[Dixielandjazz] Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 73, Issue 26

[Dingo]

>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ken Mathieson" Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 1:11 AM
> Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 73, Issue 26
>
>
>> Hi Steve et al,
>>
>> Yes, I've got Burt Korall's book, so I'm aware of that statement about 
>> the importance of showmanship in Sid's playing, although he seemed to be 
>> able to do all the flash stuff without it getting in the way of his 
>> music, which is something a lot of other drummers failed at.  I once saw 
>> the Harry James Big Band with Sonny Payne on drums, when it came to 
>> Scotland and, during Sonny's feature, he was twirling his sticks, 
>> bouncing them off the floor and throwing them in the air. All very 
>> visual, but the actual drum solo made little musical sense while all of 
>> this was going on. Sonny was on a riser at the back of the stage and the 
>> unintended climaz of the solo was him reaching back to catch a mistimed 
>> stick-throw and crashing backwards off the stage. There was total 
>> silence, followed by sharp intakes of breath from the audience, followed 
>> by muffled cursing from behind the stage, followed by uproarioiusly 
>> unsympathetic laughter from the rest of the band. Sonny seemed to take 
>> forever to climb back up behind the kit and, when he started to play 
>> again, the trumnpet section yelled out "do it again, Sonny!"
>
> My ol' mate Colin Bowden told me the same thing once happened to Lennie 
> Hastings when he did his "Oooo Yah, Ooh Yah" bit at the end of a number. 
> As regards Sonny Payne, I saw him with the Basie Band at the Gaumont, 
> Watford back in 1962/63 when his feature was "Ol' Man River". Very flash 
> showmanship, but not, IMO, too OTT. There is a poor quality clip of him 
> doing this number on YouTube which can be summed up in one word ........ 
> boring. And that goes for that tune's arrangement also on that particular 
> night's performance. Talk about flogging a dead horse. The performance I 
> saw in '62/'63 was anything but.
> ~~
> John D