[Dixielandjazz] Oh Dem Bones...again

[David Dustin]

This thread is interesting.  IMO, trombones are not saxophones or trumpets
and don¹t have to be played similarly to render an appropriate jazz solo, or
else cats like Honore Dutrey and Kid Ory would have been invited off the
stand back when jazz was in knee pants. And it¹s unarguable (when, maybe not
on THIS list) that classical and jazz music are two very different animals.
Back in the early Œ80s, when he made his ³permanent² jump to jazz, Wynton
Marsalis was quoted as saying that in the classical trumpet canon, one is
just playing all the written notes perfectly and praying that nothing is
left out or added to mar the performance. Jazz was about personal
expression, the notes and the feeling was up to the musician and that is
what he was choosing, he said. No question but the giants of classical
trombone today represent a pinnacle of technical mastery.  Can every jazz
trombone measure up, technically, in terms of articulation and ³centered
tone²? Probably not, but that is asking the wrong question.  Is the average
jazz trombone¹s improvised expression, including whatever tone they care to
use, still making a statement?  I would submit that the answer to that is
yes.  Holding jazz trombonists up to a classical standard is a nonsensical
test.  The objectives are different and there is little chance that they
will utilize the same vocabulary.

David Dustin