[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Alive and well -- In Classroom anyway

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

You absolutely hit the nail on the head David.  I remember that time well. 
My musician friends were choosing up sides.

When I got in the AF band there was a group that called themselves the 
"wigs".  These were the jazz guys who liked bop.  These guys shunned the 
rest of us because we weren't cool enough.  Their attitude was the same 
towards the people too.

I think that the ultra cool guys did a lot to harm jazz, as you indicated, 
many froze out the audience and other musicians too.  The worst thing was 
that most of them really didn't have a clue as to what the greats were doing 
and filled the air with notes that went nowhere leaving everyone wondering 
what in the world were they thinking.

Some of the early Bop players were geniuses but unfortunately their 
imitators usually weren't.   Don't think that I'm totally against that kind 
of music.  There is a Bop group here that seriously pulls it off.

Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Dustin" <postmaster at fountainsquareramblers.org>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 8:16 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz Alive and well -- In Classroom anyway


Mike wrote:
   What happened to jazz? How did it go from being the top style
of music America to barely making record sales?

Players like Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans(as well as Ben
Webster towards the end) should have never had to scrape for gigs.

=======
Mike, IMO jazz got too cerebral, too intellectual over time. It lost the
joy, the spirit that you can hear in stuff from 1918 up until Bop. When Bop
hit, it was so technical, so awesome in the rush of notes that appeared
divorced from apparent melodies that it became something to be deconstructed
and appreciated by trained ears only, not something to be enjoyed or danced
to by happy ears or happy feet in the general public.  When Bop hit, it was
too serious, too exclusive, and bad for the overall image of jazz. I don¹t
think Bop groups even cared about audiences; Miles would even turn his back
to audiences! And that negative perception < coupled with other pressures in
American society < was enough to put even the trad revival bands further
back in the national consciousness, forcing them to be things that fairly
limited groups sought out to enjoy.  It lost the broad national appeal in
the US.  But, of course, jazz flourished overseas where the good-time,
joyous feel of O20s, O30s, and Swing jazz was something that was desperately
needed by populations recovering in the aftermath of WW2. And that is what
happened to jazz.

But I¹ve been wrong before.

David Dustin
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