[Dixielandjazz] The Music is Not Enough

[dingle at baldwin-net.com]

Steve Barbone wrote:

>Martin Nichols marnichols at yahoo.com wrote
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>>>Steve Barbone wrote:"Today, few of us, if any, play the music like his groups
>>>did. Fewer still promote like he did. Damn, how soon we forgot the power of
>>>his promotion. Too bad we all did not witness it first hand.
>>>      
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>>>The music is not enough. It never has been."
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>>Marty wrote: It is true today, but when I encountered the Condon records
>>back in the  50's and never stopped listening; I had a impression
>>that his was one case where music was enough. It was a lot of
>>the other type outfits that couldn't make it on music alone. Just my
>>.02 .  And I thought the reason he was getting he attention he got was that
>>for his outfit it was, "just the music." BTW, I listened to "Barbone ST." on >
>>radio365 "Gumbo" show, and the trombonist according to Steve was Glenn Dodson.
>>Wow, a great player and fun to hear.
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>>
>
>Thank you, Marty, for your compliment of Glenn. I'll pass it on to him
>during our gig tonight. He is a pleasure to perform with. Huge sound.
>
>I agree with you that for some of us the music is/was enough when played by
>a solid band such as Condon's. However IMO, we need to stand back a bit and
>perhaps ask ourselves is/was everybody else like us? Many Dixieland fans do
>not like soloist oriented "Condon Style" today, and did not like it then.
>
>The mass audience then and now, IMO, is the same as it ever was. For some
>few, the music is/was enough. But for most, the music is/was never enough.
>Something more than the music attracted them. The overall ambience was in
>many ways similar to the "show" that the rock stars put on today. Not nearly
>as gaudy then, but surely in keeping with the times. Like the movies. Then
>it was clever dialog. Today it is "special effects".
>
>e.g. We can lament the lost dialog artistry of "All Quiet on the Western
>Front", but still appreciate the special effects of "Band of Brothers".
>
>We might also ask ourselves why people go the OKOM festivals? I think there
>are many reasons besides the music.
>
>Perhaps the most under appreciated group of marketers in the music business
>were the advance men. They hyped the concerts/dances. They helped bring the
>masses to the music. The publicity Condon managed to get in all the media is
>what kept his place full. His persona also helped keep the place full. He
>was a lot more than a competent musician. Who among today's jazz players
>comes close? Only Wynton Marsalis, yet many of us complain about him for
>reasons that mystify me since he has done more to promote and popularize
>jazz in the last 10 years than the rest of us put together.
>
>Cheers,
>Steve Barbone
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Among the Condon/Coomador era sets were some sides feauturing an allmost 
forgotten, nsung valve trombonist -- not Brad -- cname Frank Orchard. To 
my sinner ways ( a love for the valve trombone that gets so many sneers 
on this list from slide snobs<G>) this fine player had a nice, melodic 
style that blended well in the ensembles and were easy on the ear. 
Condon looked onthe instrument as worthy og his sessions and Brad Gowens 
did many of them.  However my curiosity compells this question: What 
became of this fie player, Mr rchard, and what other recordings did he 
make that I have nto tracked down over the years? Perhaps my good mate 
in OZ, Professor Bill Haesler can supply this information, A 
discography, however slim it might be, of Frank Orchard's work on 
recording, would be most wlecome.
DON