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

[Steve Voce]

You only have to hear the filigree delicacy of the original performance of Crescendo and Diminuendo (included in the new Mosaic box) to realise what a
crude travesty the Newport one was.
Gonsalves is one of my favourite saxophonists, and he excelled at ballads and sensible things, not these marathons
which would be banal whether played by him, Lester, Getz or any on the decent players.
Fine for rabble rousing, but not much else.

Steve Voce


  17/02/2011 02:00, Stephen G Barbone 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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