[Dixielandjazz] More on JRM and Marsalis

Roger Wade rwade1947 at comcast.net
Sun Jan 1 17:43:24 PST 2012


Hi Ken,

Thank you for putting into words what I felt about these performances but could not express nearly as well as you did.

It seemed especially obvious to me the other night when I was listening to the live streaming feed of the Marsalis group perfomance.  The best way I could put it was that the ensemble parts did not really swing.  At the time I ascribed it to the musicians concentrating too much on reading the admittedly difficult charts and not enough in feeling the music.  Still it was enjoyable and I appreciate the effort Marsalis is putting into promoting early jazz styles.

Roger Wade
Really Old Records

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On Jan 1, 2012, at 8:14 PM, Ken Mathieson wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> A happy, healthy and prosperous 2012 to all listmates!
> 
> I've been following the dialogue about JRM and Marsalis's Sidewalk Blues with interest and would have contributed sooner, but a Scotsman's liver has a very busy schedule at this time of year! The comparison between the 2 recordings brings up some very interesting points which haven't really been covered so far.
> 
> The first is about time feel: On the JRM, everyone has the same time feel, which was the time feel of the day, so the whole performance has a rhythmic coherence. They're all talking the same rhythmic language which comes naturally to them as the jazz lingua franca of their time. Marsalis chose to go down the repertory route and attempt to recreate JRM's version in all but solos, but the rhythmic language necessary to do this is totally alien to all of them since they come from 3 generations down the line and jazz time has changed radically in the interim, so there's a strong whiff of pastiche about their perfomance. When Marsalis attempts to phrase like George Mitchell, it comes out slightly wrong and often corny.
> 

Roger Wade
Really Old Records

http://www.reallyoldrecords.com

http://stores.ebay.com/Really-Old-Records?RefID=store

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Really-Old-Records/113492545338506?ref=search

http://www.amazon.com/shops/reallyoldrecords




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