[Dixielandjazz] Dead man blues

[Bill Haesler]

Anton Crouch wrote:
> Those dismissing Wynton Marsalis as a "clown" are missing something, and should go back to Jelly Roll Morton in 1926.
> Ask the question "is Marsalis giving us a 'homage' or is he re-interpreting the composition?"

Dear Anton,
I was expecting the worst, so was very pleasantly surprised.

> I go for the re-interpretation view.

So do I.
But nobody seems to have picked up that Mr Marsalis WAS in hokum mood with that 'angry insect' (thanks Ron L'H) solo and, what I suspect, was his interpretation of the old New Orleans tradition of the talking-trumpet.
I don't say I liked it, but then never have, from what little I've heard of it from others. 
What say Louis Lince?
There is certainly nothing wrong with his straight choruses.
I'll keep out of the clarinet trio criticism, other than to say that they were reading it and had probably never heard or absorbed the original.
So what.
I've heard a few Australian bands attempt it, back in the past, with a less satisfactory result.
Whether some of us do not take to the Marsalis trumpet, we can't deny that he is always well-intentioned when he steps back into the past.

> Separately, there is a musicological issue in Marsalis' performance. He uses two trumpets, thus, almost certainly ignorantly, re-enforcing the old furphy of two cornets playing at Morton's recording session of 21 September 1926.

Would Wynton Marsalis know, or even care, that George Mitchell is the only trumpet/cornet on the JRM's 1926 "Dead Man Blues" session?
(Nor DJMLers for that matter. No one, so far, has challenged you on that one.)
He wanted two, so used them.
Or had the instrumentation of the King Oliver Dixie Syncopators' rendition in mind (made on 17 Sept 1926, the week before the Morton). 
There was no washboard on the Morton session either, and I wish it had been left off the Marsalis version. 
A waste of time (pun intended).
And apart from, perhaps, the intro, I have never considered Jelly's 1926 "Dead Man Blues" as hokum.
Very kind regards,
Bill.