[Dixielandjazz] More on JRM and Marsalis

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Roger,

Many thanks for your kind words. I applaud Marsalis's efforts to keep early
jazz on the radar of people who might otherwise ignore it altogether. If he
makes people inquisitive about it, they're likely to investigate further for
themselves and, when they hear the great originators of the music at their
youthful peaks, they can't fail to be impressed by their musicianship, soul
and joie-de-vivre.

Cheers,

Ken Mathieson


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Wade" <rwade1947 at comcast.net>
To: "Ken Mathieson" <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 1:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] More on JRM and Marsalis


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

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

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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