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

[Joe Carbery]

Hi All,

Steve's point about critics panning performances that have popular appeal
brings to mind the Esquire polls of the early 1940s.
Initially the winners were selected by votes of the general readership, a
situation which annoyed Leonard Feather. He was obviously, in the matter of
jazz appreciation, an oligarchist rather than a democrat as he considered it
ourageous that the ordinary jazz fan should be thought to know more than
self-appointed "experts" such as he.
He then organized the first critics' poll. It could at least be said of
Feather that he was a musician. I don't know the status of the other
critics. However, amongst the "great unwashed" of the general readership of
Esquire there would have been a fair sprinkling of musicians.
One of the reasons Feather's ire was raised was that Eddie Miller (I think
it was; I don't have the book with me as I left it behind me in Aussie) came
in ahead of Coleman Hawkins. So what. It simply proves that with that sample
of the population Miller was more popular than Hawkins, and would probably
draw more when appearing in public. But to say one is a "better" tenor
player than the other is nonense; what does "better" mean in any artistic
pursuit?


"De gustibus non disputandum est."

Regards,

Joe Carbery.



On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Stephen G Barbone <
barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
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