[Dixielandjazz] Where did it go?

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Marek et al,

I think you might find that the Nazis weren't too keen on jazz in the 
countries they occupied either, so jazz became the music of protest and 
resistance in France, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark etc. Sure jazz 
had been there before the war, but the fact that the Nazis disapproved of it 
so strongly made it a certainty that jazz would be adopted as the music of 
resistance.

I hope you enjoy the home brew and I'm sure you'll enjoy my old pal Eddie 
Thompson. Is it the Hep CD "The Unforgettable 1982 Concert?" He was a 
monster player who could make a poor piano sound OK, but on this record he 
gets a magnificent Bosendorfer concert grand to play and makes the most of 
it. If any listees haven't heard him before, I'd recommend this CD 
unreservedly. His major influences included Art Tatum and Bud Powell, so 
it's not Dixie, but he was a fine player who held down the solo piano gig at 
NYC's Hickory House for many years and was much admired by Benny Carter. 
He's been dead about 25 years now and is sadly missed on the UK scene.

Cheers,

Ken Mathieson
www.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marek Boym" <marekboym at gmail.com>
To: "Ken Mathieson" <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk>; 
<Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 11:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Where did it go?


I have serious doubts about the sociological approach to music.
Jazz became popular in Europe in the ninteen thirties, if not bevore;
there were good bands everywhere, including pre-totalitarian Germany.
And while its popularity in post-war Germany and later - the communist
countries (no, it is not a typo - I really do not believe communism
should be capitalized, which, in itself, sounds like a bad pun), where
the totalitarian regimes suppressed it, what about France or the
Netherlands?  Or Scandinavia, which has given us Svend Asmussen (long
before WWII) and Papa Bue (afterwards)?
Cheers (going to pour me some home brew - not of my making - and
listen to Eddie Thompson)

On 18 June 2010 02:03, Ken Mathieson <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk> wrote:
> Mike wrote:
> "I often wonder if we in the Disunited States suffer from the music being 
> indigenous, as it were, so to speak. Here, it's "that stuff they played 
> back in the 20s." Other places, it's "that stuff that came from America, 
> like down in New Orleans, etc." The fact that "jazz clubs" still exist in 
> the UK to this day, is still something that wows me."
>
> The relative profusion of jazz clubs in Europe has probably got a lot to 
> do with the existence of so many totalitarian regimes from the 1930s to 
> the 1990s. Jazz was synonymous with the voice of protest, especially if 
> the regime tried to supress it. In the UK after WW2, even though the 
> regime was not totalitarian (there will be letters of dissent I'm sure!) 
> jazz was part of a protest against the "old order" i.e. part of a popular 
> movement to make society and politics more democratically representative.
>
> The problem with music which becomes a totem of protest against the old 
> order (whether parental or political) is that, one generation on, in the 
> eyes of a new generation, it comes to represent the "repression" of the 
> current old order. Hence the need to invent a new music of protest, hence 
> the rise of rock'n'roll and later forms of music of mass-appeal. There are 
> obviously cultural changes at play too in the continuing evolution of 
> existing art forms into new genres, but the sweeping changes in European 
> politics since the fall of Communism may accelerate the ongoing reduction 
> in numbers of jazz clubs as the generation which embraced jazz as a music 
> of protest "shuffles off the mortal coil."
>
> Ken Mathieson
> www.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk
>
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