[Dixielandjazz] "Taming" jazz, overcoming musical obstacles (was Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street)

[Charles Suhor]

I suppose that the CMSof LBS was one of the frequent attempts to present watered down the Dixieland style for those who thought it should be “tamed” to sound smoother. I recall that in the later 40s Pee Wee Hunt had an pretty good Dixieland combo when he stumbled into a hit with what he thought was a cornball version to 12th Street Rag. He shifted from corny to comatose, successfully, with a straight-sounding arrangement of “Oh.” Sharkey Bonano did some good jazz when he got a contract with Capitol around 1950 or so, but desperately sought a commercial hit with some C&W and other bad guesses. Can’t blame people for wanting to make dough, and maybe the decisions were by the A&R men at the record companies. 

How prevalent (and his annoying) has this been in jazz history? The ODJB’s early freewheeling jazz turned boring when they grew famous and saw the trend towards swing. Then, some artists seemed to be able to transcend restrictive materials and musical environments and let expressiveness shine through. Louis? Billie? Bix? Bechet? Billie? Bird? Clifford? Ella? Peggy Lee? Nat King Cole? Pete Fountain?  

Charlie




> On Jul 23, 2015, at 4:36 AM, Bill Haesler <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> 
> Charles Suhor wrote:
> 
>> A footnote--the internet I.D.'d Levine as the leader of a group called the Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, which had an NBC radio show. I used to hear the program and found the group bland. I had a 78 rpm of the group backing up a Lena Horne on "Aunt Hagar's Blues." It was a pretty wooden performance all around, less swinging than the nice "When My Sugar" Soundie. I don't know the rest of the players but suspect they were heard to better advantage elsewhere.
> 
> Dear Charlie,
> The Henry Levine Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street was a studio group and had basically the same personnel as the Linda Keene sessions.
> Others who played with the band included Jack Epstein (trombone), Harry Stitman (drums), Bob Burns (clarinet), Gene Traxler (bass), Sam Weiss (drums) and Murray Cohen (tenor).
> It was the guests who were the attraction: Sidney, Bechet, Dinah Shore, Linda Keene, Paul Laval,Benny Carter and WC Handy.
> Our young mob  in the 40s never considered the music jazz, notwithstanding its 'Dixieland' tag.
> Not when Eddie  Condon, Muggsy Spanier Wild Bill Davison et were playing the real stuff at the same time.
> Henry Levine knew what jazz was about, but the program producers obviously had didn't.
> OK, the bland non-swinging Chamber Music Society records are in my collection, but that does not mean that I like them. 
> Kind regards,
> Bill.