[Dixielandjazz] 10 Representative Dixieland Recordings

[patcooke77 at yahoo.com]

> 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.


There is no requirement to sound like anybody else...
We are all products of what we have listened to, especially the ones who impressed us the most.
When I want to hear someone play like Louis, I will get out the Louis records.  I don't expect every player to sound like someone from the twenties....If there isn't something of the player himself in it, then its a sorry excuse for jazz. 
 
>"The whole concept of time and swing was distorted"<    >The music was different<
   
     Does being different mean it was bad?  Is innovation not permitted?  Is creativity not permitted? If the trad police were around in 1925, they would probably have told Louis he was not playing like Buddy Bolden.  If innovation is not permitted, then Louis was not permtted, but thank God he ignored the "rules" and did it anyway.
    In most of our minds, jazz history began with the first recorded players....that is, the recordings that survived.  I really don't know exactly that was, but do we know if they were playing like the guys who came before them?  Who had they listened to?  Were they playing it right? Was it different?  I thought 'sounding different' was the whole idea of jazz.
       Listen to the music for what it is....either its good or it isn't.  Whether it sounds like anybody else is totally, unequivocably irrelevant.  
 
Pat Cooke