[Dixielandjazz] Cartoon - Mickey Music etc.

[Steve Barbone]

We had this thread a while back and there proved to be some of us who think
Cartoon Music is a very unique and worthwhile style. Like some Movie Music.
Neither of those terms is pejorative the way we use them. And like Russ and
Jim and I think, it is very difficult music to play correctly and a tribute
to those who do so. Not unlike the difficulty of the Spike Jones Book.

Mickey music? Sometimes pejorative and sometimes not in the Philadelphia/NYC
area. Lester Lanin, Howard Lanin, Meyer Davis, were all described as
fronting Mickey Bands at one time or another, yet those who were good enough
to work in them, were quite happy to do so and earned a good living thereby.
In places like The White House, or at some other very upscale venues.

What was Mickey? Certainly not the several thousand songs one had to know,
by memory, or sometimes sight reading if they brought the charts. Certainly
not the songs themselves which were American Songbook and included all of
the Broadway Show tunes as well. Those bands prided themselves on being able
to play virtually  any request. The style itself may have been typified by
Guy Lombardo's two beat and famous ending but then, Louis Armstrong was a
great admirer of that band and who wants to argue with Pops' taste?

Many a jazz player kept the wolf from the door by working in these "Mickey"
Society Bands. One of the biggest problems with a working band these days is
that too few musicians know the book any more and when you work a gig that
begs for these tunes, you are darned lucky to be able to put a band together
that can play them.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone