[Dixielandjazz] FW: showmanship

[Jim Kashishian]

Marek wrote: 
>was put off by Trummy Young's operating his slide with his foot.  After
that, I wouldn't listen to Young for years, as I considered him a showman
rather than a musician. 

Once again....why the "as a showman rather than a musician"?  What's wrong
with both working together?  As I said earlier, people hear music first with
their eyes, as you will have done in this case, Marek.  Did he play a good,
musical solo, albeit with his foot? You didn't comment on the quality of the
solo. If it was musically good, that is quite a feat (pun intented!) in
itself.

One could say there are two cases here:

1.  a clown playing a horn
2.  a musician clowning around for a moment

Trummy obviously fit into the 2nd category, or it would be hard to imagine
him performing so long with Louis.  So, a musician injected a moment of
laughter, happiness, joy into his music.  Not really a sin, in fact a real
plus.

Jim