[Dixielandjazz] Danceable Jazz was What is Trad Jazz

[Steve barbone]

> EDWIN COLTRIN <boreda at sbcglobal.net> wrote (polite snip)

> Right on Don'
> 
> My sentiments exactly, WW II was the break point between dancable jazz and
> Artys Fartys music of the last of the forties and into the fifties.

Not for everybody, Ed. In the 1950's and early 1960's there was a very
viable Dixieland Dance scene, at least here in the Eastern USA. Dixieland
was quite popular here all through the 30's, 40's 50's and early 60's when
it diminished noticeably.

I was in several bands that played a weekend College Circuit from Duke in NC
to the Ivy League in PA, NY and New England to Hamilton College and St
Lawrence University in upstate New York. Any College within a 500 mile
driving radius of NYC was fair game. Interestingly enough, those gigs paid
the band what an average OKOM Festival would pay for 10 sets today.

We started to get R & R bands on the circuit around 1960. One time at
Colgate circa 1959/60, we were on a double bill with an R&R band. They were
not very good and the kids dumped several pitchers of beer on them in
disgust. Thank goodness no one was electrocuted. We, on the other hand were
treated like royalty. (and still are at colleges today)

By 1962 that scene had rapidly changed. Few Dixieland bands played dances
and the kids wanted to dance. R&R took over for dances and Brubeck and the
progressive jazzers, (not beboppers) took over the College Concert scene.

As an aside, Bebop did not replace Dixieland in the Eastern USA. They
co-existed. Bebop was a short lived genre. By 1960, it was in decline and
when Miles went electric, bebop was marginalized. It still gets blamed for a
lot of things, mostly not accurate and is very much misunderstood today.

e.g. Bebop is not played much these days at the school level. The kids may
learn Parker licks, etc., but that is a far cry from the genre and like
claiming that Kenton was bebop, or Monk was bebop, or Ferguson was bebop.
Those views are not accurate.

Dixieland persisted, in part here, because the black musicians who had been
playing big band swing lost those gigs when the bands broke up. They could
not play bebop. Ergo, they formed Dixieland bands and a brand of exciting,
loud, visceral jazz resulted, to the audience's delight.

It was quite popular. One would routinely see Hawkins, Eldridge, Dickenson,
Hall, Sidney DeParis, Jonah Jones, Charlie Shavers, Hot Lips Paige, et al in
Dixieland Bands with a Kansas City tinge. Seldom recorded. Dizzy even sat in
a time or two at the Metropole with the likes of Tony Parenti. (both loved
it) In my ears that brand of Dixieland was the most exciting I had ever
heard and Barbone Street tries to follow that philosophy today.

Cheers,
Steve