[Dixielandjazz] Wikipedia Verdi trombones

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

Wikipedia is variously reliable, but some things certainly deserve to be cited 
and indeed are recommended by senior and competent academics who find there some 
clear statements of difficult matters and recommend these
The author of a splendid entry may be able to set things down in a way most 
others who are equally well-informed can't  -- or haven'r been able to 

On a non-jazz list I did cite the case of Eubie Blake with reference to dubious 
or false dates of birth -- and one pompous ass issued various denunciations, 
including that I was a Johnnycomelately reliant on Wikipedia and that Eubie was 
born in 1883 and not a few years later. When I looked up Eubie in Wikipedia just 
for fun, I found a photostat of his birth certificate....  And now the FBI are 
coming to charge me with breaking into a repository of state documents and with 
forgery ... 


My belief about Verdi's comments on valve versus slide trombone derives from 
reading a hefty specialised tome and whether or not memory let me down I did 
just now check Julian Budden's magnum opus -- to the effect that whether or not 
Verdi disliked valve trombones -- whether long-term or during a bout of 
disenchantment with some players -- has nothing to do with this case.They 
remained the norm in Italian opera orchestras throughout his life.