[Dixielandjazz] For the bones out there

[David Dustin]

KC forwarded this criticism from his friend, a bone player:

³When you  listen to any of today's big bands cut loose on a chart with
solos, you always get a sax
(usually tenor) solo, and frequently a  trumpet solo, but only VERY rarely
do 
you get a trombone solo (and usually  then you wish you hadn't).  Even when
you listen to CD's of today's  jazz groups, you almost never hear trombone
solos.  The reason is very  simple:  very, very few of the competent section
trombone men can solo  worth crap.  Part of the reason is that their level
of  
technical proficiency is not high enough to be able to translate any ideas
from 
their head to the end of their bell.  And that is a  disgrace, given what
has 
been going on in the classical arena.   Even when listening to the Cullum
band, 
you will notice that the trombone takes  much, much fewer solos than the
other 
front line horns.  As far as I  can determine, it has always been that way.²
====================================
As a struggling proponent of the slush pump (and, somewhat uniquely, a
self-taught tenor player), I¹m the first to agree that my level of technical
proficiency on the trombone comes nowhere near to that of Teagarden,
Fontana, Rosalino, or Artin, Herwig, Vernon, Lindquist, Hal Waters,
McChesney, Turre, to cite some modern trombone virtuosi known to me. I don¹t
remotely have their technique, but it doesn¹t mean that I can¹t achieve the
lesser soloing objectives that I set for myself and make a pleasing and
interesting statement.  It IS a different instrument than any valved or
keyed instrument, requires (IMO) inordinate technical skills to articulate
quickly and clearly, and to suggest that 95% of the bone players out there
should be able to achieve the Olympian heights of very best trombonists is
absurd.  Miles knew that he could not compete with Diz in terms of the
torrent of notes, but he still made powerful statements with his horn, in
the Bop genre, and took modern jazz in interesting and seminal places.  Paul
Desmond was amazed at his success, and remarked (I seem to recall) that he
was the ³slowest sax player² ever to lead the Down Beat polls.  Am I bashful
about taking trombone solos?  Hell no.  Should I be?  Maybe I should be if
I¹m standing next to Curtis Fuller or Konrad Herwig or Tom Artin, or even
this list¹s Dick Sleeman (kudos to a master) but I¹ve never heard complaints
from bandmates regardless of the jazz genre I happen to be working in.  I
just don¹t try to be what I am not and never will be.

David Dustin