[Dixielandjazz] Early Jazz Bands - Was Myth Busters

[Don Mopsick]

Steve wrote:

 

>>"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.'

 

> Yeah, I know, folks may not like the styles, but then, that's jazz."

 

Marek wrote:

 

> Dentist drill music?

 

And Steve replied:

 

>Yep Marek, dentist drill music. Same as the above described jazz was to
most people back in 1920. So what's new? <grin>

 

Steve, you can grin all you want, but what's new is that very few people
today listen to either the silly early jazz or the so-called "avant-garde"
dentist drill-stuff, and for good reason--rational human beings are simply
not wired to physically tolerate random chaos. Trying to listen to someone
like Albert Ayler or late Coltrane, for examples, is like being locked in a
room and being forced to hear some else's psychotherapy. The person doing
the venting is getting a lot more out of it than the spectator. So, Steve,
Hear the Good News.

 

The vast majority of Americans in the early 20s preferred rhythmically
straight-up-and-down syrupy songs about Mother and Lost Love, waltzes,
operettas and military marches. Of course they didn't "get" jazz at first,
especially the "novelty" kind you refer to above, but the fact is that after
the NORK and the Hot 5 and 7 recordings, a truly "cutting edge" avant-garde
did soon form around them, the result being that a tiny group of Americans
very quickly developed a taste for the real stuff and led the way for the
rest. 

 

This is not to say that bullshit ever goes out of fashion. It's not hard to
find, shall we say, critically-challenged people like you, Steve, who still
cling to the "received wisdom" that Albert Ayler, Pharaoh Sanders, Sun Ra
and Kenny G.?--hey, that's jazz, whether you like the "style" or not. <no
grin>

 

mopo