[Dixielandjazz] Jazz is where you find it.

[Pat Ladd]

My previous post about my disagreement with a teacher about `what is jazz.

I have just returned from a week in France and the small village in the middle of Brittany in which I was staying was advertising `Jazz` in a local hall.
Not expecting much I went along.
A strange hall filled with statues and paintings by local talent. A makeshift bar selling Coke, beer and coffee.

A nice stage. No lights or anything fancy. Painted on three suitcases propped up on the stage front were the words DANS MA VALISE.
This was the name of the band which consisted of a pear shaped female singer of around 45/50 vintage, a string bass, a chromatic accordion a saxplayer baritone doubling bass sax and a drummer.
The drummer had a the strangest set up I have ever seen. A low stool with a bass drum. A very shallow snare,a couple of cymbals, a minute set of tubular bells and a washboard which he had mounted horizontally across his left knee..Plus a couple of large tom tomsHe poked at his kit like a vicar inspecting a dodgy piece of fish and he held the brushes in a sort of `penholder grip. He wore thimbles which he used on the washboard and the toms.

The sound was VERY French but it swung. Each of the musicians was good/The drummer was brilliant and kept a very complicated back beat going, but spot on the time.
The singer had an accurate and very interesting voice. Only with the standard jazz tunes was I able to make a comparison. Georgia etc and, as the French do they seem to accent the `wrong` beat.
A very good evenings entertainment. Not something that could be categorised as `jazz` but done with a jazz beat jazzsinging.
I would have described it to my dissenting teacher as jazz. He would not have agreed

Pat