[Dixielandjazz] Why guitar and not banjo?

[Ministry of Jazz]

Shalom Larry, Bob, Steve, Tom and the rest of you jazz fans,

I see two issues going on here that are often not separated from one another
in discussions on this list:

1. The historical development of the Dixieland style and band composition;
and
2. The process of selecting from the options we have today to get the sound
that we and our audiences enjoy hearing (and are willing to pay for).

What happened 100 years ago in New Orleans is fascinating. I love history,
and it is both important and fun to know the story of how our music came to
be. However, today we have choices they didn't have then, and a whole
different audience and social context in which we try to present that
classic jazz for fun and profit and posterity. Unless we are doing research
or presenting a show about the history of the music, seems to me we can and
should work with what works best in today's situation without being too
stuck in the supposed "original" mode. After all, how many of us actually
play like ODJB or the early Louis unless we are specifically doing a
historical re-creation of their sound?

Being the young fellow that I am, I have no memory of the early jazz. I was
only born in 1952. I grew up occasionally hearing Louis or some of the big
bands on TV or in the movies, who were still performing in the 60s. I
remember Firehouse Five and the Dukes of Dixieland and Shakey's (usually
only banjo and piano). My childhood recollections are of what many on this
list would call commercialized rehashing of the original music. But for my
generation, that version is more exciting and alive than many recordings
I've heard of the original stuff, albeit I'm sure that was innovative and
probably shocking for their generation.

Trying to offer a competitive sound in today's world of synthesized and
overamplified musical noise, where kids come and look for the power cord on
my trumpet and ask how many voices it has, doing ODJB is not likely to get
us very far among audiences younger than 90 or so who want the nostalgia. In
a day where guitars and electrified string basses are commonplace and
acoustic street bands are not, the banjo and tuba are a serious draw for
both their appearance and their sound. And for the practical reasons of
volume and punch mentioned by Larry W., they work nicely in the unamplified
setting.

My band does fine with banjo and tuba as the rhythm section, without piano
or drums, sometimes with a washboard. You can hear our 4 piece configuration
on You Tube -- links on my website. At this point we don't even want a piano
or drums. I do wish we could play more with a full front line (currently I
double on trumpet and bone most of the time), and also a full time
washboard/light percussion player, so we're not dependent on volunteers from
the audience, or on my putting down the horns and playing it for a solo
myself. That would give us a 6 piece set-up, all unplugged and mobile, that
could handle just about any gig that we are likely to get.

There is another band that I frequently play with called the Stompers, who
have been around for 25 years or so, and are larger and more established
than we are. They use piano and drums and bass (stand-up or tuba), and banjo
or guitar, sometimes both, and they have a full front line, sometimes even 2
clarinets or clarinet and soprano sax. For my money, the guitar doesn't add
that much to Dixieland, but it sounds great and is probably essential for
swing. Each adds its own character to the mix -- sort of like salt and
pepper (no racial overtones intended). A band who has both, or one player
who plays both, will be able to produce a wider variety of jazz styles.

So my thinking is that we need to find ways to bridge the gap between the
classic style and our current audiences by giving due place to the
contributions of the various revivals of Dixieland jazz, and making use of
all the tools available to us today that weren't around then. Maybe we'll
even generate our own revival for future generations of DJMLers to argue
about in years to come.

Happy New Year!

Elazar
Dr. Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Trumpet Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz
+972-2-679-2537




-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis
[mailto:larrys.bands at charter.net]
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 1:57 AM
To: Steve Barbone; Bob Romans; dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Why guitar and not banjo?


I really don't think you are entirely wrong Bob. IMHO I think it has
everything to do with volume and money.  The larger the crowd and if you are
outside or not determines the volume you need.  Non amplified instruments
have a limit and certain instruments have the ability to punch through
naturally.   Each instrument commonly used has a lot of punch.  Instruments
with no punch, like the flute, are never used.  As crowds got larger the
guitar and upright bass couldn't compete outdoors and of course didn't fit
into street bands very well.

There is another factor that still plays a part today and that's economic.
As things got tighter with a banjo player you could drop off the drummer and
you could lose the piano too especially outdoors.  Two fewer people in a
band even makes a difference today.

I think it made a lot of difference if the band was a street band or a dance
band as to what they used.  I tend to think more street band when I think
Dixieland Band.

Larry
St. Louis