[Dixielandjazz] Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 135, Issue 9

[Lindsay Meech]

Good one Joe!

Sent from my iPad

> On 9/03/2014, at 9:00 am, dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
> 
>   1. Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism (Joe Carbery)
>   2. FW:  wikipedia (Jim Kashishian)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2014 18:58:19 +1300
> From: Joe Carbery <joe.carbery at gmail.com>
> To: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism
> Message-ID:
>    <CAEKK+Ey1h3VStf3hX8LznmzMgs6vgiYmGJwGRdHOzfLsEviUSA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> Dear Listmates,
> 
> Here's the text of a review of the above book I submitted to Amazon:
> 
> Review of *Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism*
> 
> By
> 
> Thomas Brothers
> 
> (Norton)
> 
> I ordered this book on-line and received it with some excitement. I was
> very disappointed. Brothers is a professor of music at Duke University, so
> I expected a learned treatise from a musicological point of view. Instead
> Brothers takes a sociological approach, emphasising racial issues
> throughout the book. Not being an American I may be missing the need for
> the racial emphasis, but it appears to be much over-emphasized to me.
> 
> Some examples: "....he slayed the ofay demons with *West End Blues." *(Apart
> from not being able to make sense of this statement, I would have thought
> "ofay" an insulting racial epithet.
> 
> He says Louis sang *Sleepy Time Down South *"to assure white audiences on a
> deep level that he had no designs on social progress." So he didn't
> actually like the song? Why did he continue to sing it to the end of his
> career?
> 
> On page 443 he makes reference to "the white mind." What or whose white
> mind? This implies all "white" people have the same attitude. Did John
> Hammond have the same mindset as a KKK member? Does Brothers himself? This
> sort of lazy generalisation is extremely irritating and is unbecoming from
> an academic musicologist.
> 
> Speaking of a Betty Boop cartoon: "the lure of African-American jazz and
> its dangerous potential to seduce white women and, with that, the threat to
> *the* purity of the white race." What balderdash!
> 
> His musical analysis can obfuscate more than it illuminates: "What made
> Louis Armstrong great? Put generally, his greatness emerged from a unique
> combination of where he came from, who he was, and the conditions that
> shaped his career. The inspired melodic results of this configuration still
> hold a powerful attraction, many generations later." What meaningless
> piffle! It tells us nothing. Put "Mozart" in the sentence and it would tell
> us just as little about him.
> 
> The record Lil & Louis made with Jimmy Rodgers is "heavily laden with
> racist ideologies." I've heard this recording for years and just heard a
> country singer making Lil and Louis really stretch their ears!
> 
> I wonder if Brothers has played any jazz. In *Blue Yodel Number 9 *he says
> Lil was using a lead sheet. I doubt Rodgers would or could have prepared on
> (who would for a blues) and if he had it'd be useless since he wouldn't
> stick to it!
> 
> He says of Louis' solo on *Body & Soul *"Armstrong stays very close to the
> tune; he probably felt constrained by the unusual and challenging harmonies
> of the original."  This is an amazing statement from a musician. As
> written, the chords of the tune are simple. The tricky bits are the two
> modulations in the middle eight. Once one is aware of them the tune is
> simple. I wonder if Brothers ever played it? Or can he play.
> 
> The book is full of such flawed conclusions.
> 
> Finally, he accuses Bix Beiderbecke of pederasty and masochism as part of a
> "shadowy sexual deviance" but offers no supporting evidence.
> 
> I could go on, but I think the above shows why I was so disappointed.
> 
> 
> 
> Joe Carbery.
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2014 10:14:06 +0100
> From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
> To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] FW:  wikipedia
> Message-ID: <881FA6ED76CA44B998676FF126B5DDFF at JIM>
> Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"
> 
> This came to me a couple of days ago.  Mike must be one of those that can't
> now post to the list, and he asked me to post this for him (but I forgot).
> Here it is....referring that Wiki shouldn't be just read and taken as total
> truth always.  Jim
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: M J [Mike] Logsdon [mailto:mjl at ix.netcom.com] 
> Sent: lunes, 03 de marzo de 2014 17:10
> To: jim at kashprod.com
> Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] wikipedia
> 
> [Jim:  Please forward to list.  Thanks.]
> 
> Wikipedia has evolved over the years from highly questionable to only
> moderately questionable, in my opinion.  And, also in my opinion, I think
> one needs to have a researcher's skepticism when using it.  Meaning, one
> almost, in a sense, needs to know the answer before one even finds it.  And
> admittedly, when it comes to music, bands, recordings, etc, and other such
> things that lend themselves to less-than-objective comments, one needs to be
> on even more of an alert.  But I use it frequently, and generally find it
> mostly useful, especially if one isn't prone to take it, as you say, "as
> gospel".  The other day I wanted to know more about club soda.  I'm on the
> opinion that Wikipedia did not fill my head with falsehoods.  :-)=
> 
> Sent from my cOmputer
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
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> End of Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 135, Issue 9
> *********************************************