[Dixielandjazz] Oh Dem Bones

[LRG4003 at aol.com]

WARNING.  A LONG POST WITH A LOT OF  OPINIONS ABOUT TROMBONISTS..  DELETE NOW 
OR DON'T BLAME ME  LATER....
 
Yesterday, i passed along some Trombone  comments from a trombone playing 
non-list member and saw a number of interesting  responses on DJML which I passed 
back to him.  I am, again sending you more  of his thoughts (since I can't 
get him to suck up and join DJM himself).  I  think he has some interesting 
things to say and would like to hear from any of  you who have the same passion 
for the instrument and the people who play  it.   (Obviously his tenor sax 
comment is completely out of  line).     K. C.  Clarinet
 
 
 
First of all, there are two completely  different issues that need to be 
explicitly separated.  The first issue is  the one I addressed (and will comment 
on again below) and has to do with what  standards should be held up as the 
very best in jazz trombone playing and the  realization that such standards are 
attainable, even if they are not actually  attained by all professional jazz 
trombonists.  The second issue is  the enjoyment factor of any and all that love 
playing the trombone.  You  don't have to be a Christian Lindberg to get 
enjoyment from playing, thank  heavens!!!  These two issues should NEVER be 
confused or mixed.  
 
As far as the whole jazz trombone standard  of excellence issue goes, it 
really boils down to the definition people use  as to what really great playing 
is.  I have heard of most of the players  mentioned below in the notes that you 
forwarded to me, and some of them are part  of what I previously referred to 
as the "some players that most people have not  heard of". For instance, I have 
some of Andy Martin's recordings, and his is a  fine player with a mature 
technique and solid improvising ability.  
 
There are some others also.  I  mentioned Herb Bruce.  I noticed that no one 
else mentioned him.  They  should have!  Herb can hold court with the best of 
them.  Every  trombonist should have copies of his last two CD's  "Herbicide" 
and "Heaven  and Earth".  For goodness sake, go to _www.herbbruce.com_ 
(http://www.herbbruce.com/)  and buy them!  (No,  I do not get a cut!)  There are 
other unknown great players.  One  fellow who lives in a small town in Arkansas 
and has cut at least one CD of jazz  versions of Christian hymns (I have it) is 
also a monster, but I would bet money  that the total number of people in 
this country that have heard of him would not  even populate a typical small U.S. 
town.  And yes, Ron Wilkins is a good  player too.  
   
So, you see, I have heard of these  players.  Also, back in the mid to late 
1990's a wonderful trombone group  "Spiritual To The Bone" cut about five CD's 
that are just great.  Herb  Bruce was one of the featured soloists on these 
CD's.  So, yes there are  some great players out there, and some of them are 
great jazz players as  well.  But, what I was referring to in my earlier note was 
great JAZZ  players as opposed to great studio players (not always the same 
thing by  any stretch of the imagination).  There are some fantastic  studio 
trombonists in the L.A. area who have banded together over the last  40 years in 
an informal organization called "Bohanan's Garage"  (The reason  for that 
name takes too long to explain).  Some of the members of  that organization have 
put together a great CD called "All My  Concertos".  This is a large trombone 
ensemble that recorded all the  written compositions of the late studio 
trombonist/composer Tommy  Pederson.  While this is excellent playing and wonderful 
compositions,  it is for the most part not jazz in the truest sense of the 
word.  This is  not a devaluation of the work by any means, simply a statement 
that not all  great playing is jazz.  
 
The Tommy Pederson works are a very  interesting and VERY musically 
satisfying blend of what I would call jazz  and neo-impressionist/romantic classical 
music.  The trombonists  playing in this CD are excellent players who have 
developed a very high level of  competency on their instrument. (For the person who 
mentioned Alan Kaplan,  he is one of these trombonists. Alan also has a 
relatively new solo CD out  that is mostly ballad stuff and very well played.)   
And there are  players like that in all the really big U.S. cities.  However, 
most of  these people are not great jazz players of the category of an 'in their 
prime"  Rosolino or Fontana.  And that is what I meant in my earlier  note.  
If you really want to know what the trombone is capable of these  days, please 
listen to recordings of Joseph Alessi (principal with NY Phil),  Ian 
Bousfield (principal with Vienna Phil), Nick Hudson (a true poet of the  trombone and 
principal with William Fairey Brass Band in England), and of course  Christian 
Lindberg (with more than 50 CD's to his name now!).  The point of  my first 
soap box was that the standard for technical excellence in  jazz MUST keep up 
with what exists in the classical world.   Again, I am not saying that the 
LEVEL of jazz trombone playing must for all  players keep up with the highest 
level of playing in the classical world, only  that the STANDARD needs to keep up. 
 
