[Dixielandjazz] New Orleans Jazz Band vs. Dixieland Jazz Band

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

What is played here most of the time is what I call St. Louis Style.  What 
happens is everyone plays the head with more or less Dixieland style then 
everyone takes a solo and ends with everyone playing sort of Dixieland and 
then the cornet player does an ending and everyone congratulates themselves 
on ending together.  So far as I have observed this basic style is played 
everywhere even in New Orleans.  It's fun and the audience doesn't know for 
the most part.  We collect the money and go home.  There seems to be little 
interest in doing anything else.

Real New Orleans Jazz was arranged.  And it was done on the fly in the head. 
Head arrangements were cool and worked but to pull it off the guys had to 
play together all the time and the riffs were taught and perfected as well 
as the beats and who played when.  All on the fly.  After the thirtieth time 
it was played it got tight.

It's a pretty tall order to duplicate all of that given the modern music 
scene.  I play commercially with several bands all with different styles. 
Those guys only played one style.   The only place, typically, that this 
kind of sound exists is with groups that play transcriptions or 
arrangements.  The jazz societies tend to sneer at this but applaud the 
(name the city) style especially if they play real fast.

Personally I didn't grow up with trad and duplicating the sound is not the 
easiest thing.  For years I believed that there was nothing worthwhile 
written before 1930 so I didn't listen to it.  I'm still learning and I 
learn something every  time I hear an original tune.

The best bands around here depend on the virtuosity of the musicians which 
is a good thing but the arrangement is in the background as well as the 
authenticity of the sound.  I think it' a matter of taste.  Please don't 
think that this is a put down at all but I like the harmonies and 
arrangements of the older bands more.

So far as changing the name goes is just some more historical revisionism. 
I think that's why Trad Jazz is sort of the vogue now.  Unfortunately the 
people out there understand the term Dixieland and blankly stare at you if 
you say Trad or Traditional Jazz.

Political correctness is the trend.  My advice is do the best you can, do 
what sells, forget the cuteness and don't worry about it.

Larry Walton
St. Louis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 10:10 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] New Orleans Jazz Band vs. Dixieland Jazz Band


> Interesting question Dick. (who is thinking of changing the name of his 
> band
> from Dixieland Jazz Band to New Orleans Jazz Band) Here is my 2cents.
>
> Do it or not, your choice. What the rest of the world thinks about it is 
> of
> little consequence.
>
> IMO, What is New Orleans Jazz?, or What is Dixieland?, or What is
> Traditional Jazz?, or What is Hot Jazz?, is really indefinable as a
> generality. Just about all of us probably have different definitions fixed
> in our minds depending upon where we live.
>
> Like New Orleans Jazz. Heck if Tim Laughlin, a New Orleans Resident (until
> Katrina at least) plays jazz there . . . it is New Orleans Jazz. No? And 
> he
> is no George Lewis clone. New Orleans is the seat of a lot of different 
> jazz
> music. Dixieland was born there courtesy of ODJB, so Dixieland is New
> Orleans Jazz also, no?
>
> Today Dixieland and/or New Orleans Jazz is/are played all over the world. 
> So
> you should comfortably name your band as you see fit to gain the audience
> you seek.
>
> e.g. my band name, Barbone Street Jazz Band, says neither N.O., nor
> Dixieland in it, but I describe the music we play as Dixieland / New 
> Orleans
> Jazz/ Chicago Jazz/ Kansas City Jazz / Jump Blues / Straight Ahead Jazz /
> Swing / American Songbook/ in various places on my promo literature and 
> web
> site. It works for me.
>
> WHAT WORKS FOR YOU is what is important. What the rest of us think about 
> it
> is immaterial, other than as advisory from our perspectives, which should
> have lesser weight than yours.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve
>
>
>
>
>
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