[Dixielandjazz] Tramette89@aol.com

[l.swain at comcast.net]

Lily:

I enjoyed your posting.  I had a different experience in the late 
40's and early 50's when I was in high school and grammar school -- 
that was before Elvis, Beatles, etc., when "popular" music was 20's 
and 30's "standards" and swing. There took place then a revival of 
ragtime and dixieland, and I could hear it often on the radio.  
Record stores were well-stocked with 45s and LPs of cuts from the 
20s and before.  So OKOM was, and still is, in my blood.

If you have not seen or heard of Bria Skonberg and Claire McKenna, 
21-yr-old trumpet and clarinet players and vocalists, by all means 
search them out on the Web.  Bria plays with a number of groups and 
is featured at a number of festivals.  I first saw her in April at 
the Olympics Jazz Festival and was bowled over.

Larry Swain
 

On 1 May 2005 at 4:41, Tramette89 at aol.com wrote:

> 
> I couldn't help but notice this subject when it got brought up...
> 
> sign.guy at charter.net wrote"There is no law that says everyone 
should like the
> same kind of music. With the multiciplicty of styles today it's 
the teacher's
> and schools job to introduce styles that may not be in the main 
stream."
> 
> Speaking as a high school student, I can say that that isn't the 
case around my
> neck of the woods. Teachers seem intent on making the students 
listen to jazz,
> but only modern jazz. All of my band directors throughout middle 
and high school
> admit that they have never listened to anything recorded before 
1940. The stuff
> school jazz bands play is almost always rock or latin flavored, 
and if it isn't
> that, then it's bebop. We've had some terrific young jazz 
musicians come out the
> the high school I attend, but they're all interested solely in 
modern styles.
> It's because that's all their instructors tell them to listen to; 
they are
> basically being taught that any older style of jazz is basically 
"wrong". They
> take us to hear modern jazz ensembles. They make us listen to 
Miles Davis and
> John Coltrane. And they don't allow any saxophonists to double on 
clarinet!
> 
> I can't help but wonder if maybe more kids would be into OKOM if 
they were ever
> actually exposed to it at school. The situation is pretty bad in 
Ohio, where I
> live, but its nice to see that other places aren't as biased. 
I've basically had
> to take things into my own hands, because boy, do I get a lot of 
guff for liking
> the music I like! (That's not even going in to how many people 
make fun of me
> because I own a c-melody sax!)
> 
> Hmm, most of the kids don't agree with my taste in music either, 
but that's no
> big surprise. Still, I try to convert a few of 'em every now and 
then...I've
> introduced a young trombonist to Jack Teagarden, and I've got a 
bari saxist
> hooked on Adrian Rollini!
> 
> And where did I get my first taste of old-fashioned jazz? From a 
Chips Ahoy
> commercial. (True story. They used to run "Sing, Sing, Sing" as 
the background
> music in those commericals, and the first time I heard that, I 
was hooked!)




Laurence Swain
l.swain at comcast.net
617 (571) 7885