[Dixielandjazz] Question from Igor

[David Richoux]

Rick and all,

As I have only been playing Trad bass (tuba) since 1978 or so, and  
grew up right in the height of the Rock and Roll/Baby Boom era I  
don't know if I am fully qualified (or authorized) to respond ;-)

IMO there are songs that work well with a strong Two-Beat, there are  
songs that work well with a strong 4 Beat, and there are many that  
can go either way - if the dancers and listeners are responding well,  
if the song feels "Right" to the musicians then I guess I don't care  
if it is Trad, Swing, Jazz, Rock, Pop, or whatever! I have recently  
had a chance to play some swinging 9/8 - it worked, and the dancers  
were having a great time!

A "Strictly Trad" band as you define it would be kind of boring to me  
- I have played in some, but the groups that I respond to better have  
the freedom and skills to play a wider range - and I think that the  
recorded evidence of the full spectrum of actual working bands of the  
1920s thru late 1930s shows that "Two Beat Jazz" was  really a pretty  
small part of what we call the Jazz Age.

I sometimes think Trad Jazz is somewhat like Polka Music - there is a  
"huge" audience for traditional Polka - conventions, festivals, TV  
shows - thousands of recordings, long careers for the musicians, die- 
hard fans, dancers and listeners, traditionalists and revisionists;  
but the average kid in the music store is probably not going to buy a  
Polka record any quicker than he might buy a Trad (or any other kind  
of) Jazz record.

Disclaimer - I actually like Polka music, traditional and  
revisionist! I even play in some local polka bands from time to time...

Dave Richoux

On May 7, 2008, at 7:31 PM, Rick Zahniser wrote:

> David Richoux wrote:
>> I am in agreement with "K.C." and Igor - it seems like there has  
>> long been a major faction in OKOM to keep song selection (and even  
>> performance style) to a restricted range, and there also have been  
>> many musicians and groups that have tried to incorporate a much  
>> wider range of music and musical styles into what we have agreed  
>> to term OKOM.
>>
>> The "WGJB" (Yank Lawson, Bob Haggart and others) was a leader in  
>> adapting rock and pop tunes into OKOM style, also the Anachronic  
>> Jazz Band adapted be-bop jazz into OKOM style, and there have been  
>> many other examples. Many jazz band I know of have no fear of  
>> Ragtime or even "Old-time" songs - Lu Watters and Turk Murphy  
>> often did them and most "San Francisco Trad" bands continue in  
>> playing a wide variety of songs.
> I'm glad you menionted the WGJB.  They are a good example of a band  
> that basically destroyed the Trad feel.  I'm not saying it isn't  
> Jazz.  It's good jazz, maybe even Great Jazz, but it certainly  
> isn't Trad.  As I said, Trad is a feel, and you lose it with a four- 
> out-of-four bass.  The other major contributor to the destruction  
> was the High-Hat cymbal.  With that high-hat playing the off beat,  
> everyone else was free to do whatever they chose.
> Rick Jolley,
>
> PS:  I speak from having played every kind of music (but especially  
> Jazz) since I started my own band in 1949.