[Dixielandjazz] Marsalis & JRM

[Robert Ringwald]

Steve Barbone wrote in part:

> Bob Ringwald and Bill Haesler prefer JRM. So do I but for a different  
> reason. Namely that JRM did it FIRST and so all who come after him,  
> playing close to the same arrangement, including Marsalis, are merely   
> copiers. The 100% authentic jazzer was JRM. The rest are musical  
> poseurs. This definition only of poseur: "A person who pretends to be  
> what he or she is not"
> 
> However I think I can answer Bob"s; "Surprising that he (Marsalis)  
> lets the recordings get out"
> 
> Couple of reasons.
> 
> 1. The records sell and Marsalis makes money from the sales.


I don't buy that excuse.  I am sure that by now Marsalis has all the money he will ever need.  He is a consament musician.  Consament musicians/artists do not let there less than perfect work be released.  Perhaps someone else is in charge and Marsalis  didn't have the time to preview the song.  Or maybe he just wasn't aware that it was going to be released.  


> 2. Neither Bob nor I are in Marsalis's targeted audience. (Bill is  
> also outside the target market but then he bought the record VBG)
> 
> 3. His target audience is the larger general audience, in some measure  
> jazz challenged in that they will not hear a wrong chord or grade the  
> trombone solo. They will simply buy the record and enjoy it.


My statement above still stands.  

 
> I believe that Marsalis's stated goal is to increase the public's  
> awareness of jazz as a cultural art form. He succeeds admirably in  
> that pursuit. And so, for us, the bottom line is simply that we do not  
> matter to the success of his mission.


My statement still stands.  


> I think this was reflected in the criticisms he received from members  
> of the DJML and other jazz chat lists when the Ken Burns series was  
> aired, and the general opinion amongst OKOM jazz heads that it was  
> deficient.


Different subject which has no baring on my above statement.  In the Ken Burns series, Marsalis talked about Jazz.  I am sure he said a lot more that was edited out.  He was not the director.  Mentioning the Ken Burns series does not apply here.  

> 
> So the growls, the saxophone, the general presentation etc., appeal to  
> the folks who might think Jelly Roll Morton was simply a 1930s  
> character who loved to eat Jelly Rolls. And as Bob, Bill and I think,  
> that's not all bad.


If that is true, then he is doing a great diservice to Jazz by releasing inferior examples of early Jazz.  
 
--Bob Ringwald