The Jazz.com Blog
January 20, 2008 · 2 comments
Old Jazz & New Media
In the early days of modern jazz, the music media fueled the fires of conflict between fans of old jazz (who were ridiculed under the name of moldy figs) and those who preferred the sounds of bebop.
Of course, the musicians themselves rarely had much patience with this so-called war between the generations. Charlie Parker may have been lauded as the leader of the modernists, but Parker himself understood how much he owed to the masters of earlier decades. In a Blindfold Test, conducted by Leonard Feather, Parker lavishly praised Johnny Hodges, altoist with the Ellington band, declaring: That record deserves all the stars you can muster. In his solos, Parker would quote from Lester Young or Louis Armstrong or interpolate a phrase from a trad jazz warhorse such as High Society. Bird never recognized a generational divide.
The other revolutionaries of the era were no different. Dizzy Gillespie would acknowledge the influence of Roy Eldridge, just as Thelonious Monk would express admiration for James P. Johnson. From the perspective of the greatest artists, there was no war, only a whole tradition, different branches all springing from the same roots.
But the ideology of this supposed battle between the old and new has never completely gone away. In particular, the fans (and even some critics) were rarely as open-minded as the musicians themselves. This is changing for some interesting reasons that I hope to explore in a future posting here but not as rapidly as one might hope. As a result, the jazz world still shows some unfortunate divisions and barriers.
In particular, the world of traditional jazz continues to live a subterranean existence, with its own festivals, periodicals, venues and culture. Its leading practitioners rarely share the same stage with musicians versed in other jazz styles. And sometimes the exponents of this music feel with some justification that they are ignored by many of the institutions that support other styles of jazz. Why, they wonder, are trad jazz players who celebrate and preserve the original sources of all later jazz styles -- themselves the least celebrated of jazz practitioners?
I once heard a trad jazz player sum it up succinctly. People talk about cool jazz. Well, I think Im stuck playing un-cool jazz. Yet even the most fervent modernists could learn something from the great traditional jazz bands. Listen to the best of these un-cool musicians, and you will find that they know how to construct a solo that tells a complete story. The very constraints of the early jazz idiom which does not encourage fancy double-time licks, excessive chromaticism, or radical harmonic substitutions force the performer to develop strong, musical phrases that cohere into a complete solo. Almost any aspiring jazz player would be a better soloist after apprenticing in a trad jazz band. But students coming up today might never get the chance, so big has the chasm grown between old and new in the jazz world.
For this reason, I especially admire cornetist and bandleader Jim Cullum. He not only demonstrates his artistry from the bandstand, but is also a great off-stage advocate for the early jazz heritage. Jim has found a way of using all the most modern media to celebrate the oldest type of jazz. He is on public radio more than 150 stations -- and satellite radio. He shares his music via on-line video and one of the most frequently visited jazz web sites on the Internet (www.riverwalkjazz.org). He has one of the best organized email distribution lists in the jazz world. And Cullum may be playing songs from the 1920s, but that doesnt prevent him from reaching out to the new generation via YouTube and MySpace. (Of course, much of the credit for this goes to Don Mopsick, who is both bassist and web wizard in the Cullum jazz universe.) For someone who doesnt do email himself, Cullum gets high marks from the technology savvy.
We are indebted to both Jim and Don for giving us permission to reprint several articles. Today we are publishing three of Cullums first hand accounts of his life and times: Earliest Memories and the Hollywood Club; "The Jazz Disease"; and Why the Cornet? At the same time, we are also reprinting (with the permission of Riverwalk Jazz), several other interesting pieces. Check out The Face of the Bass by Don Mopsick; Play the Melody by Don Mopsick; and Swingin Unplugged" by Don Mopsick.
This blog entry posted by Ted Gioia
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People talk about cool jazz. Well, I think Im stuck playing un-cool jazz. The word we prefer is "hot." Marilyn Monroe famously said "Some like it hot, you know." Hot jazz has no pretentions and wears its emotions on its sleeve. It's hot-blooded, hotcha, and gives you the hot rhythm treatment. I remember one published comment that witnessing a live performance by Louis Armstrong was like "gazing into the sun." Jim is fond of pointing out that in the interwar years, a traveling musician blowing into town looking for a recreational jam session did not ask, "Where's the jam session?," he would ask "Where do the hot men play?"
In the late 1940s and early 1950s I visited Eddie Condons in the Village and a place called Nick's at 7th Ave and 10th Street. Since Sun was NY musicians day off they went to Nicks for a jam session. Course in those days Wild Bill Davison on cornet, Pee Wee Russell clarinet, Cutty Cutshall trombone. The New Yorker said raising the roof down there in Lower Manhattan. I enjoy Jim Cullum's Jazz Programs and use 'sound capture' to record them...then bring into my MusicMatch System and convert mp3 to cda - thus I can play on my stereo equipment downstairs. I have 100 cds or so dating back to Jelly Roll Morton's Pearls...the Kansas City style Pete Johnson, piano and bartender at the Sunset Cafe Big Joe Turner - the blues shouter... Most of my collection centers around the big band era...Glenn Miller, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, a great show band Jimmie Lunceford, Duke Ellington and of course one of the founders Louis Armstrong who for a time was America's good well ambassador to the world. - - - - I tune out when Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker extended the musical line and used bass phrases to product 'bee-bob' during WWII and came on the scene. As Benny Goodman said "Lemme' hear the MELODY... Woody