[Dixielandjazz] Let's Get This Dixieland Business Straight.

[Stephen G Barbone]

This about a year after Condon opened his own club in NYC. He was the  
premier "band marketer".


Eddie Condon quote from a Bill Gottlieb article in  Downbeat - October  
7, 1946

"And let's get this Dixieland Business straight. I've never had a  
Dixieland band . . . or a Chicago band . . . or a New Orleans  
band . . . or any other style band. All I'm aware of is good jazz and  
bad jazz. Good jazz is improvised music, with each man playing in his  
own particular way, maintaining, of course, a certain amount of  
cooperation with the others. That's what we've always played. I never  
dictate any style or any anything to my guys except to name a tune and  
state the key. They have no restrictions other than to be themselves.  
They not only play the way they like, they can wear red suspenders,  
drink on the stand and show up in paper hats. I don't make them wear  
uniforms."


Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband