[Dixielandjazz] Sweet Georgia Brown, historical comparisons

[Jack Mitchell]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ulf Jagfors" <ulf.jagfors at telia.com>
To: "Jack Mitchell" <fjmitch at westnet.com.au>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 11:18 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Sweet Georgia Brown, historical comparisons



OK Ken

I fully agree with you. I just sent the link to get an historical view of
the tune, especially as it was performed by the 1/3 composer himself. To
stand in front of the band conducting??, often with a fiddle, was more or
less a must. During the past year I have been scanning the Spotify library
for many thousands of 1920 jazz and dance band tunes. By that I also come to
realize how little "jazz" it is in many of the bands playing during the
roaring twenty. They were as you say pure dance bands, specially asked not
to "hot" the music, or rooted in the stiff rhythm ragtime tradition. In the
book "The making of Jazz" by James Lincoln Collier, the author stress many
times that most of the white but also some black bands did not really got
the "jazz" idiom until the end of the 1920´s. For instance he mention that
Duke Ellington with his academic, middle class, classic music background did
not catch the jazz spirit until he hired some NOLA players in his band.
Right or not, if you listen to early 1920 Ellington recordings or I.E
Fletcher Andersson you understand what Collier is pointing at. I guess this
is a thread of its own right but I do not want to start it because I know
too little about this intricate musical part of the jazz history.

If you want to make a more true and close historical comparison between the
Marsalis version and the past I guess Hot Club de France 1930´s recording is
the best example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpO5xIltlyU


Ulf Jagfors
Stockholm

From: Ken Mathieson [mailto:ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk]
Hi Ulf,

Thanks for the clip, which I found interesting for a number of reasons: It's

clear that this band had never listened to anything by Louis Armstrong or,
for that matter, Bix. Both were well represented on record by the time this
was recorded and both were being widely talked about by the jazz musicians
of the time, so my suspicion is that this was strictly a dance band with the

odd soloist who had a passing knowledge of improvisation. The bandleader's
movements are also a bit of a give-away: he looks as though he might be
conduvcting a polka band! The band's phrasing is ponderous and "lumpy", and
none of it swung in the slightest to my ears. However, I had never heard the

verse to SGB before and it turns out to be the perfect curtain-raiser to the

tune proper.

I'm glad I saw and heard it for historical reasons as I'm interested in the
history of jazz, but I'll have to be honest and say that I much preferred
the version with Wynton Marsalis, which had the benefit oif swinging from
beginning to end.

Regards,

Ken Mathieson



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