[Dixielandjazz] No longer about what constitutes a good solo

[Gary Lawrence Murphy]

I had a revelation about this some years ago after playing at an
old-time country music jamboree and then needing to play a children's
fund broadcast on the radio, May and I left early for the town; coming
off stage the rest of the musicians from the jamboree had arrived to
do their radio broadcast set later in the evening and in the dressing
rooms May mentioned to one of them that she played a little bit of
fiddle and they insisted she play a little for them; upon hearing her
one of them said, "No no it goes like *this*" and played the same
piece with expert inflections and another said, "no no, you have to
dig in like *this*" and off the two of them went trading fours back
and fourth like greased lightening -- I had my mandolin and was
desperately trying to keep up, thinking to myself wow, I had no idea
these guys could rip it up like this and if they had a CD, man I'd buy
it!

Then came their call to the stage and we watched over the monitors
and, y'know, they played so straight!!  "This one goes out to Mrs K
who's husband passed away last year, it was their favourite song" and
so on, and it suddenly hit me: if you want to show off, do it
backstage among the musicians, but when you're on that stage, you are
there to fulfil a duty, to perform an anthropological necessity, so
you take it seriously, and do your job.  This was a whole new concept
in playing from my perspective, a whole new reason for making music.
It was invigorating ;)

So I'd have to agree: if you're playing a dance, the boys are there
for the girls, the girls are there for the boys, and the musicians
have a duty to facilitate that -- grandstanding of any sort is in bad
taste.  That said, if you get too boring, your musicians will revolt,
so I think it behoves us to explore the middle ground, as Charles
Mingus said, you have to play challenging music that *sounds* simple.

My band of young players played our first ever dance last weekend, and
it was just coincidentally badly timed to follow our main soloists
having just discovered taking multiple choruses.  To some extent it
was needed and appreciated because to play a dance you can't be
changing tunes every two minutes (except in medleys as the trad
fiddlers often do) but we also learned the hard way what Benny Goodman
had said about needing to stick to that 3-minute mark -- some dancers
really do appreciate a longer time on the dance floor, but you tire
them out way too soon and we'd lost a third of them by the last tune
of the set (we got lots of praise and asked if we'd come back in the
fall, so it wasn't that they just didn't like us)

I think this also comes back to what Sun Ra said about having to
master how to play the audience ;)  It's not enough to simply have
killer chops -- many years ago I received a perfect put-down by a
senior player, we were both playing electric mandolins, and after my
solo he leaned over to me and said, in a droll sort of tone, "You have
all the right notes, and in the right order too" but I got a clear
sense that he'd meant something more ;)

On 6/21/13, Phil Wilking <arnold.wilking at earthlink.net> wrote:
> ONLY?? Nope! But what constitutes a "good band" varies somewhat with the
> situation.
>
> If I go to hear you, then you are the primary center of attention, even if
> it is at a dance. If my intention is to dance with the lady, then you are
> NOT my primary center of attention, and if you persist in trying to make me
>
> your primary center of attention, I'll suggest to her that we go somewhere
> else.
>
> I have no idea what you have been doing all your life.
>
> Aha! I think I have found one cause of our miscommunication: "fan." I am a
> "fan" of the older style of the music, not of any great number of individual
>
> musicians, except as they execute the music. If that means we shall never be
>
> beer-buddies, I can live with it.
>
> Phil Wilking - K5MZF
> www.nolabanjo.com
>
> Those who would exchange freedom for
> security deserve neither freedom nor security.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Heist
>
> Are you serious????  You can ONLY appreciate music and listen to a good
> band
> at a CONCERT????
> Then what the Hell have I been doing all my life!  With fans like you, I
> would have given up music YEARS ago!
>
>
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