[Dixielandjazz] Al Hirt

[Richard Shook]

There is a video available (Sarah Vaughn and Friends - A Night of Sass 
and Brass) that features Al Hirt, Maynard Ferguson, Don Cherry, Chuck 
Mangione, and Dizzy Gillespie. I was surprised when I watched it, 
because I did not expect to feel that Al played the most consistent jazz 
of the whole group of trumpeters on this video - cleaner, following the 
changes more consisitently. (None of this is OKOM.) Opinions on jazz 
solos are certainly colored by whether one likes the ideas the soloist 
is using, i.e., his style. I think that must be the source of many of 
the negative opinions recently stated in this discussion. I have always 
loved Al's Audio Fidelity sides - but noticed years ago that I liked his 
playing during the ensemble parts better than his solos. What he is 
playing during the ensemble parts is certainly not traditional "dixie". 
An older friend of mine (and I am 60) back home in North Dakota, a 
wonderful dixie cornetist and pianist, never liked Al Hirt, precisely 
because what he was playing departed too much from the traditional style.