[Dixielandjazz] What Kids Listen To

Fri Sep 23 12:06:49 PDT 2005

snip:  Mike said:  The other difference is that today's teenagers will NOT
grow up and listen
> to OKOM.  Even many of the kids in the jazz bands in high schools, don't
> listen to ANY kind of jazz.

 I was a teen in the 50's which was the break point between the Kenton type
bands and Bill Haley and the comets.  The truth is I never heard of Stan
Kenton when I was growing up nor any other jazzer.  My first introduction to
jazz was through Gary Dammer and the AF band.  I really wasn't very good at
it and it wasn't paying for me but standards and rock/country was paying the
bills.  Over the years I became a jazz musician but always with an early
rock/blues influence.  Fortunately for me I can do both styles which has
kept me employed ever since.  Guys like Gary have a much more sophisticated
ear than I and play stuff that's very cool.  I had to do catch up learning
the tunes and style.  Gary and some other mutual friends were much more
fortunate than I in that they had parents that knew jazz, listened to the
big bands, were a little older and went to a high school that produced some
pretty good jazzers.  My HS produced some good players but not Jazzers.  I
owe a lot to guys like Gary because they have style and I was in contact
with them for many years so something may have scraped off.

Because the big bands suddenly died about the time I started playing, I
played a lot of 3-4pc gigs and that's a little different skill.

My parents really didn't do much for me when it came to jazz.  They were
small town people who liked the grand old opry.  I got my first phonograph
for my 16th birthday.   I almost became a steel guitar player (ouch!).  The
only thing that my dad said was if I ever came home drunk I could forget
playing.  They let me play wherever I wanted and with whom I wanted to play
with.  When I was 19 and left home I played in some pretty sordid places.
Jazz never paid the bills but dances, country clubs and bars did.  None of
those places wanted Jazz at least not the cool stuff.  Because I played in
Southern Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas the music I played was
way above the herd's head and they really hated jazz.  Fortunately I came
back to St. Louis when I was about 24   I play older OKOM now because it's
something new to me and a whole lot better than what I hear on the radio.

I think that what you play and listen to in your teen years is very
formative.  I am 66 and I play with guys that are my age or older generally.
Guys much younger than me typically but not always don't know the tunes and
have the improv skills that I have.  It's getting so that the guys in their
30's really haven't a clue how to improvise although some of them have been
in schools that supposedly teach it.  Certainly there are young guys that
can improvise but it seems that guys born after WWII just started playing
with a new deck.

Larry Walton
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Vaxtrpts at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 11:23 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 33, Issue 48

>
> In a message dated 9/23/2005 3:04:58 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com writes:
>
> Gee,  Larry, I might have to disagree with that statement.  I think
> teenagers
> have very eclectic tastes in music.  They like all  kinds of crap,  spewed
> out by all kinds of no  talents.........
> Mike  Vax
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> True  Mike but isn't that the same or similar thing our parents said about
us
>
> and our taste when we were teenagers??
> How did your daddy relate to  your playing with the likes of Stan Kenton?
> Give em time, they too will one  day grow up and discover real music and
may
> even revive OKOM  again.
>
>
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> Tom Wiggins:
> I think you have way too much time on your hands.......
> Boy were there a lot of messages from you in this digest!
> Anyway, to answer your questions:
> My parents were big band and jazz fans from their younger lives and that
is
> one of the reasons I was listening to radio broadcasts in the 40's, when I
was
>  young.
> They were thrilled with all the bands that I played on, especially the
> Kenton Orchestra.
> The other difference is that today's teenagers will NOT grow up and listen
> to OKOM.  Even many of the kids in the jazz bands in high schools, don't
> listen to ANY kind of jazz.  I know we have talked about this before, so I
won't
> go into the whole thing that I see in schools today, all over our
country.
> Mike Vax
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