[Dixielandjazz] Dogfight

[Stephen G Barbone]

On Dec 28, 2011, at 5:33 PM, Jack Mitchell wrote:

>
> Stephen G Barbone  wrote:
>
> " Probably because your musicians skipped the Ragtime era, and the
>> Marching Band era as a precursor to the development of jazz.  
>> Musicians who picked up on jazz directly from the USA, apparently  
>> did not  research how it developed in the USA."
>
> Probably not Stephen -  Australia did not skip the ragtime era or  
> marching bands. And how many American musicians playing today know  
> much about how jazz developed in the USA?
>
> In BAND NEWS for March, 1988 John Flynn, discussing the formation of  
> the Band Association of NSW in the mid 1880s said: "The bands of  
> those days supplied the music for dances, harbour picnics etc".   
> That to me is how jazz developed in the USA and spread world wide.

Dear Jack:

Most of us old guys playing Dixieland know quite a bit about how jazz  
developed in the USA. The younger other genre jazzers, not so much.

IMO the bands of the mid 1880s were not jazz bands in any sense of the  
word. Everything I read about those years indicate that the more  
adventurous bands were playing Ragtime, while the rest played the  
popular tunes of the day. I think jazz development is quite a bit more  
complicated than Mr. Flynn asserts

For an interesting discussion about jazz development, see the below  
article by Jack Stewart, a contributor to the Hogan Jazz Archives at  
Tulane University:

http://www.odjb.com/Documents/New%20Orleans%20International%20Music%20Colloquium%20ODJB2_Jack%20Stewart.pdf

That's a good starting point, but by no means the full story.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband