[Dixielandjazz] Re: The "Jazz" Police

Thu May 18 09:12:31 PDT 2006

Do you think that the mania to hear something that's just the same may 
account for the DJ phenomena?  I can understand that DJ's were cheaper than 
bands in the early days but that's no longer true very often.  I think that 
it's the need to be "safe" and "conservative".  There are a lot of people 
that resist and can't do change.  This may be the driving force behind some 
political parties.  Just keep life the same seems to be the theme.  If 
everything's the same then you don't have to adapt or think much.

Young people who are essentially blank slates for a few years pick up on 
music that disgusts the "older" generation.  As we get older (did I say we 
are getting older?) we are less likely to like what this group that are in 
the "window" like.  The older we get causes more and more of these window's 
to close behind us.

I think most musicians are fairly open to something different, to a point.

There are other factors too.  One of which is you must listen to Jazz of any 
kind.  Most people just want noise going on.  My mother was like that.  She 
had to have a radio playing all the time.  She couldn't stand silence but 
wasn't listening to it either.  Another, and possibly poorer example, was my 
dog.  She was happy as a lark if nothing changed but one day I parked my 
truck in the back yard and she went crazy.  The same thing happened when I 
brought a tire into the house.  She just couldn't stand it.  I had disturbed 
her life and her sense of what went where.

Jazz requires thinking and more importantly listening.  This is an 
interaction between the artist and the listener and by definition is going 
to be different each time it's performed.

I think that if you get this kind of comment you are doing your job.

It took me a while to realize that it was preferable to not play what the 
other guy was playing or even matching his style.  When I figured it out I 
was able to reach further and jazz became more satisfying to me and I think 
make it more interesting to the audience.  If there was another soloist in 
the tune I might contrast  what he just played for example if he was being 
frantic playing zillions of notes I might play laid back and cool.  If he 
was laid back and cool I might throw in a bump and grind version.  Copying 
what the other guy does degrades Jazz somewhat and if you aren't as good as 
the other guy trying to match him will just lead to a cutting contest and 
end in disaster.  It's better to do what you do well..

Pat said:
>>>Preservation and creativity seem to have a problem coexisting.  It 
>>>depends on what you want to do (or are able to do) best.  If one leans 
>>>more to the creative side, the creativity will be hard to contain and 
>>>preservation will suffer.

Preservation shouldn't suffer as long as you are in the style and are 
abiding by the rules of the style.  If you are playing traditional Dixieland 
and interject the most original best 1950's or smooth jazz solo that exists 
you will be mucking it up because it isn't appropriate.  Romping into swing 
is the same thing although because they are closer in time is somewhat more 
acceptable to my ear.  The point is, If the old guys were playing original 
licks (within their style) then if we play in the style why can't we play 
original licks too?  That's the difficulty that we younger (than 100 ) 
musicians face.  After hearing swing my whole life and playing with early 
rock bands then switching to society music and big band jazz it becomes 
extremely difficult to play originally in this style which has more rules. 
My hat is off to the guy (or lady) who can preserve this jazz and still be 
original and creative.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike" <mike at railroadstjazzwest.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2006 9:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Re: The "Jazz" Police

> Very true. There will always be hard critics who are never satisfied with 
> how you play a tune. Personally, I just ignore them.
>
> Mike
>
>
> patcooke77 at yahoo.com wrote:
>> Steve wrote:
>>
>> "They will frequently say something like "That's not the way to play trad
>> jazz", or a specific song or what ever. Those of us who play to people 
>> who
>> do not have those hang ups about a right way, or a wrong way to play jazz
>> and/or Dixieland are very fortunate in avoiding self appointed 
>> "experts"."
>>
>> It seems the jazz police are always there to tell you that they know 
>> something that you don't know.  I always thought the whole idea of jazz 
>> was to play a tune just a little (or a lot) different from every one 
>> else.  Without that creativity, it just isn't jazz.  I'm guessing the 
>> jazz police were there to tell Louis he wasn't playing like Buddy Bolden.
>>     I have a friend who said her favorite tune is Misty.  So I put on a 
>> track of Erroll Garner playing Misty.  After the first chorus, he started 
>> to improvise a little.  She said "He's not playing it right, he's ruining 
>> it."  I said "he wrote it.  He can play it any way he wants to."  She 
>> didn't agree.  I knew it would be futile to say any more.  Preservation 
>> and creativity seem to have a problem coexisting.  It depends on what you 
>> want to do (or are able to do) best.  If one leans more to the creative 
>> side, the creativity will be hard to contain and preservation will 
>> suffer.  Just how much creativity is allowed depends upon the mindset of 
>> the policeman du jour; and the mindset depends a lot on what said 
>> policeman has been listening to most. Some time back, someone was 
>> bemoaning the fact tht there have been no great innovators since Louis. 
>> My answer is there have been a number of innovators, but if I mention any 
>> of their names the jazz police will want to throw me off the list.   The 
>> truth is that true preservation does not allow innovation.
>>      It may come as a shock to some, but the present (young) generation 
>> regards traditional jazz as players like Dave Brubeck.  They really don't 
>> want to learn about real trad any more than the older generation wants to 
>> learn about heavy metal.
>>     Pat Cooke
>>      New Orleans
>
>
>
>
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