[Dixielandjazz] The Brager Report

[Al Levy]

On 10/12/2020 3:18 PM, Stan Brager wrote:
> There are many kinds of music other than Dixieland - folk music, classical,
> jazz, etc. To disparage any of them, tells me that you have not put your
> heart into the music to find the beauty in the music.   It's like going to
> another country and saying their language is not worth listening to.  But if
> try to learn that language, you'll find people and cultures which can
> enhance your understanding of them and their culture.
Amen and Amen!

B.T.W. To my knowledge, music is the only universal language.
I remember hearing and being enchanted by The Watusi Drummers at the New 
York Worlds Fair.
I have a ten inch LP that I bought in New York's Chinatown with 
classical Chinese music.
Some time after high school I worked at an Arabic (mostly Syrian) hotel 
in the Catskills.
For non- New Yorkers - This is Rip Van Winkle country, north of the 
"Jewish Alps."
I worked with Ray Atwan (trpt), Eddie Kochak (Syrian drums) and Danny 
(?) a drummer I met in high school.
One night all the guests and the band and the hired help sat at a very 
long table.
All was quiet, not a murmur. An elderly man sat at the head of the table.
It appeared to me that he was sitting on a pile of satin cushions.
There was an instrument, perhaps a zither, in front of that gentleman.
While the room was absolutely still the man was served a glass of wine.
He sipped from the glass, took a deep breath, put the instrument on his 
lap and tuned it up. (quarter tones)
We then sat trough an hour of zither and vocal.

Danny, our drummer, quietly slipped out of the room.
He couldn't take the musical scale. (perhaps 16 notes from C to E.)
I whispered to Ray "what are the lyrics?"
Ray replied with "a boy meets a girl, the girl likes the boy" and so on.

What fascinated me, aside from the music was the respect the performer 
received!
I was used to the "Borscht Belt". Guests would yell at the band
"Hey! Can't you play any softer? or louder? or faster? or slower?" etc

But I digress. I have in my Lp collection Greek Music, Oriental Opera, 
African Music (Missa Creole sung in Bantu)
Bach to Bartok, Bunk to Monk, Robert Farnon and even Guy Lombardo.
Lombardo was Satcmo's favorite band.
It is written: "for everything there is a time"
Stay safe, stay well, and prosper,
Al

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