[Dixielandjazz] Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 54, Issue 54

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

Dear Butch:

With all due respect:  I have heard the individual players in the Ben Ratliff review, and I have heard several very pathetic versions of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band over the past 17 years and was never impressed by any one of them.  quite frankly sir they sucked  and sounded every time I heard them like the musicians union rejects on a good day.

I went to Preservation Hall a couple of times and paid my $2.50 admission and left early because of extreme boredom and disgust at the hype about nothing really worth even listening to.  I simply heard much better players and music for free on the streets of the French Quarter.

Granted many of us on this fine list hear music totally differently, to that I say to each his own.  

I am happy that you heard them all, but if indeed you have and yoiur opinon is so high of them then I guess we simply have to agree to disagree about the quality of that particular band over the years.   

I also have their Cds and find them pretty mediocre as well.

No doubt there are many folks in their 80s who still adore them and think they are the Real deal, but I am simply not one of them and still a long way from 80, perhaps if and when I reach 80 I will have more appreciation for them.

Therefore I cannot refrain from expressing my personal opinion about that act, as My opinion and those of others of my generation will be what decides if the new evolution of that band survives.  Thankfully somebody within their organization had the good sense to realize that they needed change.

It serve no practical purpose to Preserve Mediocrity, which is in my opinion what they have been doing ever since my first introduction to them.



Respectfully.

Tom Wiggins