[Dixielandjazz] two comments

[Charles Suhor]

I listened to this, and it’s hard to react. The trumpeter-teacher, obviously an adult pro, is carrying the jazz feeling, The kids are mostly reading the music that's on the floor without a lot of natural swing. The culture has changed beyond recognition, but when in New Orleans as teen (and I suspect in many cities in pre-rock & roll times), the musical environment and kid-adult everyday camaraderie were such that apprenticeship and enthusiasm evolved pretty naturally. The generational peers who I played with, surrounded by Dixieland and swing as we grew up, included Connie Jones, Bill Huntington, Buddy Prima, Reed Vaughan, Charlie (Chicken) May, Nick LaRocca, Jr., Al Hermann, Cecile Laurie, Theresa Kelly, Larry Muhoberac, Murphy Campo, Pee Wee Spitelera….Only 3 to 7 years older were the Assunto brothers, Pete Fountain, Don Suhor,  Al Belletto, Jack Delaney, Herbie Tassin, Stan Mendellson, Johnny McGhee, Al McCrossen, Lou Timken, Oliver (Stick) Felix, Don Lasday. (Pardon any omissions and misspellings). The ones in the list you haven’t heard of were equally or more talented than the ones you know.

The local environment explains much of that, I suppose, but I suspect there was talent DNA afloat as well. The point, if there is one, is that an ear and a bent for improvisation with a jazz feeling seem most often to come from within, discovered in some cases, teachable in others, but not convincingly evoked for most youth in a short jazz camp setting. To quote Thornton Wilder, it don’t do no, harm, I guess. But is it the basis for a new generation of players of what we call OKOM? Okay, I wrote this in haste and am ready for views that will lighten me up. Maybe your own experiences as learners of the music will bring other perspectives.


> On Jun 19, 2017, at 10:31 AM, Les Elkins <leslie.r.elkins at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> >1)  Young Kids have NO jazz feelings!
> 
> I'm just back to the real world from the New Orleans Adult Traditional Jazz Camp, held last week. This time around it included a number of Young Kids. They were in the ensembles like the rest of us, and while like the rest of us many have a ways to go, I'll strongly disagree with "NO" feeling. But the camp brought their scholarship students into WWOZ for a bit, so judge for yourself....
> 
> https://www.wwoz.org/events/247086 <https://www.wwoz.org/events/247086>
> 
> For me- it took me many years to find this music. I just can't imagine being exposed to this stuff at their age, and I am confident to say that if I had been, it would have been a stretch for me to have been anywhere close to as competent, musical, or as overall nice as these folks are.
> 
> -Les Elkins
> 
> 
> -- 
> "NEVER use a maj7 chord in any bar that is named after a deceased NASCAR 
>   driver, a large-calibre firearm, or an intoxicated farm animal." 
> -Rev. Billy C. Wirtz's Universal Chord Law
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
> 
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
> 
> 
> 
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ml.islandnet.com/pipermail/dixielandjazz/attachments/20170619/ad3e91d2/attachment.html>