[Dixielandjazz] What's the definition of a band?

[David Dustin]

Inspired by the off-list criticism (³I won¹t embarrass you publicly but your
music is garbage²) offered in the true Tony Soprano tradition by a DJML
member distinguished equally for his modest views and reticence in
expressing them, I pose the question: what¹s the definition of a band?

My opinion, which doubtless is as outmoded as my views on self-effacement
and tolerance of others, is that a band is a fairly static group of
musicians who are thrown together by a combination of choice and necessity.
To paraphrase another of my moral exemplars (ex-U.S. Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld), you play trad jazz with the band you have, not the band
you¹d like to have.  My community in rural New Hampshire has about 3,000
people (the whole state has a population of about 1.3 million) and my odds
of finding a black bear on my porch OR finding an unaffiliated jazz musician
here have proven to be 3 to 1 since the birth of the band 6 years ago. So,
with only two personnel additions since its beginning, our band comprises a
retired police chief, a software engineer, a retired professor, a retired
nuclear physicist, a building maintenance man, a retired high school choral
director, an insurance man, and a contract negotiator. We started up from
scratch: nobody had ever played trad in a band before, and only one of us
had any jazz background at all. We don¹t even think about recording: we well
know our performance is not up to any international standard and our audio
clip had to be donated by a radio reporter. That clip is what it is, a
statement by a small-town BAND ‹ not a pro among us -- who simply love trad
jazz and do the best we can to propagate it with the capabilities that we
have.  Do check us out.

Now in contrast, the Philadelphia metropolitan statistical area ‹ as a
purely random example -- boasts a population greater than 6 million souls,
of whom at least 45 are considered by my off-list exemplar to be ³top jazz
musicians,² each with multiple decades of professional experience. This
surfeit of pro talent would allow anyone, including even my off-list critic,
to form precisely the recording-quality jazz band he¹d like to have for a
gig instead of the one he is forced into by necessity.

And so comes my question to the DJML: What¹s the definition of a band?  Is
it something assembled ad-hoc from free-lance professionals in the manner of
a studio session contractor, or a fairly static group of musicians who play
together consistently over a period of years, because either they like each
other or there are no other acceptable performance options?

Last, an affectionate aside to my esteemed off-list critic: you continue to
be loudmouthed, egotistical, and obnoxious. But in spite of all that there¹s
actually something about you that repels everyone.

David Dustin
 www.fountainsquareramblers.org