[Dixielandjazz] Porte ñ a Jazz Band

[Bill Haesler]

Dear Steve,
Regarding: >Just what the hell is wrong with cartoon music? I did not say
cartoon music was bad. It is simply, in large measure, what those bands you
describe play........<
Of course there's nothing wrong with 'cartoon music' (love it) it is just
that it is NOT what the Porteña, Vince Giordano, Don Neeley, Red Roseland
Cotton Pickers, et al play.
Much of their music includes dedicated homages (not necessarily copied) to
the pre-Swing big band music pioneered by Oliver's Syncopators, Fletcher
Henderson, Charlie Johnson, Savoy Bearcats, Cab Calloway, Bennie Moten, Luis
Russell, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Jean Goldkette, Duke Ellington, Paul
Whiteman with Bix, etc., etc. (All orchestras popular with dancers in their
day.)
But it is NOT 'cartoon music'.
Walt Disney's 1928 "Steamboat Willie" featured the first basic cartoon
music. As you know, this was Mickey Mouse's debut, which probably led to the
later derogatory term 'Mickey Mouse music'.

> What's past is prologue. That's what the music is about. And what's past is
cartoon music.<
Nonsense, too simplistic - and you know it!
I suggest that we do actually agree, but the definitions are blurred.
As Churchill said (quoting Oscar Wilde or was it George Bernard Shaw or
both?) regarding Britain and America: "Two nations divided by a common
language."
I prefer to quote Fred Astaire from the 1937 film 'Shall We Dance" (courtesy
of George Gershwin's wife Ira):
"You say either and I say either,
You say neither and I say neither;
Either, either, neither, neither,
Let's call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like potato,
You like tomato and I like tomato;
Potato, potato, tomato, tomato!
Let's call the whole thing off!"
Kind regards,
Bill.
PS: Still no reply on how I can purchase the reissue CDs of the Porteña's
60s-70s LPs I am missing.