Klarinet Archive - Posting 000627.txt from 1999/11

From: ShawThings@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Jazz Mouthpieces
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 12:03:15 -0500

Is "Dixieland revival" actually happening?
What a horrid prospect.
Here's a bit of unsolicited, gratuitous info. I apologise in advance for
wasting time and space, but I find the tendency of many otherwise
well-educated musos to bundle older jazz styles together in the "trad" (or
worse, "Dixieland") category as very uninformed and irritating.
Most historically-aware musicians probably know that the original "Dixieland"
was the frenetic (and to modern listeners, insufferably corny) ensemble style
which gained phenomenal popularity when the first "jass" records made by the
ODJB (Original Dixieland Jazzband) in 1917 got into circulation.
That style, which is almost pure vaudville with hardly any real "jazz"
elements (improvisation, solos, harmonic adventuresness) seems to have been
developed by usually technically proficient Southern white players who
copied, or perhaps parodied their negro/creole contemporaries, none of whom
got to record until 1923, by which time the copying/parodying had gone the
full circle.
Even so, the best early black bands nearly always display more rhythmic, and
usually harmonic, sophistication than their copiers.
No thanks to the ODJB (who inspired squillions of second-hand copyists) the
"Dixieland" label seems to have stuck to all pre-swing era jazz (especially
small group varieties) and its descendents, despite the vast diversity of
styles which they encompass.
I think the lisening population in general now associate the "Dixieland"
description with middle-aged white players who dress in coloured waistcoats,
wear straw boaters and play pop tunes in a frenetic style directly descended
from the ODJB, using a rhythm sections which depend heavily on tuba and
banjo. - Usually functional, but rarely aesthetic.
Kenny Davern ( a fabulous technician and master of clever tonal and pitch
inflections) doesn't play in that style any more than Bob Brookmeyer and
Jimmie Guiffre do. Neither do Kenny Davern's most important inspirations and
precursors - If you (Craig) have been delighted by "just discoveing Kenny
Davern" - get an earful of the 1926-35 recordings of Jimmie Noone (1895-1944)
and the young (pre-swing) 1929-34 Benny Goodman and you'll hear some REAL
clarinet playing which has almost nothing to do with the modern conception of
"Dixieland" or "trad"!
Tim Shaw

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