music, or the musicians.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone