[Dixielandjazz] My boy's perception.

[Fr M J (Mike) Logsdon]

A week or so ago me and the boy were driving along with a Ted Shafer CD 
playing -- the five-piece "restaurant" band -- and guest vocalist Bob 
Schulz came on with (ahem) "What A Wonderful World".  Even before Bob 
began singing, my boy -- who's heard the Armstrong version several times 
at his school -- wrenched his head up from his Nintendo DS (a feat in 
and of itself) long enough to announce:  "Hey, I get it!  Sometimes they 
take *regular songs* [my emphasis] and play them the way you like them."

By "regular" he obviously meant something not related to what we call 
OKOM, et al, et cetera, ad whateversam.  But, still, pretty perceptive 
for a 9-yr-old, actually, to have instantly made the distinction between 
what might normally be considered the "mainstream" (ie, something his 
teacher might play in class during art time or whathaveyou), and 
something his daddy plays (which he's more than familiar with; when he 
was younger I used to drill him on what instruments he was hearing; I 
used to enjoy him pronouncing "banjo" as "banJO").

Just struck me, is all.  One might say he has a greater grasp of the 
universality of music than most.  He's probably even better at it than 
his dad.