[Dixielandjazz] RV: screw the changes

[jim at kashprod.com]

Marek Boym <marekboym at gmail.com>   Call me a reactionary, but "free" music means cacophony.  Full stop.

Cheers

 

On Wed, 7 Oct 2020 at 10:11, Robert Ringwald < <mailto:rsr at ringwald.com> rsr at ringwald.com> wrote:

I hate Free Jazz, or whatever you want to call it. 

 

-Bob

 

 

While I doubt I would put up with actually sitting & listening to “free Jazz”, I did have an experience with it in the late 1960’s, playing that is, and actually enjoyed it.  To explain, I should say that what I really enjoyed was the coming back out of the free part & back to the magical, swinging, together all the band, bit!  

 

I was working nitely with musicians way over my head as far as talent goes, but I managed keep my head above water most of the time with them.  It was a mix of some (not enough!) Dixieland, standards, and some more far out stuff.  Any given tune could break into a “free” section, practically without warning, and the really great part for me was getting back to the tune itself.  This “rejoining” of the whole band just sort of happened, mostly driven by the drummer, and it can be a really magical moment for the musicians.  

 

Can’t say the audience would get much out of that moment, though.  And, there lies one of the secrets why our kind of Jazz can be so popular with a general public.  We, most of us, anyway, play for our audiences.  Once a musician starts playing “for himself”, then he can easily lose that precious connection with the audience. (*)  And, that was what that “free” business felt to me….like we were playing for our own enjoyment, and to hell with the public listening.  Granted, back then, we were playing midnite to 4am, 7 nites a week, so sometimes we might have an empty club at certain hours….so, why not have a bit of personal fun?

 

(*)  Maybe, if all goes well with an audience, a band can squeeze in a song or two in a set which is for their own particular enjoyment (or as an “Jazz Educational tool” for the audience).  But, overall, a performance has to be aimed at pleasing those who paid to get in.

 

Jim

 

 

 

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