[Dixielandjazz] Various

[Eric Holroyd]

Rich Skrika said:

RS: A Baritone Horn would be perfectly fine as a trombone substitute IF the 
player sticks to playing TROMBONE PARTS. In my experience, that's usually 
NOT the case.

EH: I agree wholeheartedly, and extend the concept to some trumpet players 
who double on tuba - playing trumpet solos throughout the ensembles instead 
of a bass line.

EH: And I won't even enter into the valve trombone discussion. (I know there 
have been a few great players, but surely the essence of trombone playing is 
all about glissando?)

RS: Rich's bottom line: Better to leave the thing home and do without rather 
than listening to bleating bari solos all night long!!!

EH: Amen to that.

Bob Loomis said:

BL: OK, I'm not a pro musician, I'm an amateur

coffeehouse string band musician who happens to

love OKOM, too.

EH: As a pro musician I welcome this guy, who makes a LOT of sense and who 
obviously has music at heart.

BL: One thing I seem to notice even at the lowly

level at which our band has played and plays...

EH: No stage? Stand in the corner? Have folks fling themselves around 
dangerously'dancing' right in front of you?

BL: musicians today (except for those who are stars

in the Big Bucks Music Industry) are viewed

pretty much as little better than gypsies,

ne'er-do-wells, hired help, and less important

even than waiters and waitresses.

EH: It was ever thus, and I've experienced that a lot here in Australia, 
where footballers and other sportsmen are deified.


BL: ...many people don't know or care how much work goes into making music 
even rudimentarily well. They perceive musicians as people who do nothing 
but have fun, as people who never work...

EH: I guess that last bit means 'work at a real job' - but I know many 
musicians who hardly ever work too...

Steven Holzer said:

SH: After Hackett hit with Gleason in the earliest 50s, there were an 
abundance of me-too records made.

EH: I wonder if they were made under the same circumstances? It's my 
understanding that Gleason only paid Bobby Hackett the Union Scale as his 
fee for those wonderful recordings.

SH: Deep down, did Bill really want to be known for that kind of thing?

EH: I guess Bill was working to make his living - as all musicians must do, 
but he sure was a great player and I enjoy ALL of his work.

Jim Kashishian said:

JK: These really long answers to other people's mail that have suddenly hit 
DJML are a drag to read (ie; they are not read) as it is impossible to know 
who

is saying what.

EH: Hear hear! It seems that there are three 'contributors' who do this 
EVERY day and always include ALL of the previous post in their pieces. 
Boring! And my mouse wheel works overtime as I scroll down through the 
Digest.

> More editing needs to be done

EH: One of our radio presenters here got into BIG trouble with his listeners 
a couple of years back when he mentioned the large number of emails he gets 
daily that point up the fact that many people today just don't know how to 
communicate properly in writing.

EH: He went on to talk about the lack of editing and the proliferation of 
right arrows (>>>>>>>>>>>>>>) and his phone lines ran hot with indignant 
calls - mostly from the very people who'd prompted his comments!

EH: Editing an email is VERY simple, yet the majority don't seem to want to 
learn how to do it...


JK: ... your initials/their initials at the beginning of each section need 
to be put in, otherwise you can count on all your efforts as being only for 
yourself. (No one else can follow what is being said!)

EH: Is THIS easy enough to follow?

EH: Tom Wiggins posted the Washington Post Mensa piece today. Isn't that a 
bit off-topic for a jazz forum?

EH: And here are a couple of my own comments on recent posts.

I detest straw boaters / skimmers and consider them demeaning (along with 
striped vests, red suspenders et al).

Much better to be smartly dressed and be able to play well, rather than 
compensating for lack of talent by dressing up - as I've witnessed at many 
festivals.

Also, I detest the word 'Trad' as - rightly or wrongly it conjures images 
for me of the clanging banjos and overly loud rhythm sections of some of 
those commercials British jazz bands of the Fifties and Sixties.

When I get an inquiry for the band from a person who doesn't know the style 
of music we play I will offer the word 'Dixieland' - which always seems to 
explain it for them. As someone else remarked on DJML, "It's all about 
public perception".

A couple of years back I unsubscribed from DJML as I got tired of the 
non-jazz crap that appeared daily. I'm just about to unsubscribe again, 
having mistakenly thought that things might have changed.

They haven't! And it still appears to me that far too many people have far 
too much time on their hands or they wouldn't be sending in those boring 
long posts that Jim K complained about.

Just looking through this week's Digests I'd estimate that there'd be less 
than 15% of the posts that were really concerned with jazz.

The rest were just personal barrows being pushed around.

Again, as a pro musician, I thought I may have something to offer here, but 
I'm really only interested in the music itself - not what people wear whilst 
playing it etc etc.

So, farewell to those DJMLers who I'm happy to call 'friend', and it 
probably won't be any good for others to shoot me down on this forum as I 
won't be checking in after today.

But my email address is shown here anyway for those who may want to flame me 
or whatever.

Happy Trails!

Eric Holroyd