 
Frankly, I am tired of people explicitly or  (what is more common) implicitly 
trying to either dumb down  the technical standard of jazz trombone playing 
or justifying  its lower standard (relative to today's classical playing).   I 
guess my standards for jazz playing are annoyingly high.  They certainly  have 
gone up over the last 30 years.  For instance, I first heard  Watrous on a 
late 1960's promotional LP called "The Straight Life"   (pretty ironic title for 
Bill during that period of time!).  He  also did an almost unknown solo 
ballad LP called "William Russell Watrous" that  had nothing but sweet ballads 
backed by strings.  Watrous was an  unknown quantity back then, and did not really 
become well known until the  mid 70's with his Manhattan Wildlife Refuge 
recordings.  I admit that I was  blown over by his playing on his Straight Life LP 
and even more so in the  mid 70's with his Refuge recordings and his set of 
small ensemble LP's that  followed that.  Today, I still listen to Watrous, and 
I still buy his  recordings when they come out.  However, I am not completely 
 blown over by his playing any more.  After listening to today's  top 
symphonic players, I have raised my standards for jazz playing.  My  standard for 
jazz players is that they have a full, harmonics-rich,  well-centered tone that 
does not thin out even a little when going up to high  F's!  It can be done.  
(I really cannot stand hearing the term  "velvety tone" which is just a nice 
way of saying the tone is not full and rich,  especially when you get above high 
C.)  Listen to Alessi's recording of a  Carmen Suite on his "Trombonastics" 
CD to understand what upper register  trombone tone should sound like.  And 
please do not give me that tired old  saw about there being different tones for 
trombone.  Rubbish!  The  same tone that makes for a top classical trombonist 
should be the tone for  a jazz trombonist.  There can be minor tonal shadings 
used for both  classical and jazz trombone playing, depending on what you are 
doing.   However, the same basic tone should be accomplished.   My  standard 
for jazz players includes fast technical playing that is up  to the level of a 
Christian Lindberg when playing the Winter Concerto from  Vivaldi's Fours 
Seasons.  (Yes, I know that he recorded that on alto  trombone, but we are talking 
fast technique now!)  My standard for  jazz trombone playing now includes lip 
flexibility that allows for perfectly  controlled and clean lip trilling (not 
shakes!!!) at the same level as those  classical players that I listed.  And 
by the way, Jack Teagarden proved  that this was do-able in his 1944 beautiful 
solo version of Sophisticated  Lady.  (After all, the standard of lip 
flexibility in jazz set by Jack more  than 60 years ago still stands, or at least it 
should.)  Don't  misunderstand me.  I do not want jazz transmutated into a  
classical wannabe style.  (Ugh, that would be worse than all  those horrible 
recordings by opera divas singing pop ballads!)  I just want  the same standard of 
playing in jazz to be commonly held up that now  exists in the classical 
arena.  There are some that are doing it, but  not as many as some might imagine 
if they would take the time to really,  really listen to the great classical 
players.  For instance, how  many jazz trombone enthusiasts today have actually 
heard Ian  Bousfield's CD "The Versatile Virtuoso"?  It should be required 
listening  for ANYONE who wants to claim to be knowledgeable in trombone playing, 
whether  jazz, classical, or otherwise.  Bousfield's recording of "Rhapsody 
For  Trombone and Brass Band" is one of the finest and emotionally satisfying  
trombone recordings of any genre that I have ever heard.  (It also is a  
heavily jazz-tinged piece with an extended improvised section.)  Now, to  another 
issue raised by someone.  Is it necessary for all professional (or  
non-professional) jazz trombonists to play with this level of technical  accomplishment?  
OF COURSE NOT!!!   To even insinuate that is  just plain stupid.  However, 
this IS the level of accomplishment that  should unswervingly be held up as the 
standard by which trombone playing should  be measured.  And I do not think 
that is being done in the jazz trombone  community today, at least to the extent 
that it should be.  If a jazz  trombonist does not play at the highest level 
of performance possible, should  people no longer enjoy his playing?  Of 
course not.  As I mentioned, I  still listen to Watrous (and many, many others) and 
I still enjoy his playing  even if I am no longer knocked over with scorched 
eyebrows.  But we need to  always hold up the very highest standards as the 
target for everyone to shoot  at.  And if we do not know what that target is, 
how can we hold it  up?  How many jazz trombone enthusiasts actually buy and 
listen to  recordings by the really great non-jazz trombonists that I mentioned 
earlier in  this note? (And those names I gave were only a partial list.  I did 
not  mention Ronald Barron, Ralph Sauer, Jay Freidman, etc, etc.)  Certainly  
some do, but my experience tells me that it is not a large percentage.  The  
condensation of what I am saying is simple:  I am absolutely convinced that  
one of the reasons that the trombone is becoming less and less used in jazz  
groups as anything other than back up sound, is the continued idiotic notion  
that the trombone is a clumsy instrument that cannot do what tenor saxes can  
do.  There is absolutely no reason for that notion, and all those who  continue 
to think that way should be strapped to a chair and required to  listen to all 
50+ of Christian Lindberg's CDs, going back to his first one  cut in about 
1982!  And if they still don't get the message, then move on  to the CD's of 
other great trombonists.  And if they start to cry and beg  you to stop force 
feeding them classical trombone music, then put on Herb  Bruce's "Heaven and 
Earth" CD and play his cut of the Tommy Dorsey masterpiece  "Trombonology".  Does 
it sound like I am sick and tired of hearing  one shrill, honking tenor sax 
solo after another?  Yes I  am.

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