[Dixielandjazz] What is "Trad Jazz"?

[iVOR jONES]

I have just looked up, again,' Trad' in the Collins English dictionary. It 
says ' Trad, Chiefly British. traditional jazz, as revived in the 1950's'. 
That was, is, my understanding of the term. I played in a London band at 
that time, on many occasions at Ken Colyers. In retrospect, and maybe it was 
the company I kept,  most of the bands in our 'circle' venerated George 
Lewis above all, and played what we thought was 'New Orleans Jazz'. I have 
the feeling, sorry John Ding, that it was a simpler (not to mean, inferior) 
kind of jazz, and only the top pros could handle the likes of the original 
New Orleans masters like Jelly. Having played in two 'New Orleans Jazz 
Bands', one here in Portugal I am still confused by the nomenclature 'New 
Orleans Jazz' as if Armstrong, Dodds, Morton et al never existed.  So what 
does the term 'New Orleans Jazz'? mean, was it just a British 'trad term. 
What do the Americans mean by New Orleans Jazz. The same or something 
different. I play in a Tuba/Banjo band but we don't  play NOJ. I think.

Ivor Jones in Portugal.

We have nearly completed website up and running if anybody is the slightest 
bit interested, it is at goodtimejazzband.com,   another rotten choice of 
name, there are hundreds of 'em.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 11:45 AM
Subject: RE: [Dixielandjazz] What is "Trad Jazz"?


> Very interesting, Graham!  From my very first exposure to British Jazz 
> Bands
> (Monty Sunshine playing "Petite Fleur" with Chris Barber's Band), I
> understood that this particular "sound" was "trad".  That would have been 
> in
> 1959.  From that date on,"trad" (at least to me) described what the 
> British
> bands were playing, particularly in the late 1950's, and 1960's.
>
> During that period, I never heard anyone in my crowd (in Southern
> California) refer to what we were playing at that time as trad, or even
> traditional.  I don't recall "revival" as the sound we were playing, 
> either.
> It was more refered to as "Frisco style or San Francisco style" Dixieland
> (Dixieland didn't seem to be a naughty word yet!).
>
> Nowadays, I just prefer Jazz to describe what my band plays. If pressed 
> for
> further clarification....traditional or New Orleans seems to do.  That 
> works
> in Spanish, and for the Spanish.  And, if still facing a blank face, I'll
> say "what Louis Armstrong played".  Will usually get a request for What a
> Wonderful World then, if the conversation has gone to those lengths.  Oh,
> well....
>
> Jim
>
>
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