[Dixielandjazz] Musical non-readers, can you add to the list?

Sun Feb 24 14:17:12 PST 2008

Trad-Jazz bands can be a different animal, given the gigging frequency and
how steady the personnel are. Sometimes lead sheets are necessary.
__________________________________________
I too came up in a time when if you didn't know tunes you didn't work and 
completely agree about the requirement to read today.  It's getting harder 
and harder to find guys that can both fake and read.  They are simply dying 
off.

There is another skill that goes with it and that's being able to arrange on 
the fly.  With a few exceptions that's almost a dead art.  I can remember 
playing with 10 piece bands with nothing more than a lead sheet in front of 
me and yet the sound was as if the band had arrangements in front of them. 
Today you would get 10 guys playing in unison.

I am on the line age wise.  When I started playing there were still a lot of 
big band guys around but rock was coming in.  Almost all the guys who had 
those skills were older than I.  Younger musicians just didn't develop them. 
I think you can draw a definite line at about 1960 when the two skills 
started parting company.  Certainly by 1990 reading had become the most 
important skill.  In a way that's sad because a lot of heart has gone out of 
music and the way I hear it played today.  I know people who are very 
accomplished musicians technically but who are absolutely lost at sea with 
improv and if you want to see deer in the headlights just call out lets do 
4's or signal a change of key.  Most haven't a clue when there is a line of 
chord symbols.  They just play strings of notes that go nowhere and mean 
nothing and they usually do it really fast.

There are guys, who technically speaking I couldn't hold their cases, are in 
awe of me because I can just stand there and play.

Improv and just knowing lots of tunes is becoming, sadly, a lost art.  What 
is passing for improv today often just isn't my cup of tea.
Larry
StL
Larry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <BillSargentDrums at aol.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 1:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Musical non-readers, can you add to the list?

> The very first thing I ask any musician who expresses an interest in 
> working
> with one of my bands is:
>
> "How good is your sight reading?"
>
> If the answer to that one isn't correct, the rest is a moot point in all 
> but
> a very few exceptions.
>
> Things aren't like they were when I was coming up, where everybody knew 
> the
> tunes, could play them in any key and actually had ears. That was what I 
> was
> accustomed to.
>
> Today, I need some music, chart or lead sheet, in front of 99% of the
> players to make things work. And they'd better work the very first time.
>
> In 25 years with my bands, we've only had 2 rehearsals, both before the 
> very
> first gig.
>
> They have to read the chart right when it's laid in front of them.
>
> I'm talking about big band and jobbing small groups, charts and lead 
> sheets
> respectively.
>
> Trad-Jazz bands can be a different animal, given the gigging frequency and
> how steady the personnel are. Sometimes lead sheets are neccessary.
>
> One more thing, about Buddy Rich not reading music... I don't buy it.
> There's a big difference between not being able to read, not reading well, 
> and  not
> wanting to read.
>
>
> Bill
> 414-777-0100
> BillSargentBands.com
>
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>
> Available at:  http://billsargentbands.com/recordings.htm
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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