[Dixielandjazz] Guitar Based / Horn Based - The pendulum effect

[Stephen G Barbone]

The music goes round and round. As a cyber buddy pointed out to me,  
The Mound City Blue Blowers in the late 1920s did quite a bit of  
guitar based band music. Note the below quote:

"In April 1930, the Mound City Blue Blowers appeared in their last  
Vitaphone short, entitled "Nine O'Clock Folks." Red McKenzie played  
his hot comb, amplified by a large megaphone. Both Jack Bland and  
Eddie Condon played 4-string, cello-bodied guitars, while Josh  
Billings played the suitcase."

Were Red McKenzie and Eddie Condon to blame for guitar based bands?   
Did Bechet help by going into Nick's circa 1940 with a quartet  
featuring 2 amplified guitars?

Is music like a pendulum? Swinging back and forth between horns and  
guitars? Certainly is a lot of horn based N.O. Brass Band music out  
there today. And who knows,  maybe we'll see some more suitcase  
players out there among the young.  <grin>

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband