Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2014-05-13 16:21
John Morton wrote:
"Roppolo, Goodman, Fazzola, Fountain, Shields: all white players. Bechet, Noone, Dodds, Nicholas, Simeon, Bigard, Cotrell: all black players. Different teachers, separate bands, separate cultures in the early years of jazz."
John, your broad, pedantic brush strokes are misleading and unhelpful in what has been an historically sensitive subject for just about all jazz musicians, but is particularly acute in a discussion of jazz clarinet.
Race, culture, and history are of course very important subjects. But they aren't anywhere near as clear or segregated as you have stated. For example, Benny Goodman (son Russian Jewish immigrants), Buster Bailey (Black), and Jimmie Noone (Creole) all took lessons from Franz Schoepp (German) in Chicago (so much for your theory that they all had separate teachers). Pete Fountain (of French descent) sat in with George Lewis (Black) at a formative stage of his career. Barney Bigard (Creole) derided George Lewis (Black) and Johnny Dodds (Black) in print. In today's scene, very recently in DownBeat, Evan Christopher has said he is in the specifically CREOLE tradition--a sentiment shared to at least some degree by Victor Goines. Christopher even lamented that the "Creole tradition" was effectively gone from New Orleans by the time he got there--Willie Humphrey having died months before his arrival in NOLA. In doing so, he side-stepped some of the other people of color who play clarinet in New Orleans, and who claim Humphrey as an influence. These kinds of words can ignite firestorms, and I have no interest in setting any off--just be aware that your facile categories of "black" and "white", and your erroneous history that suggests these traditions were more or less perfectly segregated, is deeply misleading and unhelpful.
Earlier you posted that all great New Orleans clarinetists had studied with Tio. You were wrong. Roppolo didn't--he was a great New Orleans jazz clarinetist, and from New Orleans. He was also a huge influence on Benny Goodman, despite the fact that they didn't share ethnic background (remember that 'Italian' and 'Jew' in early 20th century were hardly considered very close ethnically--there are many who at that time would not have referred to either as "white"). Jimmie Noone was also a huge influence on Goodman's style--anyone who has studied Goodman can hear it. Less well known is the massive influence Goodman had on Edmond Hall, Barney Bigard, and Jimmy Hamilton (all of whom cited him as an influence--Hamilton even went on record saying he'd transcribed Goodman's solos). So much for NOLA or "black" players being uninfluenced by "white" ones.
You'll never catch me saying ethnicity, race, or geography is unimportant. I think all of these things matter and come into play. But everyone who has entered this world of jazz owes a great debt, somewhere, to someone who doesn't have the same same skin color or ethnicity as them--whether they acknowledge that debt or not. I count as personal friends many people of many different racial backgrounds, who have spent lifetimes in this music. I respect all of them and each of their own struggles.
Ned, if you agree with him, I suggest you study more.
Eric
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The Jazz Clarinet
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