[Dixielandjazz] In search of a non-tragic jazz hero

[domitype .]

How about some of the more famous women of early jazz - Mary Lou Williams,
Lil Hardin, Josephine Baker, Blanche Calloway, Valaida Snow, I'm sure there
are several others. They all had very interesting stories
(especially Josephine Baker and Valaida Snow!)

Dave Richoux

On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 5:28 PM, Charles Suhor <csuhor at zebra.net> wrote:

> Going back to your criteria below, it seems that you're looking to get
> (a) the most educational mileage (vis a vis the history of jazz)
> (b) a good story (some drama in it) that
> (c) doesn't have basic negativity or a bad role model (alcoholism),
> (d) with accessible charts for the live band to play as "illustrations."
>
> Louis was perfect for this, but a lot of great players don't fill the bill
> well for one or more of the criteria. As an educator, I'd be focused on (a)
> as a starting point. Since you've done Louis, maybe swing era figures like
> the Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, Goodman, or Duke Ellington would meet
> all the standards. An interesting question--thanks for posting.
>
> Charlie
>
> On Dec 9, 2014, at 2:24 PM, Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote:
>
> > just to be clear, we're not *telling* them about jazz music, we
> > *demonstrate* the music by playing it for them -- it is a musical
> > show, so what we need to do is to bring together 15 or so tunes that
> > can be strung together to tell the story.
> >
> > would be very hard to do a Bria Skolberg with myself cast in the lead
> > role -- even youngsters can only suspend belief so far before it snaps
> > ;)
> >
> > The Dorsey Brothers or even to build a show around Nat Shilkret or
> > Goldman's band is maybe a workable idea, it binds together what was
> > happening in the pre-war Chicago that is then channelled into the
> > swing era by the youngsters in the band!
>
>
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