[Dixielandjazz] Conrad Janis' New Film

[Marek Boym]

Hello,
Actually, the deParis brothers played "traditional' (or dixieland)
even before big band work faded out.  Just listen to the deParis
Brothers on Commodore, recorded at the time that label recorded other
black musicians playing swing!  Also, the Sidney deParis band on Blue
Note was not exactly a swing band.

For some reason, it was all right for Franz Jackson and Singleton
Palmer to play Dixieland (the former, as you've mentioned, was
referred to as playing New Orleans).
Oh, labels, labels, and pigeonholes!  Didn't Bill Harris sound great
at the Condon's Town Hall concerts?
Cheers

I've read the Janis story in the Mississippi Rag.

On 21/07/2008, Stephen G Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> On Jul 20, 2008, at 5:57 PM, Marek Boym wrote:
>
> > Hello Steve,
> > You say "It is a great pity that most of the Dixieland output of these
> >
> > > mainstream players was not recorded, possibly because the record
> companiescouldn't see the value of it.  (Black mainstreamers playing
> Dixieland)"
> > >
> > Well, I remember the Wilbur de Paris Plays Cole Porter album (my
> > favourite de Paris) being put down in the Jazz Journal on those
> > grounds  exactly - "what are those mainstreamers doing playing
> > dixieland!"   Another reason for discrediting that excellent recording was
> Lee Blair's banjo - why should mainstream musicians use a banjo in their
> band (while not a great banjo fan myself, I protested, arguing that, when
> played as Lee Blair did, the banjo was just great).
> >
>
> Hello Marek:
>
> I saw Lee Blair with DeParis many times and loved his playing also. Many of
> the reviewers thought at the time that DeParis had "a flawed concept of
> Dixieland". I think because the DeParis brothers were big band musicians who
> started to play Dixieland after the big band jobs disappeared. . . and
> because they were Black.
>
> Basically, DeParis had visited Janis' venues night after night, copied the
> Janis book of tunes/arrangements and then undercut Janis' price at Ryan's.
> The Janis band had asked for a small raise at the same time DeParis quoted a
> price below their existing one. So, game over. Janis was let go and DeParis
> hired.
>
> That was a real turn about. Janis had originally copied Ory, then DeParis
> copied Janis. But the Janis style changed as the mainstream players (Black)
> he used injected some Kansas City swing and high energy into his music with
> wonderful results.
>
> While I preferred the various Janis bands myself, there is no question that
> seeing Omer Simeon and Sidney DeParis in Wilbur's band at Ryan's was also a
> treat.
>
> I also remember Vic Dickenson being hammered in the reviews as "not being a
> real Dixieland player". And hearing people say they didn't like Roy
> Eldridge's Dixieland, some 20 years before you saw him. I never could figure
> that out, having worked Dixieland with Roy when he was near his peak as a
> musician. As well as with Coleman Hawkins. Both played great Dixieland as
> far as I'm concerned.
>
> For some reason back then, the media reviewers felt that Blacks played
> "Small Band Jazz", or New Orleans Jazz while Whites played "Dixieland". Even
> when the tunes, band make ups and styles were virtually the same. The
> difference in descriptions started in the 1930s, as Sudhalter points out in
> "Lost Chords,". From then on the word "Dixieland" seemed to apply only to
> White bands as far as the reviewers were concerned. Sudhalter also says the
> description difference eventually came to be used by most fans.
>
> Even today when people say no blacks play Dixieland. I just shake my head.
> Especially since I had 3 blacks in my band Saturday Night and as far as I'm
> concerned we played Dixieland.
>
> When I go down my call list, I could easily front a Black Dixieland Band
> with me as the only white and have done so a time or two this year.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> www.barbonestreet.com
> www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
>
>
>
>
>
>