[Dixielandjazz] Keppard's output.

[Phil O'Rourke]

Mike Logsdon wrote


> With enough material for at least one LP and at least a couple stray
> tracks on CD, can we really say we don't have enough to compare with?
> (I have one lo-budget LP and on a Geo Buck CD the famous [?] track with
> Johnny Dodds whereon Keppard [it may only be attributed to Keppard) is
> playing so badly one wonders why it was even issued.)

I agree with you on that Mike but what was he like when he was younger and
fitter.
I know of some Australian trumper/cornet players (I won't mention names to
try and protect their reputation) who played so hot and had such a following
in their younger days they had "pop star" status; some internationally
recognised. Then they got too old to play, as happens in some cases. They
could only squeak and squawk and occasionally hit the correct note.
I only knew these players from their recording and some of their live
performances when they were younger and I was very young. They were
brilliant but now they were pitiful; I cringed when I heard them play and
felt sorry for both them and people who had never heard the players in their
prime. Those who had come to hear these great players ( by their reputation)
and left wondering what the fuss was all about.
There are some players who can play until it is time to drop off the perch,
there are others who should (and some do) give up playing and rest on there
laurels.
I have read that Keppard was in bad health towards the end, when these
recordings were made, and those who knew him from his youth say he was a
parody of what he used to be.
The New Orleans muso's gave him the title "King" the same as they did
Bolden. Joe Oliver did not get the king appendage until he went to New York
and then it was from publicists, not the musicians.
We do not know what Bolden or Petit sounded like and we don't really know
what Keppard sounded like in his heyday.
I suppose what I am getting at is I feel sorry for Keppard for only having
these few recordings of him when he was well past his prime. Maybe it would
have been better if he did not do these recordings and had the legendary
status of Bolden and the other unrecorded New Orleans greats.


Phil O'Rourke
Australia