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

[Marek Boym]

Dear Steve,
I beg to disagree.  I've known the performance since the late 1950's
(in 1956 I was still in Poland), and could never understand the
critical approach.  I tend to agree with (the other) Steve on this,
not with you.
Cheers,
Marek

On 17 February 2011 11:24, Steve Voce <stevevoce at virginmedia.com> wrote:
> 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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