[Dixielandjazz] Fw: Fwd: Jazz is not a museum piece

Sat Dec 30 01:34:36 PST 2006

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marek Boym" <nmboym at 012.net.il>
To: <rorel at aol.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Fwd: Jazz is not a museum piece


> Many years ago, the avant-garde trumpeter Don Ellis said that Red Allen 
> was the most avant-garde player in New York, mentioning that the amazing 
> thing about Allen was that he did it all in the context of traditional 
> jazz! Kenny just followed suit, as did Wallace Davenport, who applied his 
> tremendous technique to New Orleans jazz, and made it sound great!  After 
> all, one cannot expect musicians to be deaf to anything going around.  A 
> good friend of mine, Jacques Sany, plays traditional jazz (a Bechet 
> disciple), yet knows everything Paul Desmond and Coltrande did.  Does he 
> like it?  I don't know, but he understands what they were trying to do, 
> and, at over 70, he is still learning from everybody.  Thus, in a Ben 
> Webster tribute, his band could play Horace Silver's "The Preacher" and 
> make it sound like a swing era piece.  And there was the French Anachronic 
> Jazz Band, with Raymond Fol on piano and Patrick Artero on trumpet (if you 
> can find him - give him a listen), which specialised in two-beat 
> arrangements of tunes by such as Charlie Parker, Monk, etc.  Their records 
> still sound wonderful!
> Cheers
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <rorel at aol.com>
> To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 12:32 AM
> 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
>>
>>
>>
>> Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security 
>> tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the 
>> web, free AOL Mail and more.
>> ________________________________________________________________________
>> Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and 
>> security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from 
>> across the web, free AOL Mail and more.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Dixielandjazz mailing list
>> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>>
>> #####################################################################################
>> This Mail Was Scanned by 012.net AntiVirus Service1- Powered by 
>> TrendMicro Interscan
>