[Dixielandjazz] Authentic 1920s gangster music...or not?

[Marek Boym]

Perhaps you're right, David, but that only goes for the aging and
dwindling portion of OKOM audience.  Moreover, it bores musicians,
which is reflected in quality of playing.
Younger audiences do not know the standard "Dixieland" repertoir, so
to them "Royal Garden Blues" or "Feeling no Pain" are just music.  If
anything, bands need arrangements of current popular tunes, things
traditional and swing bands played in their hey day.  The World's
Greatest Jazz Band did that from time to time, trad bands play the
Flinstones theme, Billy Maxted did it in the 1950's.  This is what
keeps excitement in our music.  Otherwise it becomes stale.  I am not
saying that bands should play only obscure or new songs, but they
certainly should mix them with the standards (in order not to lose the
older segment of the audience).
Cheers

On 17/05/07, David Dustin <postmaster at fountainsquareramblers.org> wrote:
> Hello Marek. I certainly take and respect your point. But you are a
> connoisseur, someone whose interest in the music transcends mere
> entertainment.  The majority of persons "out there", for whom OKOM bands
> compete for audience attention, are unlike you and only want to hear
> good-time music that they recognize and can relate to on a superficial
> level.  If they can't find it in an OKOM performance, they will move on to
> some other form of live music or else electronic entertainment.
>
> Sincere regards,
> David
>
>
>
> On 5/16/07 4:13 PM, "Marek Boym" <marekboym at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hello, David,
> > Neve mind the Tin Pan Alley detritus, but jazz bands of the twenties
> > played a lot of numbers that seem to have disappeared.  How many times
> > have you heard "Feeling no Pain," or "Tat's no Bargain?"  Yet in the
> > twenties they were recorded many times.  I heard them played a few
> > years ago in Breda - as part of a Red Nichols tribute.  But other than
> > that?  And how about "Freshman Hop?"  Judgin by the severa
> > performances by Jack Pettis - an excellent song!
> >
> > While I know that many OKOMers want the umpteenth version of Royal
> > Garden Blues or That's a Plenty, I really get tired of listening to
> > them again and again ... and again!  They are so overplayed that very
> > few musicians can say anything original while playing them (perhaps
> > the late Kenny Davern, or, of those playing now, Bob Wilber, but who
> > else?).
> > Cheers
> >
> > On 16/05/07, David Dustin <postmaster at fountainsquareramblers.org> wrote:
> >> Marhaba, Sheikh.  Of course my reference to ³Tin Pan Alley detritus from the
> >> 1920s² was not a pejorative characterization of all 1920s music.  The 1920s
> >> were the Jazz Age and produced an unbelievably rich lode of OKOM and
> >> American Songbook standards, Gershwin, Porter, countless others.  ³Detritus²
> >> was meant to characterize obscurantist song selections that no one has heard
> >> of and which were justly relegated to the bottom shelf of musical history. I
> >> understand and respect the aims of your current 1920s songbook project, but
> >> like others who have weighed in on this issue, I see little entertainment
> >> value in performances of E-list and F-list OKOM, however much it meets the
> >> strict standards of authenticity upheld by the individual who took issue
> >> with Bob Ringwald.
> >>
> >> David Dustin
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