[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland (?) Jazz

Gary Lawrence Murphy garym at teledyn.com
Mon Aug 5 19:17:50 PDT 2013


When I ran my own jazz record store back in Winnipeg in the 70's, I'd
already come to the conclusion the marketing labels for all musics was
of dubious value.  My approach was to identify lineage on the idea
that music is viral, that you 'catch' something from the people you
play with, and carry that with you as you go.  So I used a label maker
to colour-code all the LP cards such that cards with a similar colour
in one slot may have some association such as record producer or
having been a sideman to a common band-leader.  Some cards were fairly
sparce, some were a jungle of colours.

Not one customer ever figured it out on their own, and most couldn't
follow it when I explained it to them, but nonetheless the act of
explaining it very often lead to wonderful discussions :)  I think the
lesson I learned was that a record store is only as good as it's
owner's ability to engage the customers.

My wall display was more successful: I set LPs in two interweaving
streams, one for 'dance' music, the other for 'serious' music,
beginning with the oldest recordings at the back of the store and
building up to modern times by the front.  And that distinction also
seems to have served me well in other situations, describing it as
dance vs concert, or as some say now (since most venues ban dancing)
back-of-seat vs edge-of-seat music ;)

On Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 6:33 PM, Jack Mitchell <fjmitch at westnet.com.au> wrote:
> Back in the sixties Australian jazzman Len Barnard observed that when we
> became jazz enthusiets in the forties we called the jazz of the twenties
> "classic jazz" . Now in the sixties, he said, bebop etc has been around for
> the same period. Should we now call bebop "classic jazz".
>
> Of course Len was only stirring the possum, and nobody, at least in
> Australia, fell for the trap.
>
> Best wishes
> Jack Mitchell
>
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