[Dixielandjazz] School Directors and Jazz Sense

[Stephen G Barbone]

On Aug 18, 2010, at 10:24 AM, dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com  
wrote:

> : "macjazz" <macjazz at comcast.net> wrote:
> To: "John Blegen" <jcblegen at sbcglobal.net>
>
>
>> It seems that things were beginning to change when I entered high  
>> school
>> in
>> 1956.
>
> Interesting replies on this. Just based on some of the replies  
> received (a
> couple also off list) Where and when appear to be factors.
>
> If you were in a major metropolitan area where your band director was
> possibly augmenting orchestra pay (or vice versa) there apparently  
> was less
> tolerance for jazz.  There may also have been a turn around in the  
> 60s (but
> I can't for the life of me figure out why that might be the case.)
>
> I agree with John. When I attended college in the late 50's my major
> professor was an Eastman grad.  When I used a Duke Ellington example  
> in a
> report he had never heard of Ellington but listened and barrowed the  
> record
> (Ellington Uptown, as I recall).  I later used a Mingus example (The  
> Clown)
> in another situation, and he got all excited about that.  On the  
> other hand,
> one of my classmates was Gerry Eskolin who became director of the LA  
> Jazz
> choir, well recorded and famous, particularly on the west coast.
>
> We did not have a stage band but several of us played and had our  
> own group
> (though Phi Mu Alpha) and it was quite popular.
>
> "Ya pays yer money and takes yer cherce," I guess.

Dear Mart:

Here's my take albeit a simplified short version and generally  
speaking, but you get the idea..

I think what happened was the inexorable pressure to accept changes in  
music.  Jazz was originally the "devil's music", exposing the young to  
all sorts of perversions. it was viewed by the classical music lovers  
as both noisy and immoral. Plus there was an irrational fear of blacks  
back then and jazz was black music.

But like anything else, society's views on jazz and race changed over  
time.  What happened after WW 2, in the 1960s was Dave Brubeck. Smart,  
intellectual, boy next door demeanor, etc. He brought jazz concerts to  
college campus AUDITORIUMS, big time. And he presented an integrated  
quartet at Southern Universities. All of a sudden millions of college  
educated young people were aware that jazz was quite acceptable in  
polite, well educated, society. In fact, Brubeck's version of jazz was  
filled with classical music references and his fans loved that.

In my college days, after the Korean War, I remember gathering at non- 
musician friends houses once a week on a rotating basis to listen to  
Brubeck records and discuss what he was doing with reference to  Bach,  
Bartok, Debussey, Mihaud and others. Great times.

After Brubeck, how could any music educator deny the legitimacy of jazz?

Of course some media critics panned Brubeck as commercial, etc., but  
then they still do that today if a jazz musician gets too popular.  
<grin>

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband