[Dixielandjazz] Term 'Moldy Fig' in jazz

[Daniel Augustine]

Barb & DJML--
     I've written about this before (in 2003), but here's the short  
answer:

"Moldy figs From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moldy figs are purist advocates of early jazz, originally those such  
as Rudi Blesh, Alan Lomax, and James Jones who argued that jazz took a  
wrong turn in the early 1920s with developments such as the  
introduction of printed scores. Blesh, for example, dismissed the work  
of Duke Ellington as "tea dansant music" with no jazz content whatever.

According to John Lowney, the term moldy figs was first used in this  
sense by Bernard Gendron in a 1942 editorial in Metronome magazine,  
"'Moldy Figs' and Modernists: Jazz at War".

The term was later used by the beboppers with reference to those who  
preferred older jazz to bebop. During the post-World War II era there  
was something of a revival of "traditional" jazz, and bebop displaced  
swing as the "modern" music to which it was contrasted. [4] More  
recently, Gene Santoro has referred to Wynton Marsalis and others, who  
embrace bebop but not other forms of jazz that followed it, as "latter- 
day moldy figs", with bebop now lying on the side of "jazz tradition".

Although the term was originally a pejorative, it has at times been  
embraced by trad jazz fans and players."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldy_figs)

     For the record, i checked out all editorials in 1942 Metronome  
magazines, but never saw this reference.

     Dan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Barb Jordan <jordan_barb at hotmail.com>
Date: June 23, 2009 9:15:51 AM CDT
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Been gone for 10 months and yet...

I sing periodically with a Dixieland band called the Fig Leaf Jazz Band.
Can someone explain the connection between figs (mouldy or otherwise)  
and jazz/swing/dixieland?
Thanks,

Barbara Jordan
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: rebecca.e.thompson at verizon.net
> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:19:54 -0500
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Been gone for 10 months and yet...
> CC: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> To: jordan_barb at hotmail.com
>
> Some things remain the same. I have been away from DJML since last  
> August
> and return to hearing the same arguments as before. Why debate  
> Mouldy Fig
> vs Modernist when THIS IS THE Dixieland Jazz Mailing List and not the
> Modernist Mailing List?
>
> Everyone has their own style to which they prefer to listen. Just  
> leave it
> at that. The music I prefer does not reflect my respect - or lack  
> there of
> -- for previous musicians.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Rebecca Thompson
> Flower Mound, TX
> -----Original Message-----
> The Mouldy Fig v Modernist arguments still appears to rage. I can't  
> get my
> head round this at all. To my way of thinking, everything that  
> happened in
> jazz up to about 1970 developed out of what went before. It was all  
> the one
> music at different stages of development: Horace Silver and  
> Thelonius Monk
> (to name just two) couldn't have done what they did without Jelly,  
> James P
> and others having done their thing first.

**--------------------------------------------------------------------**
**  Dan Augustine  --  Austin, Texas  --  ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu
**             "Thank you, but I have other plans."
**     -- Response to "Have a nice day" suggested by Paul Fussell
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**