[Dixielandjazz] Don Vappie, etc.

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Mike) Logsdon wrote:

 > I've been meaning to quote this for some time, from the liner notes for
> Vappie's "In Search of King Oliver" (1998).  Any comments, all?:
>
> "But the more I learned about jazz, it seemed the less I knew for sure.  I
> know of no subject - except maybe politics - where there is less agreement
> and less finger-pointing and petty jealousy, all at the expense of the
> listener who wants to understand how the music he likes came to be.
>
> In searching for the music my ear found pleasing and beautiful, I found
> the
> personal belief of musicians and jazz experts, as well as established
> guideposts in jazz literature, to be wildly divergent and unreliable.
> Typically, if you ask a jazz artist or fan what describes small group jazz
> played in the New Orleans style, they will call it traditional jazz, or
> Dixieland.  But what does this mean, and who is right?
>
> I do not call the music on this album traditional jazz.  That term has
> been
> slapped on everything from modern white Dixieland groups playing in
> Seattle
> to Norwegian style-mimics playing in Europe to Woody Allen's
> clarinet-playing in New York to New Orleans' own Preservation Hall Jazz
> Band.  I don't know what traditional jazz describes any more [sic].
>
> The music performed on this album is classic jazz.  The term classic jazz
> in
> the New Orleans style has a focused and narrow bandwidth:  It refers to
> disciplined ensemble playing with well-defined and consistently played
> instrument parts for each song which are best performed from close
> arrangements.  Notes are followed and played for each instrument the same
> way each time.  One only has to listen to King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
> recordings to hear this style.
>
> What about improvisation?  The tight discipline of the classic New Orleans
> style allows for a sure-footed progression through each piece.  Since the
> musicians know exactly where each other are at all times, individual
> expression in coloration, mood, and beat is not only possible, but comes
> naturally.  The music, contrary to perceived wisdom and instinct, becomes
> more alive and beautiful.  The chaos and cacophony of unbridled
> improvisation contrasts with the swinging, happy emotion this recording
> evokes.  The proof is in the listening, and the music on this CD once
> heard,
> I think you will agree:  The perceived wisdom, oft-repeated and rarely
> challenged, that improvisation and beauty in performance are stifled by
> scored arrangements in small group jazz, is wrong."
 (snip)

When I started listening to and loving "Classic jazz" Dixieland, Traditional
Jazz, I was about 8-years old.  That was in 1948.  1920 was only 28 years
away.

Now, 1920 is 87 years away.

Dave Brubeck's quartet with Paul Desmond, Ugene Wright and  Joe Morello, is 
47 years old.  I would
consider them as playing "Classic jazz."

Some of the definitions of "Classic" From Dictionary.com

15.
an artist or artistic production considered a standard.
16.
a work that is honored as definitive in its field:
 17.
something noteworthy of its kind and worth remembering:

Don't you think that at this point in time, we could also call the jazz that 
the Brubeck Quartet played in the 50s, Traditional Jazz?

But you cannot call them "Dixieland."

How about the George Shearing Quintet?  Or the early recordings of Miles 
Davis?

At this point in time, in respect to how long ago they all played Jazz and 
how their music has endured, can't we consider their music as "Classic or 
Traditional Jazz?"

 What to call the style of jazz that we like is certainly a problem.

--Bob Ringwald