Copyright © 1998-2000 Cliff Morris
A couple of years ago, I posted the following text to an Internet site called the Dixieland Jazz Mailing List. This excellent gathering of musicians, most of them professionals, boasts many who have worked over the years with the legends of Dixieland and Swing music. Properly impressed with the gathering there: accomplished musicians, tech wizards, broadcasters, just plain jazz lovers and a couple of movie stars, I soon felt compelled to add my two cents worth.
They'd been bemoaning the increasing scarcity of work for jazz musicians:
Gentlemen: Admittedly, mine isn't a working musician's point of view, so I hope I don't come off as too naive with this. Here goes....
KLON, Long Beach, is featuring Jazz at the Philharmonic this morning. Right now, Oscar Peterson is wailing so hard the angels are dancing on Arcturus! And listening to all those cats blowing their brains out, it's clear that JATP came directly out of Dixieland..Classic Jazz..whatever you choose to call it. Jazz at the Philharmonic is like Dixie in a tux, maybe. For sure, the same beat is there, loud and clear; and it better be, 'cause that's where the fun begins.
The thoughts and ideas flying around the list lately from playing musicians (notice I didn't say working musicians) regarding the more important beat-keepers on stage have been interesting and fun, and now I want to add my two cents worth as a pure, unadulterated listener..a lifetime fan with educated tastes.
All of you know that the heart of Dixieland Jazz is the unity that happens--in a musical form that allows each musician to cooperate in an agreed upon structure, yet blow his brains out in his own fashion in answer to his own muse. That unity is the Grand Poobah. And, for the purpose of my contention, that collective unity happens around another, more basic one, the one happening in the rhythm section: The Beat.
What on this earth is more orgasmic than that groove, with guitar or banjo, drums, piano and bass, laying down a platform that's so inviting to climb onto that you'd pay to get on it! It's perfect happiness, that unity around a beat. The only musical form that comes even close to such joy is Gospel.
The Beat drives everything, with the horns and piano adding creativity, intelligence, and color; and the great Whole is that footstomping thing greater than the sum of its parts called..Dixieland Jazz.
In my opinion, that built-in happiness is why the music will be around forever. The same unity responsible for it happens in all other forms of music--hopefully--but Dixie is where it comes right out on stage and shouts, "This is what it's all about!"
Someone or other has assured us that mankind is plodding toward enlightenment--as unlikely as that seems. But, if it is true, then someday there's going to be a venue on every corner for you guys, because eventually people are sure to begin opting for the real thing; and when they do, you accomplished souls will be there to fill the demand, just like you do today. Of course, you may have to wait til your next lifetime for it!
I, for one, want to thank all of you for my lifetime of shameless joy with the most perfect of musical forms...Dixieland Jazz!
Shortly after this post appeared onlist, two Dixieland Jazz societies in California published it in their newsletters. I couldn't have been more delighted for the opportunity to thank those musicians in print for their talent and dedication to the music.
Bad Poetry and all links...
