[Dixielandjazz] Transcribing Solos - listen vs. hear - BIX

[Nancy Giffin]

<dingle at baldwin-net.com>  DON INGLE wrote:
> 
> Thank goodness that Paul Mertz was on hand and interested n transcribing
> Bix's four tone poems, In a Mist, In the Dark, Flashes, or Candle Lights.
> Else we wouldn't have them. Now nobody will ever play them the way that
> Bix did -- after all they flowed from his brain...

Or did they flow from his heart? ;-)   (Semantics only?)

Hello, Don, 
You'll have to excuse this tangent, but your mention of BIX's
"IN A MIST" made me look up a an article that trombonist Dan Barrett wrote
for the STJS newsletter in 2004. It sums up the power of these great works.
Love and hugs,
Nancy

DAN WROTE:
...Perhaps the most important difference between the jazz parties and jazz
festivals (as we know festivals here in the United States, and especially in
the more traditional jazz world): jazz parties, by and large, feature
professional, full-time musicians exclusively‹men and women who may have had
other opportunities to earn a living, but were ultimately swayed by the call
of a hot cornet, or something. Jungle drums, maybe. Or BIX¹s ³IN A MIST.²
Or John Coltrane playing ³Naima.²  Who knows what makes a person sacrifice
the security of a good-paying day job, and endure demands to ³enter through
the kitchen,² take requests to play ³Satin Doll² for the zillionth time (or
NOT to play ³Satin Doll² for the zillionth time)? What makes an otherwise
intelligent person give up the social status and benefits of, say, a doctor
or retail clerk, or postal carrier, or pro ball player, only to have trouble
getting a credit card (no proof of steady employment) or qualify for a home
loan? Something down deep causes those of us to think none of that really
matters compared with the chance to play...

--DAN BARRETT, April 2004