[Dixielandjazz] Why guitar, not banjo?/Tubas, too

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Guitarists in my times didn't get much work because combos preferred
pianists.

That's not the only reason Charlie - guitar players who can do all the 
things required of a player are very scarce at least here in flyover land. 
In the last 50 years technical guitar playing where the player actually knew 
the notes and chords is just fading away.   With the popularity of tabs the 
number will drop even more.  The best one I met was past 70 and didn't take 
gigs anymore.  He shows up to a monthly jam session sometimes.  I know one 
guy that as long as you are playing "his" tunes he's pretty good but he's 
not real versatile.  I'm sure there are others around but I just don't know 
many.  Jazz guitar is a difficult instrument to master.

It's too bad because I think a good jazz guitar player is very cool.  If 
they aren't there you can't hire them.
Larry
St. Louis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charles Suhor" <csuhor at zebra.net>
To: <Gluetje1 at aol.com>
Cc: <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>; <louislince at neworleansmusic.demon.co.uk>; 
<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 1:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Why guitar, not banjo?/Tubas, too


> Although some might find these historical strands very delete-able, I
> find them more interesting than evaluations of Woody Allen. I'm
> grateful too for the instructive and dazzling scholarship you-all have
> shown. Thanks.
>
> Moving on to more recent history and matters of taste, my preferences
> run the opposite of Ginny's, below. Banjo and tuba are a hard sell for
> me because the setting is so often brassy and razzmatazzy. In the N.O.
> of the forties, when I began listening, the tuba was considered
> hopelessly corny and rarely heard in jazz groups. The tuba and banjo
> were both seen as limiting factors in generating a good feeling for
> improvisation. Few working bands used banjo, and only Lawrence Marrerro
> with George Lewis was talked about as a banjoist. He used a mute, BTW,
> which avoided the jam-it-up-your-backside quality of many of the banjos
> in revivalist bands of the time like the Firehouse Five. (Looking back
> to the Hot Fives and Sevens, it's hard to imagine a masterpiece like
> "Hotter Than That" with St, Cyr on banjo rather than guitar.)
> Guitarists in my times didn't get much work because combos preferred
> pianists. My favorite guitarists were Angie Palmisano and Herman
> Pffeffer and later Bill Huntington, but he was a bopper when we met
> around 1954.
>
> The weekend combos and working Dixieland bands of the postwar years
> were playing mainly in four, established in the swing era of course.
> When I played with Irving Fazola's brother, Blue Prestopnik (a slim
> talent--couldn't jam!) around 1955, we played the first chorus as two
> beat, then went into a flat four the rest of the way. Nice. The "2"
> caught the dancers, and they felt a propulsion rather than a letdown of
> rhythm on the second chorus to the end.  As someone (Steve?) wrote a
> while back, the flat four backup (and later, comping) gave the soloist
> a smoother field for improvisational flight and exploration. A
> relentless oom-pah/two-beat felt kinda like walking with one foot on
> the curb and the other in the street.
>
> It was the lingering impact of the revivalist movement and tourist
> expectations that brought the banjo back in New Orleans in late 50s and
> early 60s. The marching bands, long out of the spotlight, brought back
> the tuba around the same time. It now appears as if the two instruments
> were a staple there in uninterrupted sequence since the 20s, but not
> so. Many players still grimace when they show up on a jazz gig, but
> that's where the money is. Finally, some banjoists actually comp,
> modern style, to good effect, just as many drummers have been
> effectively integrating modern jazz comping into Dixieland settings for
> decades. My favorites were guys like Buzzy Drootin with Condon and
> Sonny Igoe with Phil Napoleon early on, then Jack Sperling with Pete
> Fountain and Jimmy Zitano with Al Hirt.
>
> Charlie Suhor
>