Klarinet Archive - Posting 001330.txt from 1997/08

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Cuesta
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 22:12:19 -0400

On Sat, 30 Aug 1997 Gary_VanCott@-----.com wrote:

> Pete Fountain wasn't a regular member of the Welk band since he doesn't
> (as far as I know) play sax and doesn't read music. He just played solos
> with the band. I don't think he enjoyed his time in L.A. much, but it
> helped make him better known.

Fountain didn't do much to ingratiate himself to Welk or Welk fans when he
left the band, making the now infamous statement, "Jazz is jazz and square
is square, and never the twain shall meet." Then, some of the other jazz
musicians of that day wondered which side of that fence Fountain himself
was on. At that time, a jazz musician who considered himself "hip"
exhibited a large amount of disdain for Dixieland, and especially for
commercial Dixieland. It was part of the personna of those jazz musicians
to categorize music, and to classify people according to what kind of
music they liked. I don't say this critically. Today, we have a
different and, it is to be hoped, broader perspective about music. But,
that was an earlier time, and we didn't have the benefit of 20/20
hindsight as we tried to understand the relationships between the various
types of music and its aesthetics and sociology.

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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