[Dixielandjazz] Al Hirt: Not jazz?

[Charles Suhor]

On Jan 23, 2007, at 1:33 PM, Robert S. Ringwald wrote:

> What a bunch of BS.  Al Hirt was a great Jazz musician.  So he had
> phenomenal technique and had some pop hits in the  60s.  That did not 
> make
> him "Not a Jazz musicians."
>
> Sometimes I wonder...
>
> --Bob Ringwald


Agreed, Bob. If Al's only output had been stuff like the insipid 
"Java," he'd be in the Herb Alpert category. But he was versatile 
enough to be very commercial and a furiously swinging jazzman. In his 
late 40s and early 50s in N.O., he was said to stretch out at jam 
sessions and, along with Black Mike Lala, was the closest thing in town 
to Dizzy. In the 60s at his Bourbon St. club he hired players like 
Ellis Marsalis, Fred Crane, and Jimmy Zitano and played in a 
freewheeling Dixieland band format that purists hated, tourists 
applauded, and musicians respected. He switched to a commercial format, 
intentionally saying "I'm not a jazzman." That was his quote in my 
cover story for Down Beat in 1969. Not a good thing to say in terms of 
legacy, but in the article (and in his total career) it's clear that 
his his range of skills was huge, including legit, powerhouse big band, 
pyrotechnic display,  jazz improvisation, and yes, cotton-candy pop. 
Late in his career, and before his sad decline when he continued to 
play despite health problems, he didn't give a crap and would play fine 
jazz sets with more great modernists in the rhythm section.

Charlie Suhor