[Dixielandjazz] Repeated Solos

[Stephen G Barbone]

Jack Mitchell asks why some of the past professional Dixieland  
musicians didn't mix it up more and continued to play set solos and  
set pieces.

I think because most pros viewed their music as a business and wanted  
to make a living at it. Therefore they played what the audience  
wanted. And back then it was the same old tunes.

Eddie Condon made that point back in the 1950s when he complained that  
audiences came into his joint and requested the same old warhorses. He  
complained, (and I am paraphrasing here) that the tunes they were  
forced to play were bleeding, awful, overplayed stuff. And also  
complained that when they played a new, current tune the audience  
members would come up and say; play jazz that's not jazz. The audience  
at his joint was "Dixieland" fans

Now when Louis played Hello Dolly, or Blueberry Hill, or Kiss To Build  
a Dream On, or Wonderful World, the mass audience loved it. That  
audience was mostly "pop fans". Many of the "Dixieland fans" scoff at  
that music saying Louis sold out.

Point being that in the 50s until their deaths, Condon made the bulk  
of his living from "Dixieland Fans" while Louis made the bulk of his  
his living from "Pop music fans".

I think the professionals who make their living performing realize  
that they have a particular audience to satisfy if they want that  
living to be more than mere subsistence.
A few are in the Dixieland niche while the rest are not.

I'm sure most band leaders on this list who play some current tunes  
have had the same experience I had after playing "If I Were A Bell"  
and a Dixieland Jazz Society Concert. Some blue haired woman came up  
at the break, mentioned the tune and sniffed haughtily; "I didn't know  
that was jazz." I replied sweetly; "It is, the way we played it."

Or had the same experience Kenny Davern had at a Dixieland Jazz  
Society concert when he had some CDs including one of himself with the  
Bob Haggart Orchestra and Strings. A gal came up, said she was his  
number 1 fan, then looked at the tunes, and said that's not Dixieland  
and did not buy it.

That CD is a treasure as those of you who own it know, but the  
audience of old fart dyed in the wool Dixielanders wasn't buying it.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband