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

[tubaman at tubatoast.com]

There were/are several horn based rock fusion bands in the 60s and 70s  
- Chase, Tower of Power and B.S.&T. come to mind. One guitar based  
band that also used horns well was Frank Zappa's various large band  
configurations. He managed to combine crazy guitar antics with  
outstanding trumpet, bone and reed players, creating some really  
interesting stuff.

The upturn in what are being called Streetbands or Honk! Bands has  
been noted by me (and others) several times on this list. The  
influences of New Orleans Brass Bands, Balkan Brass, Klezmer, Samba  
groups as well as more traditional marching brasswind bands from all  
over the world are showing up in all sorts of places.

Dave Richoux
(BTW, my regular mail server is broken so this is being sent by a  
different route. the format is not as I like, but that is the way it  
goes.)
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On Apr 1, 2008, at 12:34 PM, Stephen G Barbone wrote:

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