[Dixielandjazz] The Melody

[Stephen G Barbone]

> "Eric Holroyd" asks
>
> I read on the list jus recently that Louis' Armstrong's mentor - King
> Oliver - had urged him in the 1920s to always play a good straight  
> melody.
>
> Many years later, in the 1970s in fact, when I was working with the  
> late and
> great Tom Baker to put together his Yerba Buena styled San Francisco  
> Jazz
> Band he urged me to do the same thing, for I was wont to stray from a
> straight melody when playing lead horn at that time.
>
> Tom told me that, in turn, he had been mentored by Dan Barrett on  
> that very
> subject and Dan had urged HIM to always play a good straight melody.
>
> I largely stuck to that advice over the many years that I played jazz
> trumpet, and was reminded very strongly of the advice when I  
> attended a
> recent jazz gig here in Sydney.
>
> The band's front line was the regular reeds, trumpet and trombone,  
> and I was
> somewhat surprised that it often took me almost a full chorus to  
> recognise
> what was the new tune they had just started to play, for the trumpeter
> played more of an improvised solo than a straight melody lead.
>
> This happened on almost every tune they played, and I found it  
> somewhat
> irksome.
>
> What do other listmates and bandleaders think about this subject?
>
> Should the lead horn lay down a solid melody lead for the other  
> front liners
> to embroider, or should he/she do the improvised solo thing and let  
> the
> audience guess what tune they're playing?

Dear Eric:

My 2 cents is that the trumpet I(or other lead instrument)  should  
ALWAYS play straight melody on the "in" chorus.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband