[Dixielandjazz] JATP / Gonsalves / Ellington - was small band bebop - dixieland.

[Stephen G Barbone]

> Marek Boym <marekboym at gmail.com> wrote
>
> Hello Ken,
> Many critics have put the JATP sessions down as "rabble rousers."
> Some of my friends (older than I) still say they don't like the mess
> and the artificial excitement.  But then, that's what critics said
> about Paul Gonsalves' solo on Diminuendo and Crescendo at the
> 1956Newport Jazz Festival.
> I just love the JATP, which also shows how compatible musicians from
> the various camps (swing and bop) were.

Dear Marek:

Those critics who panned Diminuendo & Crescendo in Blue and the  
Gonsalves solo  at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival are an excellent  
example of why we shouldn't take critics seriously. It was an  
excellent performance, ignited the audience and that single song event  
re-started Duke Ellington's career, which before his appearance at  
Newport, had fallen upon lean times. His new found popularity enabled  
him to keep that band going anad drawing audiences while most all the  
other big bands folded for lack of interest.

And JATP with Norman Granz promoting it, was extraordinarily popular  
with jazz fans all over the world. Yet critics pan it?  As Ken and  
others who saw some of those shows will probably agree, that JATP  
excitement wasn't artificial. It was very real. And Granz was idolized  
by most of the musicians who toured with him. I  wish we had a man  
like Granz promoting jazz today.

My own theory about why some critics and some fans panned the above  
music examples is because they became enormously popular with most  
jazz fans. That is the kiss of death as far as the "art" music elite  
are concerned.

What? It's popular. OMG, if the great unwashed like it, then it must  
suck. I will pan it. And so we get negative opinions about our work by  
people who, for the most part, haven't the slightest idea of what we  
are doing.

It is ironic that folks say why don't more people appreciate this  
music, and then say as soon as it gets popular, that it  it sucks.  
That kind of thinking happened to Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, Errol  
Garner and countless others.

Same in the visual arts world, eg Andrew Wyeth who lived nearby in  
Chadds Ford. Enormously popular, fine painter, yet many "Art" elites  
and critics looked down on him because of his appeal to, ugh, common  
people and the fact that many of his exhibitions in museums around the  
country set attendance records..

Cheers,
Steve Barbone