[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Educators

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Many of the
legendary players came up without school training. Perhaps we should
rethink how and why that happened and how we can enable it again.
__________________________________________________
I don't think that there was something magic in the water that produced 
these guys.  I think it was gigs.  You learn your craft by doing it.  Almost 
no one wants to sit in a room and practice.  In the 1950's there were a lot 
of gigs and the restrictions on kids playing where there was alcohol was 
very relaxed.

What has happened IMO is that the gigs where you could experiment and learn 
are simply gone for the most part but worse probably is that the step up 
gigs are not there.  What I mean is when I was in high school there were a 
lot of teen towns and church dances that we got easily along with some 
wedding receptions.  The step up gig was a club or more working pro band 
gigs.  It's not that they don't exist but there just aren't nearly as many 
available.  It's also true that guys a little older than I had many more 
opportunities than I did.

The teen gig for bands is almost nonexistent to the point that bands can't 
even make enough bucks to pay for their equipment.  They for the most part 
hire DJ's

I guess the point is that all those gigs represented a school of sorts and 
that's where I think all that came from.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen G Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 9:27 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz Educators


> The recent demise of the IAJE is tragic. What now?
>
> One course of action is to do nothing. Or wait for a new organization  to 
> form and hope that they will support trad.
>
> But will they? Perhaps not because the vast majority of music teachers 
> are young and they believe trad jazz is Bop. Not their fault, they  were 
> raised in an era when OKOM was passe.
>
> Perhaps the best course of action is to get behind the TJEN. Here is a 
> group that supports OKOM and already has somewhat of a base.
>
> One thing we might remember is to keep OKOM flexible, and relevant to  the 
> young. Sometime IMO, we try and shove King Oliver or (insert your 
> favorite name) as the only true OKOM form. Give the kids jazz freedom  to 
> develop their own versions of  polyphonic counterpoint as the late  Jim 
> Beebe called OKOM  more than once on the DJML.
>
> The other thing we might remember is that when we (over 70 year old  jazz 
> musicians) were in schools, there was no jazz taught. Many of the 
> legendary players came up without school training. Perhaps we should 
> rethink how and why that happened and how we can enable it again.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
>
>
>
>
>
>
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