[Dixielandjazz] Fwd: Jazz is not a museum piece

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Hi Ray:

Well thought out opinions too, I have no disagreement with them even 
though you wrote them in French :))

Not diffused ramblings at all:))

Kidding of course, but in the ways of the beautiful French language it 
takes three sentences in French to say it in English :))  ha ha.


Ole Tom "Open minded" Wiggins

When I play for Really Old Folks I play Slower, cause I know they don't 
listen very fast. :))


-----Original Message-----
From: rorel at aol.com
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 2:32 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Fwd:  Jazz is not a museum piece


The estimable Steve Barbone (excerpted) note appears below.  My own, 
unsolicited
opinion, FWIW, follows.

I believe there is something to Steve's perceptive take on the 
'nostalgia
racket' but I think it goes further than playing a solo so you sound 
like
Berigan.

First of all, i think "I Can't Get Started" may be an extreme example 
which
raises another question -- that of copying solos.  Few would disagree 
that many
solos have gone on to become classics.  A handful of solos -- Berigan's 
ICGS, Al
Klink/Tex Benecke "In the Mood", actually have become part of our 
collective
memories.  Even people who are not familiar with the BB era somehow 
know the In

the Mood solos and for those people those notes actually define the 
Swing Era.
i am sure that even those of you Gentle Readers with the most open of 
minds are

a little taken aback when you hear the Miller chart and you don't hear 
the
famous sax battle.  These are, as I said, extreme examples and their 
numbers are
few.

Then there are the solos that may be even more important.  I mean those 
solos
whose creators, with the same 12 notes availabkle to every other 
musician, have
changed music itself.  Think only of Louis, Bix,  Stacey, Parker, 
Coltrane, to
name a few that spring immediately to mind.  I think these solos should 
be
preserved and heard live so we can hear what they heard at the time 
they came
into being for the very first time.  They become, living, vibrant 
expressions
rather than pieces of history coming to us from the impossibly distant 
past.  In
my misspent youth I was fortunate enough to meet Zutty Singleton and I 
asked
him, with my lack of experience and knowledge, why didn't the Red Hot 
Peppers
and the Hot Five go on tour?  His response was surprising, if only in 
the
hindsight of age -- he said, "Because the music was too new."  We 
forget that.
We forget at that time "Black bottom Stomp" was the experimental jazz 
of its day
and Jelly was its John Zorn.  This music had a limited live audience at 
the time
of its creation, let alone now, 80 years later.  Aren't we lucky to be 
able to

hear these historic notes live?

However, not everyone can play these solos.  To bring them off a 
musician must
'speak the language'.  You must know this music, live it, play, respect 
it and
love it.  you must feel when to smear a note, when to heistate behind 
the beat
or push ahead of it and all the other little nuances which were second 
nature to
players of their time.  i remember a documentary on Dizzy Gillespie 
where he
claimed he could play any kind of music and the cameras followed him 
around the
world supposedly offering proof culled from live concerts.  Dizzy 
played some
salsa, some Reggae and, of course, some 'dixieland'.  He was a lousy 
dixie
player.  Period.  That's because he did not grow from those roots.

"Alright Ray," some of you may be saying, "so you are saying to play 
this music
we should be schooled in The Tradition and not venture outside the Trad 
jazz
Shangrila?  Absolutely not, Gentle Readers.  I wish it were that simple.

Jazz Education of yore was based on the Master / Apprectince idea.  You 
had a
student you took under your wing and they learned from you until it was 
time for
them to go out on their (think only ofthe Oliver-Armstrong 
relationship).  The
founding fathers of Jazz never expected their students to slavisly 
emulate them
but rather to take their teachings and add their own shine to it.  From 
its
inception Jazz was an evolving tradition.  i think many of the Old 
Players would
be incredulous of the fact that we sit and analyze their solos, doing 
all kinds

of Schenker analysis, reductions, transcriptions and the like.  That 
wasn't what
it was about.


So, I think the nostalgia racket is not always the nostalgia racket.  
It is
being true to the music, of being able to speak its language fluently 
and coming
out of the tradition and pouring that old wine into new bottles.  Not 
many out
there can do it successfully.  Mr. Thompson can.  Mr Kellso can.  dick 
Wellstood
could.  Kenny Davern could.  There is a prime example.  Kenny played 
more modern
than many trad or swing players but he could play in those surroundings 
because
he learned from those masters of the past but did not stand still 
musically.  He
took their teachings and traditions and refracted them through the 
prism of his
own creativity, taking his life experience of the past and making it 
totally of
the present.  I think that the business we are in is not nostalgia or 
jazz at
all.  It is a question of musical integrity and truth.  Integrity and 
truth are
rare traits in any field.

i apoligize for my rather diffuse ramblings.  Next time I'll stick 
closer to the
changes.


Respectfull submitted,

Ray Osnato
of the French Jazz Band, Ray Osnato and the Moselle Toughs






-----Original Message-----
From: barbonestreet at earthlink.net
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 1:02 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz is not a museum piece



IMO, the business we band leaders and players of OKOM are in, depends 
upon
the audience for whom we perform. If we are playing in front of old 
folks at
Jazz Society Concerts, or at OKOM Festivals, perhaps we are in the 
nostalgia
business whether we like it or not. Haven't we all gotten a request for 
say
"I Can't Get Started" by some knowledgeable old fan, who after the 
trumpeter
finishes playing it, comes back and says with obvious disappointment; 
"That
didn't sound like Bunny," And the guys who played it to that reaction
included greats like Randy Reinhart, or Jon Erik Kellso. Many of those 
folks
want not to hear a jazz take by today's greats, but a nostalgic 
rendition of
some dead guy's version.

On the other hand, there are some OKOMers playing today, for young
audiences, who hear the music for what it is right now, not what it was,
back in the good old days. They are not in the nostalgia business. Kenny
Davern was a player like that.

Yep, perception of what we do as bands is key, and the nostalgia 
perception
is out there big and bold. Let's change it.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone



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