[Dixielandjazz] 10 Representative Dixieland Recordings

[Steve Barbone]

on 7/7/06 3:00 PM, dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com at
dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com wrote:

> John Petters <johnpetters at tiscali.co.uk>
 
>>> Louis Lince said
>>> All current day musicians have every right to play in their way but
>>> they all (I believe) owe their dues to the earlier musos.
 
 
>> to which Steve replied
>>I rarely listen to the dead guys unless they are on the radio when I'm driving
>>my car. My CDs are all of current bands/players like Davern, Peplowski, Metz's
>>Bobcats, et  al, except
>>for a few like the recently discovered Monk with Coltrane at Carnegie
>>in the 1960s, or some obscure Tony Scott record that I missed in the 50s or
>>60s.

> John said
> I am with Louis on this one. Throw away the roots of the music at your
> peril. It is like the hundreds of Euro trad bands that based their style
> on Chris Barber and other Brit bands. They sound nothing like the
> originals. The whole concept of time and swing was distorted. Our
> British revivalists went back to the source and reacted to it and the
> music was different. That argument applies to the American revivalists.
> Far better to listen to Oliver than Watters.
> 
> That is not to take away anything from guys who are playing today - but
> the music is different. In particular the rhythm sections have changed.
> What is the matter with being dead? If a musician was great while he was
> alive, surely he is still great through his legacy of recordings.
> For my money a quick 10 traditional jazz tracks would be:
> 
> Tiger Rag ODJB 1936 recording.
> That's A Plenty - Wild Bill's Commodores
> China Boy - Eddie Condon's 1944 Town Hall Concert with Krupa, Pee wee etc
> Once In A While - Louis Hot Five
> Snake Rag - King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
> Black Bottom Stomp - Jelly
> Weary Blues - Bechet with Hodes on Blue Note
> Bugle Call Rag - The Rhythmakers
> Wild Man Blues - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven
> Maple Leaf Rag - Sidney Bechet's New Orleans Feetwarmers 1932
> and that neglects the New Orleans Wanderers, The Ory band, Mutt Carey's
> New Yorkers, the Rudi Blesch This is Jazz line up  with Wild Bill and
> Baby Dodds and much more. They are all dead sadly.

You took me out of context a bit John. My original reply said from the
beginning that I was with Louis too etc., and that I spent my youth
listening to all those guys as well as a lot of other guys.

But, yes, I agree with you too, that the music has changed. Problem with all
those Euro trad bands, is that they tried to copy Barber. Problem with
venerating the dead guys is that if a new Dixieland Band tries to copy them,
they are doomed to failure. Happening right now with many bands that insist
upon copying what was dome 50 or 80 years ago. The music is not relevant to
today's audience, except for you and me and a few other mouldy figs. (At
least in the USA, I don't know about Europe)

IMO, a band should find it's own voice, just as a player should find his own
voice. The music moves on so what is the point of trying to sound like Chris
Barber, or Pops, or King Oliver? Nobody has succeeded yet, perhaps because
all one can be is a poor imitation of the original. To me, there is neither
a "right" style of Dixieland nor a "right" way to play it.

I like Miles Davis' answer when asked why he didn't reprise some of his old
hits, years after he recorded them. Said Miles

³Those songs to me don¹t exist, you know? ³So What² or Kind of Blue, I¹m not
going to play that shit, those things are there. They were done in that era,
the right hour, the right day, and it happened. It¹s over; it¹s on the
record.²

I'm with Miles, those old OKOM styles don't exist today either. :-) VBG.

BTW. Nothing wrong with being dead. We are all going to take that journey.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone