[Dixielandjazz] By Ned, we invented the genre

[Stephen G Barbone]

Please write the book Dave. Too much will be forgotten if you don't.  
Like last night I did a gig with Marty Grosz and we talked about life  
and jazz in the "good old days." I have to say it was one hell of an  
interesting night. He should write a book too as he played with just  
about everybody and he has a hell of a perspective on the music. His  
stories about Joe Sullivan are hillarious. And his opinion that  
Reginald Kell ruined Benny Goodman's sound and energy level was  
interesting. It made even me, who hates musical archeology, want to go  
back to the records to check it out

Back in the late 1950s I worked 6 hours a night, 6 nights a week for 3  
months straight in a Dixieland joint in NYC. Our book was no more than  
150 tunes but we rarely got to play even them in a week because the  
customers demanded the same 30 or 40 Dixieland War Horses time and  
again. I can well understand how earlier musos got into booze and  
drugs in that scenario. I quickly became a Dixieland zombie and my  
booze intake soared to a pint of gin per night. I had great chops  
during that gig, but creativity suffered and I was thankful when it  
ended and I got to gig with other bands.

You could see that kind of thing with Wilbur DeParis at Jimmy Ryan's.  
Even the great Omer Simeon got pretty routine, playing High Society at  
least 6 times a week for a couple of years. He just stared off into  
space on the tune, but unlike Sullivan who played intermission piano  
there, he didn't curse out the college kids who asked silly questions,  
or made those war horse tune requests.

Cheers
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


On Jul 11, 2009, at 4:26 PM, Dave Gannett wrote:

> Hah!  A worthy observation.  Steve, if you'd spent a couple weeks  
> touring with The Black Dogs, you would'a thought you were back in  
> the '30's for sure!  One of the reasons the band was so wildly  
> popular was that we brought to our performances the LIFESTYLE of  
> that era's jazz musician, which spilled out all over our stage  
> presentation, the music and the overall time traveler vibe.  Each of  
> us felt in the deepest part of our souls that we were born 20-30  
> years too late and that somehow, we could go back to the time where  
> we belonged.  Someday I will write a book about our incredible  
> adventures. Suffice to say, our performances were just the tip of  
> the iceberg.  Thanks for your insights...