[Dixielandjazz] How much trad jazz do you listen to?

[Stephen G Barbone]

On Apr 11, 2010, at 11:41 PM, Bill Haesler wrote:

> Stephen G Barbone wrote [in part]:
>> I listen about 3% of the time to trad jazz. Maybe less. The rest of  
>> my listening time is roughly 60% to modern jazz, 35 % to classical  
>> music and 2 % all other music.
>
> Dear Steve (who always says I am one-eyed),
> I am amazed at how little trad you listen to.
> My own listening is confined to my extensive record collection (I  
> rarely listen to radio) and comprises:
> all classic and vintage jazz from the 1920s and 30s
> classic and urban blues from the 20s
> hot dance bands from the 20s (US, England and Australia)
> small group swing from the 30s and 40s (up to Lester Young)
> swinging Swing band music of the 30s and early 40s
> the jazz revival from the 40s onwards
> the New Orleans (Bunk, Lewis, etc.) revival from the late 30s to the  
> early 50s
> 'trad' jazz from Australia, Britain, Europe, the US (but not all),  
> South America
> everything by Louis Armstrong, Wild Bill Davison, Eddie Condon, Pee  
> Wee Russell, Benny Goodman, Ralph Sutton, Bix
> everything by Spike Jones, Red Ingle, Tom Lehrer, Stan Freberg
> girl vocalists from the 20s and 30s (swing related) + Billie Holiday
> early Ellington and Basie
> ragtime, stride, barrelhouse, boogie and swinging piano
>
> Which probably indicates that I am not a proper mouldy fig.
> 8>)
> Kind regards,
> Bill.

Dear Bill:

I guess I depart from the usual profile of a Dixieland/Swing  
enthusiast. However, bear in mind that during my formative years, say  
age 10 to 28, I listened  almost exclusively to Dixieland while also  
playing it. I heard enough of it back then to last me a lifetime. I do  
not view it as very complicated music that requires decades of intense  
listening to understand. <grin>

Eventually I got overloaded on trad and started listening to Bird,  
Dizzy, Monk, Trane, Bud Powell, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Steve  
Lacy, Tony Scott, Buddy DeFranco, et al. They opened my ears to new  
dimensions in jazz. I also started listening more heavily to classical  
music. Like the folks Bechet and Armstrong and Davern (my idol)  
listened to, and/or the folks the American Songbook composers listened  
to. I thought that in order to figure out Armstrong, for example, one  
had to listen to the musicians who he "heard". Both he and Bechet were  
IMO, heavily influenced by Classical Music.

Most of my band mates in Barbone Street are classical music  
enthusiasts. In that sense they are knowledgeable about it, like Kenny  
Davern and can quote chapter and verse, like he could, about the  
genre. Perhaps that's why we don't sound like a "traditional"  
Dixieland Band.

So much music, so little time. Like listen to Brahms and you hear the  
foundation music of the American Songbook, etc. But then to really  
understand his music, one must learn who influenced Brahms, and listen  
to them, and on and on and on. <grin>

But what really surprised me is the few answers to W1AB's (Al's)  
question. People replied using the same subject header he did when he  
asked it, yet none of them answered his question. One wonders why? Is  
it because we don't want to, or is it that we didn't read his entire  
post? Do we listen to music that way? Not really hearing it?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband