[Dixielandjazz] Who taught Louis, Bolden, Ory

[Chris Tyle]

In response to this earlier querry...
  
  The most important key to learning to play jazz is listening.  That's what all great jazz players did. They went and listened to other  musicians playing around New Orleans and in Ory's case, LaPlace,  Louisiana before he moved to the city. They working on being able to  hear what was appropriate to play. Musical theory was secondary. They  developed their "ears." In general they didn't study theory, with some  vary rare exceptions, mostly by those who became pianists or arrangers.  But they developed their "ears" to the point they could tell what  worked and what didn't harmonically. 
  
  Bolden and Ory lived in uptown New Orleans, in a neighborhood where  there was a large number of fine musicians: King Oliver, Clarence  Williams, the Dodds Brothers, Larry Shields (who lived next door to  Bolden), Papa Celestin, et. al., lived within a 20 block radius. 
  
  As a past member of the faculty of the San Diego jazz festival jazz  camp I've tried to stress the importance of listening to the  acknowledged masters of jazz to learn how to play. I can always tell a  player who has listened and learned from great players. For every great  jazz musician there is some special player or players they have been  influenced by. For example:
  
  Louis Armstrong: King Oliver, Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit
  Benny Goodman: Jimmie Noone, Johnny Dodds
  Jelly Roll Morton: Tony Jackson 
  Lester Young: Frankie Trumbauer
  Miles Davis: Harold "Shorty" Baker
  
  Interestingly King Oliver took lessons from Italian-born trumpeter  Frank Guarente when he lived for a couple of years in New Orleans.  Oliver reciprocated by helping Guarente learn how to play jazz, and he  was an adept pupil, as evidenced by his fine playing on the recordings  made by his group, The Georgians, available at  www.redhotjazz.com/georgians.html
  
  Regarding the question about whether Louis Armstrong went to college,  he did not. No jazz players of the "golden era" learned how to play in  college. 99% didn't even attend college, as there was no educational  facility teaching jazz until probably the 1970s. Armstrong learned how  to play trumpet in the Jones Waif Home in New Orleans, then studied  with King Oliver and when he was worked for the Streckfus steamboat  company for Fate Marable (please note the spelling), he was given some  instruction from saxophonist/mellophonist David Jones, specifically to  improve his reading. . 
  
  Cheers,
  Chris Tyle
  
		
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