[Dixielandjazz] Does Loud equal Fire.

[Stephen G Barbone]

> From: jazzchops at isp.com Chris Tyle wrote:
>
> Steve B. has made some excellent points in his posts over the last few
> days. But I must disagree with his point about volume.
>
> Loud doesn't equal fire. Simply because the Watters band and  
> Condon's band
> played with volume didn't make their performances exciting, per se.  
> It was
> the spirit in the musicians playing that made their performances hot.
> Their are many recorded examples of bands playing hot but not blasting
> (as, IMO, the Watters band did). Jelly's "Black Bottom Stomp" is a  
> perfect
> example of a hot performance played at a moderate volume. (I would
> suggestion mezzoforte, perhaps forte).

Chris & Others:

I agree with you completely and didn't mean to imply that loud equaled  
fire. My thought was that in order to listen to what Condon and  
Watters sounded like in live performance, one should turn the volume  
up on recorded examples. Same for Yank Lawson, Bechet and Louis  
Armstrong.

Also, someone mentioned a quote that when playing for dancing, "we  
could hear the shuffling of the dancer's feet" (paraphrase). I think  
that was Armstrong talking about his work with King Oliver in Chicago.  
Same applies to many bands when playing slow dance
songs

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband