[Dixielandjazz] Louis, Duke, and Bebop

[Rick Campbell]

Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington both helped invent the language of  
jazz, but they never took the elitist stance of the beboppers.

That is, while they were pushing the envelope by phrasing off the  
beat, unusual accents, high notes, ambitious tempos, and chordal  
explorations, they were quite happy to entertain audiences at every  
level of sophistication, including adoring white audiences in North  
Dakota.

For example, Strutting With Some Barbeque incorporates the major 7th,  
and Caravan stacks clashing chords. Advanced stuff for the time, but  
not pretentious and you could still dance to it.

 From many written accounts of 52nd Street during the 1940s, the  
beboppers were deliberately trying to create an exclusive advanced  
form of music that only the "coolest cats" could understand and play.  
They succeeded very well, because they drove away not only a bunch of  
mellow journeyman musicians-- they also drove away the dancers and  
listeners.


Rick Campbell
Leader, Milneburg Jazz Band
Portland, Oregon USA
(503) 234-9440
ricksax at comcast.net