[Dixielandjazz] Latin Influences on Early Jazz

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Folks,

Just a quickie with some responses to questions raised by listmates in 
this interesting thread:

Charlie asked about choro on Youtube: there's stacks of it there 
covering all the eras. Chiquinha Gonzalez for the 19th century 
beginnings, Ernesto Nazareth for the early 20th century, Pixinguinha for 
the 1920s to 40s,
Jacob do Bandolim for the 1950s & 60, Severino Araujo for big band 
choro, Paulo Moura for contemporary recreations of choro from earlier 
eras, and any number of recent choro players who have revived the 
tradition and are writing new material.

Dave wondered about the pronunciation of Pixinguinha and was close with 
his 2nd option: it should peesh-een-geenya (the "n" sounds are nasalised 
and the "g" is hard). If anyone is looking for translations or 
pronunciations, just let me know: I lived in Brasil and speak 
Portuguese. I also played in a night club in Sao Paulo and learned the 
hard way about the difference between "gringo samba" and the real thing. 
Dave also gave a link to a choro blogspot at 
http://choro-music.blogspot.com/  and that is a fantastic resource for 
anyone interested in choro. It's also in English.

I mentioned Martinique beguines as being similar to New Orleans Creole 
music: Youtube has some great tracks by Ernest Leardee. Look for the 
items with artwork of palm trees in a yellow square. They all feature 2 
clarinets plus rhythm and their improvisations remind me strongly of the 
playing of Big Eye Louis Nelson and Alphonse Picou on the Kid Rena 
sides. Try Ce Filon for starters, but they're all lovely tracks. If you 
want to hear the beguine tradition at an earlier stage Youtube also has 
tracks by Alexandre Stellio.

For anyone wanting to hear what drummers get up to in Scottish Country 
Dance Bands try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_TizUEE_aE and see if 
you can see what Jake Hanna was getting at when he said he could hear 
lots of this drumming in the playing of the early jazz drummers. It 
pushes the music along and would swing if the heavy downbeats on piano 
and bass were removed and replaced with a 4 feel.

Right, enough already, I'm off to listen to some jazz now!

Cheers,
Ken