[Dixielandjazz] sounds of the twenties

[Jim Kashishian]

Saxophones were definitely darker in sound than today's horns.   Other than
that I would imagine that the rest of the instruments sounded pretty much as
they do today.

Larry Walton

Larry, There is no way a trombone from the early 1900's could sound like
todays instruments.  The slide alone would make a huge difference, and we
needn't get too deeply into bore size, mouthpiece technology, etc.  Nope,
for me those earlier players had a huge handicap in comparisons with today's
musicians.  Trumpets & cornets would suffer from the same, only their valve
action would be slower than today's crafted valves.

The slide in those earlier horns would be at best "scrape, scrape" rather
than "zing" (for lack of a better word to describe smoothness".  I've
mentioned before that I am not comfortable playing unless there is no drag
whatsoever on my slide.  I shouldn't ever feel it is two pieces of metal
sliding on each other.  You can bet those earlier musicians would have been
very aware of that, and their playing would have to be effected.

Jim