[Dixielandjazz] Oh Dem Bones

[Steve Barbone]

James Butler <jbutler6 at twcny.rr.com> wrote (polite snip) about keeping up
with the standards of the classical bone players.

>What a bunch of B.S.!


To what the non list member bone player had written (polite snip)
paraphrased:

>That the issues were technical standards and enjoyment. And that if one did not
>meet the technical standards, the music was not borne of great playing.

>Then the name Joe Alessi (principal bone of the NY Philharmonic) was lovingly
>mentioned as the technical standard to worship.

I think great jazz trombone playing is, what each listener defines it as.
There are very few guys like Alessi who are at the very top of the game. He
has surpassed his teacher/mentor, Glenn Dodson, who now plays jazz with me
after retiring 15 years ago from his principal trombone position with the
Philadelphia Orchestra. (and in his day universally acknowledged as one of
the 4 finest classical trombonists in the world) Ask Joe Alessi about him.

Do we therefore say that Dodson sucks? Hardly. When I get the chance to work
with him in a quartet setting (clarinet, trombone, guitar, double bass) not
only am I constantly amazed by him, but so are the rhythm guys who are among
the best in jazz today. And in our usual 6 piece Dixieland or Swing setting
he is always superb.

Regarding tone, do we say guys like Charlie Parker, or Pee Wee Russell suck
because of some reed squeaks, and or growls, or poor tone, and or other
things that we personally don't like. Hardly. They were nowhere near as
centered as classical clarinetists, or Saxophonists like Sigurd Rascher.
But they spoke volumes through the horn.

Guys like Thelonious Monk were and still are in some cases, vilified because
of personal preferences of the listener. Those who liked neither his
percussive technique nor his harmonics/syncopation. In the 1950s, I was
looked upon as an idiot because I thought he was a genius.

Point being, Jazz is what you are. (Louis Armstrong) There is no right and
wrong. There is no centered tone bullshit. In my ears, for example, J.J.
Johnson was every bit the player Teagarden was. Like Teagarden, he conversed
on the instrument. J.J. just spoke a little differently, that's all.

If one insists that Jazz trombonists must be technically equal to, or
superior than Alessi, as well as being improvisational wonders, then there
are no great jazz trombone players today. If that's what the writer means,
that's fine for him.  But not for me, or the rest of us who do not so
"insist". I, for one, hear lots of great jazz trombone players today.

As my pal Dodson says, classical trombone is a cruel mistress, but if you
keep practicing, you can be a great one. Jazz trombone on the other hand, is
a compositional art and that is a totally different musical form.

Perhaps the central question is whether the horn is an instrument to be
mastered, or is it a device through which one communicates thoughts? For
example, do you slush pumpers play trombone, or do you play jazz?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone