[Dixielandjazz] just a question, help greatly appreciated

[Marek Boym]

Great posting, Don!
I've learnt something (despite having all the Whiteman-Bix recordings,
and quite a few sithout Bix, and having read all the liner notes).
Cheers

On 17 January 2011 22:04, Donald Mopsick <dmopsick at gmail.com> wrote:
> Rob writes:
>
> <<I am studdying music at university, and for my write up I would like to do
> an essay on the effect that either duke ellington or paul whiteman had on
> 20th century popular music, ellington in the way he brought structure to
> jazz or whiteman in how everything was very tightly arranged etc. What do
> you guys think,? which would be better, and do you know any good books on
> either of these figures I could read?>>
>
> The best book about Whiteman I have read is "Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in
> American Music, Volume I: 1890-1930 (Studies in Jazz Series)" by Don
> Rayno. Here is the retail link on amazon.com
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810845792?ie=UTF8&tag=riverwlivefromth&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0810845792
>
> The author explains how Whitman is completely misunderstood by
> contemporary critics. He was dubbed the "King of Jazz" by the press,
> but he himself understood very well that he was nothing of the sort
> unless he had real jazz players in his orchestra, so he hired Bix,
> Trumbauer, Venuti, Lang, Steve Brown, etc. away from Goldkette. The
> "tightly arranged" music you refer to included a number of immortal
> hot arrangements inspired by Bix Beiderbecke's improvised cornet
> playing as transcribed and voiced by arranger Bill Challis.
>
> Whiteman was one of those "hinge" figures of jazz history in that
> things were never quite the same after him. He was the first to bring
> elements of hot rhythm and blue tonality to the mass attention of the
> heretofore "square" white audience. I highly recommend listening
> online to Rich Conaty's "The Big Broadcast" on WFUV (wfuv.org) to
> compare other very popular white and black bands of the period to
> Whiteman's "hot" charts (which pretty much continued on were the
> Goldkette material left off). The square bands sound very stilted,
> European, operatic, and sometimes march-like with the rhythmic
> emphasis on beats 1 and 3. After Whiteman, white and black audiences
> were more accepting of music that swung, but the ensuing Swing Era
> still had a lot of hopelessly square "sweet" bands too. Squareness in
> pop music didn't really die out until the Beatles, but Whiteman was
> the first great leap forward back in 1928.
>
> It's all in the book.
>
> mopo
>
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