[Dixielandjazz] Musical Jousting

[Steve Barbone]

billsharp <sharp-b at clearwire.net> wrote (polite snip)

>You took his barb and realized that it was entertainment - -good for you.

>Ain't it all just so much fun?

Exactly Bill. Funny thing is how times have changed about musical and verbal
jousting. Both seem to be fun for some folks, and uncomfortable for others.

For me it is all FUN. I enjoy it. Verbal or Musical.

I remember a time when jazz musicians jousted with each other musically as a
rite of passage. It was like Miles said about playing at Minton's as a sit
it. If you couldn't play, you would have been booed off the stage and you
might even get your ass kicked.

And you could say what you wanted as long as you could back it up.

I remember MANY cutting contests at Loft sessions in NYC where everybody
came to play, drink and cut the other musicians there. Certainly Kenny
Davern and Pee Wee Russell cut me a new butt but I kept coming back because
I was LEARNING something each time. And it was all in good humored FUN as to
what the pecking order was.

I remember reading about some of the legendary cutting contests that
occurred in jazz over the years. Like:

Coleman Hawkins v. Bechet  (Bechet won)

Coleman Hawkins V. Pres and other Kansas City Players. (Pres won)

Coleman Hawkins v everybody else and there were lots of them; (Hawk won)

Goldkette Band v. Henderson Band (2 times) Goldkette 1, Henderson 0, Draw 1

Fletcher Henderson Band v. Chick Web Band (Webb won)

Benny Goodman Band v. Chick Webb Band (Webb won)

Louis Armstrong v. Countless players (Louis always won)

Tommy Dorsey v other trombonists. Dorsey would wait outside a club until he
heard a song he liked and then come marching in with trombone blasting.

Art Tatum v. Oscar Peterson (Tatum won)

Art Tatum v. countless other pianists (Tatum always won)

Roy Eldridge v. countless trumpeters. (Roy always won)

WBD v Georg Brunis for LOUDNESS at Condon's (a draw but did they ever drive
the band volume up. What a great competition between them in late 1940s)

Countless musicians in the discussion group at Monk's pad in the 50's, v.
Monk: When someone would say something stupid like "You have to play more
than the blues scale to make a coherent blues statement, or 6ths have no
place in jazz; Monk would listen, then quietly  amble over to his Steinway
and compose a tune on the spot like Misterioso which is a tune completely
based on the blues scale, in walking 6ths, and a jazz masterpiece. He didn't
just talk to make you realize how wrong you were, he did it musically.

Etc., Etc., Etc.

All of that seems to be missing in jazz these days. Nobody, it seems, pays
dues like that anymore. Now we get all uncomfortable about relatively
innocuous musical or verbal barbs, for reasons that mystify me. It seems
that "compete" has become a dirty word and we now want everybody to feel
good, rather than stand apart. For me, that is lamentable, because I think
it promotes a sort of touchy feely mediocrity.

Perhaps that is one reason the excitement has gone out of some of the music?
Worse yet, perhaps that is also one reason the excitement has gone out of
some of our lives?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone