[Dixielandjazz] three clarinets

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

I'm afraid I think Alain is the one not distinguishing between grammar and poetry, if unable as yet to hear what was being accomplished on that performance by rather accumulation than selection. 
His relation to that music might be analogous to for instance Marek's and other listmates' to bop and post-bop, or the relation of some people who like no jazz to any jazz. "Nothing to tell" (or "nothing to say") is just wrong, it is a case of no message getting through -- though there is no reason why anyone would necessarily have to find what is in that music. 
Of course one difference between various jazz-players and non-jazz performers of European concert music has been that some of the things jazzfolk play on stage expresses what the non-jazz players get on with offstage -- though a number of wartime charities did benefit from concerts at which, quite possibly with Yank Lawson and Billy Butterfield in the NBC symphony orchestra, Toscanini wore a wig down his back the better to resemble Stokowski, and parodied the caressing hand-movements that maestro was almost notorious for. 
"Mamie's Blues" is an intriguing choice of alternative, for Morton was much criticised by his wife for having performed that little masterpiece, a recording from which some listeners might falsely conclude that Morton was a primitive with no technique -- and one night playing the Morton studio recording a friend and I were asked by a lady what it was all about, for nothing seemed to be happening. 
I happen to think that the usual drone about it being all a matter of subjective individual taste is a load of crap predicated on avoiding the danger of obsessives coming to blows. Subjective individual taste is for wallpaper. 
Alain is perfectly right to ask questions.

Robert R. Calder 



Hello,

I will be very "uncorrect". By listening this way of playing jazz, I 
regreet that many artists make no difference between grammar and 
poetry.  May be am I too demanding? Too many notes, no silences, nothing 
to tell...I'll just go to listen once more "Mamie's blues."
Sorry.
Alain de La Simone