[Dixielandjazz] Early Jazz Bands - Was Myth Busters

[Steve Barbone]

Here's a fun quote about some of those early bands before jazz became art
music. <grin>

start snip

"By the time the ODJB got back to New York in July of 1920, they found the
city filled with noisy imitators: The Louisiana Five, Georgia Five, Alabama
Five, St Louis Five, Domino Five, Original Indiana Five, the Frisco Jazz
Band, and the Original New Orleans Jazz Band which featured four authentic
New Orleans Musicians but was actually the creation of a Brooklyn-born
ragtime piano player named Jimmy Durante. (YEP THAT ONE). 'In some of those
bands the cornet player played the melody' Durante remembered. 'In some
others the clarinet played the melody. In our band nobody played the
melody'".

"For most of these groups melody - and music - were less important than
noise and novelty. The message they seemed to want to convey, Ralph Berton,
younger brother of drummer Vic Berton remembered was, 'Lets get loaded and
see how nutty we can sound.' The Louisiana Five's biggest hit was 'Yelping
Dog Blues' which Tom Brown's one time clarinetist Yellow Nunez imitated a
dog baying at the moon. Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band at Rector's
Restaurant played almost entirely for laughs; as its leader played piano,
drummer John Lucas banged away at what was advertised as '64 square feet' of
bells, cymbals woodblocks and . . . 'pieces of apparatus that are
electrically worked'. The trombonist used his foot to manipulate the slide,
and Ted Lewis juggled a Top Hat with one hand while playing clarinet with
the wobbliest comic tone he could muster."

end snip

Some could read, some could barely read and some could not. The most notable
non readers being guys like Sidney Bechet, early Louis Armstrong, early Bix
as well as a host of "Uptown" New Orleans jazz musicians and later players
like Vido Musso or Chet Baker.

The non-reading approach to playing jazz was championed in the 1950s and
1960s by Thelonious Monk who was an excellent reader. He always asked the
men in his band to learn his songs by ear in rehearsals. He would not give
them the written out parts until he had to when they couldn't get it by ear,
or when rehearsal time before a performance was limited. You can hear
players like Coltrane or Rouse learning some of Monk's tunes on the job in
certain recordings. Monk felt that the best way to play jazz was to listen
what was going on around you and to get inside the tune via your ears.

Avant garde and modal jazz today are also, in many instances, mostly
non-reading performances.

Yeah, I know, folks may not like the styles, but then, that's jazz. Also,
guys like Bechet never had any trouble playing lead without being able to
read. I'll never forget him teaching me a tune or two by blowing arpeggios
when I asked him about the chord(s). I don't think he knew what the chords
were, but he could sure play them, as well as the melody.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone