[Dixielandjazz] dixieland style for trumpet

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

While Eddie Condon seems never to have pretended to be a trumpeter, other than on the Hackett Pickin' Blues on which he seems to have held the blessed Bobby's horn while Bobby soloed on guitar, his advice to Bob Wilber -- "make some mistakes!" -- as reported by Maestro Wilber has a lot to it. 
 
It's a matter of listening to recognise what you are not doing, and working out what if anything you are doing wrong, when any attempt is being made to play or sing in whatever style. It does help to appreciate how far musicians of the 1930s were accustomed to standards of phrasing which more recent performers have not thought about. Operatic singers recorded on 78 rpm discs were part of the tradition. That sort of business is missing in performers with too narrow a background, for instance one limited to music parasitic on jazz.  
 
Not everything bel canto operatic singers did goes into the Louis Armstrong way, and there are things an operatically trained singer has to avoid doing when trying something nearer jazz.  And not doing these things definitely amounts to mistakes when trying to sing Bellini. 
The difference between Louis and for instance Renato Bruson is not that Louis approximates to the great bel canto singer on trumpet, but that on trumpet he takes some things farther than a human voice can. Which is an important aspect of jazz. 
Learning a style is a work of the ears, and an art of emulation. Beware of imitation. 
 
 
I did once try to oblige a pianist by coaching him in blues playing, but he kept saying that this or that was part of his personal style.
Nope!  He was veering into the area where the completely individual is the completely bad. And the sort of thing which accomplished musicians still manage to produce when their love of jazz doesn't inhibit them from playing meaningless consonances. If it don't mean a thing it do not swing!
 
 
Robert R. Calder