|
FACT FILES
GENRES
HISTORY
THEORY
|
Genre:
Dixieland
|
 |
Dixieland music is a style of jazz. Dixieland developed in New Orleans at
the start of the 20th century, and spread to Chicago and New York by
New Orleans bands in the 1910s, and was, for a period, quite popular
among the general public. It is often considered the first true type of
Jazz, and was the first music referred to by the term jazz (before 1917
often spelled jass).
|
History |
|---|
The style combined earlier brass band marches, French Quadrilles, ragtime
and blues with "collective" improvisation.
Louis Armstrong
is arguably the musician most strongly assocated with Dixieland.
The term Dixieland became widely used after the advent of the first
million-selling hit records of the
The Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917.
The music has been played continuously since the early part of the 20th century.
Many Dixieland groups consciously imitated the recordings and bands
of decades earlier. Other musicians continued to create innovative
performances and original new tunes. Some fans of post bebop
jazz consider Dixieland to no longer be a vital part of jazz,
while some adherents consider music in the traditional style,
when well and creatively played, is every bit as "modern" as any
other jazz style.
Common Dixieland combos include a drum kit, upright bass, piano,
trombone, trumpet, and clarinet. The definitive Dixieland sound
is created by the simultaneous or collective improvisation of
trumpet, trombone, and clarinet.
With the advent of bebop in the 1940s, the earlier group-improvisation
style fell out of favor with the majority of younger black players,
while some older players of both races continued on in the older style.
Though younger musicians developed new forms, many bebopers revered
Armstrong, and quoted fragments of his recorded music in
their own improvisations.
There was a revival of Dixieland in the 1950's, which brought
many semi-retired musicians a measure of fame late in their lives.
This period is sometimes seen as a fad.
There was also in the 1950's a style called "Progressive Dixieland"
which sought to blend traditional Dixieland melody with bebop-style
rhythm. Steve Lacy
played with several such bands early in his career.
|
Etymology |
|---|
While the term Dixieland is still in wide use, the term's appropriateness
is a hotly debated topic in some circles. For some it is the preferred
label (especially bands on the USA's West coast and those influenced
by the 1940s revival bands), while others (especially New Orleans
musicians, and those influenced by the African-American bands of the
1920s) would rather use terms like Classic Jazz or Traditional Jazz.
Some of the latter consider Dixieland a derogatory term implying
superficial hokum played without passion or deep understanding of the music.
According to jazz writer Gary Giddins, the term Dixieland was widely
understood in the early 20th century as a code for "black music."
Frequent references to Dixieland were made in the lyrics of popular
songs of this era, often written by songwriters of both races who had
never been south of New Jersey. Other composers of the "Dixieland"
standards, such as
Clarence Williams and
Jelly Roll Morton, were
native New Orleanians.
Dixieland is often today applied to white bands playing in a traditional
style. Some critics regard this labeling as incorrect. From the late
1930s on, black and mixed-race bands playing in a more traditional
group-improvising style were referred to in the jazz press as
playing "small-band Swing," while white and mixed-race bands such
as those of
Eddie Condon and
Muggsy Spanier
were tagged with the Dixieland label.
Younger generations of primarily white players continued to find
inspiration in the spirited, highly rhythmic traditional style of playing,
with the result that the ranks of African-Americans today playing in the
Dixieland style of jazz are very few.
|
Modern Dixieland |
|---|
Today there are three main active streams of Dixieland jazz:
- The West Coast style is a revivalist movement begun in the
late 1930s by the
Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band of San Francisco and
extended by trombonist
Turk Murphy. The repertoire of these bands is based on the music of
Joe 'King' Oliver,
Jelly Roll Morton,
Louis Armstrong, and
W C Handy.
Bands playing in the West Coast style use banjo and tuba in the
rhythm sections, which play in a 2-to-the-bar rhythmic style.
- The New Orleans Traditional revival movement began with the rediscovery of
Bunk Johnson
in 1942 and was extended by the founding of Preservation Hall in the
French Quarter during the 1960s. Bands playing in this style use string bass
and banjo in the rhythm section playing 4-to-the-bar and feature popular tunes
and Gospel Hymns that were played in New Orleans since the early 20th
century such as "Ice Cream," "You Tell Me Your Dream,"
"Just a Closer Walk With Thee" and some tunes from the New Orleans brass
band literature.
- Chicago style is often applied to the sound of Chicagoans such as
Eddie Condon, Muggsy Spanier, and
Bud Freeman,
who eventually settled and worked in New York City. The rhythm sections
of these bands used string bass and guitar and played in more of a
swing-style 4-to-the-bar manner. Chicago-style bands play a wide variety of
tunes, including most of those of the more traditional bands plus many
of the Great American Songbook selections from the 1930s by
George Gershwin,
Jerome Kern,
Cole Porter, and
Irving Berlin.
Non-Chicagoans such as
Pee Wee Russell and
Bobby Hackett
are often thought of as playing in this style. This modernized style came
to be called Nicksieland, after Nick's Greenwich Village night club,
where it was popular. though the term was not limited to that club.
Eventually, this music came to be called Mainstream jazz, a term popularized
by British critic Stanley Dance
There are also active traditionalist scenes around the world,
especially in Britain and Australia.
Famous traditional Dixieland tunes include: "Muskrat Ramble",
"Struttin' With Some Barbecue", "Tiger Rag", "Dippermouth Blues",
"Milenburg Joys", "Basin Street Blues", "Tin Roof Blues",
the hymn "Just a Closer Walk With Thee", and many others. All of these
tunes were widely played by jazz bands of both races of the pre-WWII era,
especially Louis Armstrong. They came to be grouped as Dixieland standards
beginning in the 1950s.
|
|
Significant Dixieland Musicians |
|---|
Some of the artists historically identified with Dixieland are mentioned
in List of jazz musicians.
Some of the best-selling and famous Dixieland artists of the post-WWII era:
- The Dukes of Dixieland, the Assunto family band of New Orleans.
A successor band continues on in New Orleans today.
- Eddie Condon, guitarist who led bands and ran a series of nightclubs
in New York City and had a popular radio series. Successor bands played
until the 1970s, and their mainstream style is still heard.
- Turk Murphy,
a trombonist who led a band at Earthquake McGoons and other San Francisco
venues from the late 1940s through the 1970s.
- Al Hirt,
trumpeter who had a string of top-40 hits in the 1960s, led bands in
New Orleans until his death.
- Pete Fountain,
clarinetist who led popular bands in New Orleans, retired recently.
- Kenny Ball,
had a top-40 hit with "Midnight in Moscow" in the late 1960s. From Britain.
- Jim Cullum, cornetist based in San Antonio, TX. With his late father,
led bands in San Antonio since 1963, originally known as the
Happy Jazz Band. Today leads the Jim Cullum Jazz Band featured on the
long-running USA public radio series, "Riverwalk, Live From The Landing".
|
|
|
