[Dixielandjazz] Slim Gaillard

[Charles Suhor]

The JAZZ SCORE program sounds great—wish we’d had it in the States. I missed out on that, and on a lot of live jazz beyond New Orleans during my youth. Because of the laws against integrated performers on stage and the lack of decent facilities for black artists in the the Deep South, we weren’t on the tour stops for many bands and singers until the early/mid sixties, when Al Belletto at the Playboy and AL Hirt at his club had integrated bands and imported national stars into the clubs. Prior to that, the Jim Crow laws were often ignored by musicians, sometimes with humorous, sometimes bloody, consequences. You listmates elsewhere lived in the more accepting environments than were found anywhere in the U.S., and reaped great benefits. Plus, the popular trad revival in the US had faded by the mid fifties, overtaken by R&B and rock, but was kept alive, as I understand, in England and elsewhere. Not until Preservation Hall in 1961 and the marching band revival that followed did earlier jazz forms get wide attention again, beyond individuals like Fountain and Hirt. Interwoven ironies.

Charlie


On Aug 14, 2015, at 12:33 PM, ROBERT R. CALDER <serapion at btinternet.com> wrote:
> 
> I forgot to include in my rhapsody over Slim's rhapsody over the tiple that its magnificence was immediately recognised. 
> As soon as Slim had ended his description of the balmy  scene, where the music and atmosphere was such that the people present would   M E L T   the chairman of this magnificent neo-quiz (whose real purpose was to elicit comic stories, banter and reminiscences) the journalist-novelist-saxophonist Benny Green awarded in a loud voice 
> 
> ELEVEN POINTS!  
> A modest award for a monologue of such transcendent glory!I also recall that Slim did disappoint people by failure to recognise the alto saxophone of Ernie Henry. 
> 
> Vout-O'Rooney!
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