<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><BODY BGCOLOR="#3dffff"><FONT SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">In a message dated 2/8/2003 1:13:56 AM Eastern Standard Time, dixielandjazz-request@ml.islandnet.com writes:<BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Introduction to Dixieland Music<BR>
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Dan Spink adds his erudition:<BR>
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If you read the "official" history texts and sit at the feet of the jazz "professors" you will quickly learn that Dixieland, (and Ragtime as well), was actually invented by young blacks so that it could be played many years later by old white guys. It's only real reason for being was to provide a legitimate transition and platform for the creation of "real jazz;" that is, very fast played, turning the piano into a single line instrument that never plays rhythm, and the melody is never to be played straight unless the bar owner threatens to fire you if you don't. You should therefore steep yourself in the arrogant teachings of these wisemen and try very hard to get to like music that has constant 4/4/ beat, that uses only very big, complex, hard to play chords to impress everybody, (or at least other musicians who can't find the right notes of those chords quite often). So be careful in listening to Louis Armstrong, Bix, Wild Bill, Bob Scobey, Pee Wee Hunt, and so many more of the "ancients" because you might get to like that music even better (I'm sorry to have said it out loud like that) than the "real jazz" sometimes called "modern jazz" or whatever. <BR>
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Dan (piano fingers) Spink</FONT></HTML>