[Dixielandjazz] Dogfight

[Jim O'Briant]

Someone asked:

> > So then is "jazz" regional[?]

Pat Ladd replied:

> Of course it is. East Coast, West Coast, Chicago etc but that is 
> rather beside the point. 

And just as styles can be regional, so can be language or terminology.

> I have never heard the term `dogfight` in the UK either.

I would speculate that the term "dogfight" developed in American wind bands
to describe the "break strain" or the contrasting interlude between
repetitions of the TRIO section of a march. I don't know when the term was
first used in a jazz context, but I think it was in use in wind bands prior
to 1900. Various band directors under whom I performed used either "break
strain" or "dogfight" to refer to this strain; those who used "break strain"
tended to look down upon the term "dogfight" as an incorrect or
inappropriate colloquialism. 

> Just to point up another difference.; leaders in the UK to indicate the 
> key show fingers `down` for flats` and `up` for sharp s`. I understand 
> that it is the other way round in the US ?

I think it's the same in the US as in the UK. I've always been told that
since flats lower the pitch, two fingers down means go to the key of Bb; two
fingers up would mean to go to the key of D.

Some bands have their own conventions. I once saw Chet Jaeger, leader of the
Night Blooming Jazzmen, give a "four fingers up" sign to his band just
before a modulation. But they modulated to Ab, or so I thought from watching
Dick Doner's trombone slide positions. So I asked Chet about it after the
set. He said that the band knew he meant Ab, since the band never plays in
E, and since it's easier to point four fingers up than down.

Jim O'Briant
Gilroy, CA
Tuba & Leader, The Zinfandel Stompers