[Dixielandjazz] Woody Allen

[M J (Mike) Logsdon]

> Can anyone point me in the direction of New Orleans clarinetists on record
> who sound as awful as Woody - re awful I mean absolutely diabolical.

Mr Harvey!  Your opinionated slip is showing!

But I respect you too much to say you are not entitled to your opinion.

I like Woody's playing.  But I'll be honest about it.  His vibrato is 
MASSIVE.  When the man plays one, he's playing three, notes.  That takes 
some getting used to.  If one is willing.  When he starts his concerts 
with saying "We'll try our best" or something to that effect, I think 
that on some level we need to believe him.  And maybe his best is a 
vibrato you could stick a cattle prod through it's so wide.

And I think I've said before that regardless of his playing, it is 
clearly his personal reputation that colors a lot of what's been said 
here to his detriment.  He is certainly one of the weirdest people ever 
to walk this planet.  But after watching "Wild Man Blues" (the 
soundtrack for which I finally downloaded at Amazon last night), I can 
say that if I could afford a mail-order bride as cute his (I know his is 
not mail-order; I remember the news), I'd look as happy as he does, in a 
heartbeat.

Something that hasn't been mentioned, at least in a few years, is the 
probable reason we even have a famous Woody Allen band, and such fun 
trashing him on DJML.  The following from the "Bunk Project" liner notes:

"Turk Murphy insisted that Woody sit in with his band and encouraged him 
to perform more in public."

Maybe on May 30 of each year, we need to both fondly remember St Turk, 
AND flip him a Woody Allen-related bird?

Thus endeth the Lesson.