[Dixielandjazz] Who is playing OKOM?

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Hi Larry:

   No,  Not all blacks living in america are necessarily Americans, 
although yes many of them are and most likely the majority, but there 
have been Blacks migrating to the USA for decades from many other 
places and they have not all become citizens for sure.  I doubt that 
the Immigration service even has any idea where they are these days 
either,  should have given them all a COW when they arrived then we 
could track them and sign them up to vote.  :))   There are also a lot 
of them in New Orleans and Mississippi right now who don't feel much 
like Americans either.    We have many Blacks from Cuba, Haiti, 
Dominican Republic, Egypt, and all other parts of the world all Black s 
are not American and not all are from Africa, even though they may have 
definite roots there centuries ago.

As for African Jazz Hits:

Check out artist like:

Hugh Masekella,  He had a classic Jazz hit :  Grazing in the Grass

Miriam Makeba  has  many classic  Jazz hits

Just the first two who come to mind.

Not Dixieland by any means or even considered by most on this list to 
be OKOM,  but great Jazz anyway.

I don't know if they ever played St. Louis or not but they have played 
almost every major Jazz festival in the world for many years, if us 
jazzers want to expand our experiences,  ( some do and some don't) and 
that' Ok too,  we have to change the radio dial once in a while and 
listen to what creative things others are doing and where they are 
taking music to.   We of course do not have to like it personally, but 
at least we have heard it and can admire what they have done if they 
have found an audience for it.

   The major record industry probably slid them over into "World Music" 
to market them just like they have done many other genres of Jazz to 
dissipate it even further, causing the retail sales numbers to plummet 
for many years under JAZZ because they kept calling it something else.  
Even with all that happening most people outside the USA consider a lot 
more music Jazz than what we call Jazz here and it is
primarily because of our constant change in Marketing approaches which 
often turn out to be short lived and self destructive to the market in 
general.   When retail sales fall substantially major record labels 
always bail out and run, even though most of the time it is because 
they dropped the ball on marketing and promoting the music and the 
artist themselves.
  The accountants and lawyers that have been running  the record 
industry for the past thirty odd years are rather short sighted and 
many not even musical at all.  where have all the Creative people gone 
??  back to independent production, hence the  greatest opportunity in 
history for artists to finally get a fair piece of the action if they 
are not too lazy to go educate themselves somewhat and use the internet.



Cheers,

Tom Wiggins


-----Original Message-----
From: larrys.bands at charter.net
To: jazzboard at hotmail.com; dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 9:57 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Who is playing OKOM?

   > 2. American's didn't invent jazz. It's African and it's BLACK! 
 ________________________________ 
  I could have missed something but aren't almost all blacks who live in 
the U.S. also Americans? 

 
  I have never been to Africa but I can't recall a single tune either 
jazz, popular or classic that has come out of Africa although I'm sure 
there are some. Now it seems to me that if Africa is where jazz 
originated you would think that there would still be a great jazz 
industry there. The common belief is that the basic elements were there 
but it took the mixing with other American and European music to bring 
it to life. 
 
  It seems everyone wants to take credit for this art form and we have a 
national and international pissing contest. Personally I don't care who 
invented it or where it lives now.LW 

 

________________________________________________________________________
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email 
and IM. All on demand. Always Free.