[Dixielandjazz] Lu Watters

[Jack Mitchell]

> LU WATTERS*
>
> Oddly, because he was only a moderately talentedtrumpet player, Lu Watters
> became one ofthe most influential
> musicians inthe whole of jazz. It was he who started the traditional jazz
> revival which eventually produced musi­cians like Chris Barber, Hum­phrey
> Lyttelton,
> Acker Bilk and the entire revivalist movement ofthe Forties and Fifties.

"Yes, Lu Watters was the man who invented traditional jazz as we know
it.  He became so influential not due to his proficiency on the
cornet, but because he had the vision to revive traditional jazz."

Rubbish - musicians in Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart, and no doubt many 
other cities, were playing traditional jazz years before they had heard of 
Lu Watters or before he had recorded. He certainly did have an influence on 
many musicians later, but to say that he invented traditional jazz is 
absurd. If anyone influenced the early traditionalists it would have been 
the Bobcats and/ or Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime Band.


>>
> The Yerba Buena jazz band(Yerba Buena-"Good Earth"- was the original name 
> of
> SanFrancisco)

YERBA BUENA means good herbs, not good earth.

Best wishes
Jack Mitchell