[Dixielandjazz] Whiteman - Welk

[Robert Ringwald]

Nick Dragos was a long-time broadcaster on the local Sacramento Jazz FM station. I sent him some posts about Whiteman and Welk and here is his very well written response. 

Unfortunately I cannot entice him to join DJML. 

******

Bob,
Any guy who would pay good bucks to record Johnny Hodges on an album
like Lawrence Welk did deserves kudos...........but I'm a lifelong Hodges fan,
so I'm biased beyond belief!
As far as I could see, Paul Whiteman was a major force in jazz, even though
he himself was not a jazz-oriented performer. Hiring Bix and other solid jazz
stars and giving them plenty of solo space on major recordings is hardly a bad
thing.......hiring Mildred Bailey & Bing Crosby as vocalists, giving these major
innovators their first major national public exposure, is surely not to his
discredit.
Look at the noted jazz giants who, before Whiteman hired them, were
barely noticed by the public....Red Norvo, Jack Teagarden and several
others were able to command much bigger paychecks after their Whiteman
tenure...and, by the way, their stints with Whiteman didn't seem to destroy
their jazz credibility in later years like they say it did to Bix, now did it?
All that bullshit by pseudo-intellectual critics and commentators about Bix
being driven to drink and destruction by being "stuck" in Whiteman's band
completely missed the point: Bix, from all fairly unbiased research I've seen
from the late great Dick Sudhalter and others, liked being in Whiteman's band,
was paid great money for doing so {despite an almost complete inability to
read music at anything more than a rudimentary level}, was given the freedom
to record many small group sessions {which are what we really remember most
about Bix}, proudly sent home copies of every Whiteman recording he was
featured on {which were, according to accounts, left unopened by his family}
and rubbed elbows with some of the most prominent musical figures in
American music.
And, lest we forget, after Bix burned himself out and couldn't continue to
perform, Whiteman continued to pay Beiderbecke his handsome salary
for months.
As for Welk......he, too, featured several jazz stars within his own context
and it worked quite well. Although it wasn't a primary focus of his
presentations, Welk's band could swing hard if called upon...on the
reruns of those vintage programs on PBS stations, every once in a while
a delightful swing performances rears its head.
And, lest we forget, the music business is just that: business. Welk created
a solid business empire, extending to television and recording production
and ownership, and died a very wealthy, successful man. Sadly, few jazz
performers accomplish this, as we all know far too well.
Dragos