Hi Clark:

One man's opinion .. Riverwalk offers interesting tales from history (if sanitized and politically 
corrected through the NPR filter, which has a very distinct view of American history that doesn't 
always match facts of the times), and I really enjoy the shows where they have old time players 
talking about the old times (a highlight was Clark Terry talking about rooming with Count Basie). 
But, the live music is a different story. Cullum himself insists on taking the flashy solos and 
often flubs notes and plays clams. It's embarassing and it's not good jazz. I'm very atuned to brass 
guys playing in tune and hitting their notes, if they don't it's not enjoyable music to my ears.

Just to make another point how all of this is connected, and why arguments about what jazz is "best" 
are foolish if they get too overheated (but they're fun as a civilized intellectual exercise) --  
keep in mind that Blue Note Records, that label best known now for hip-and-cool hard bop classics, 
started out by releasing some great stride piano sides. The first day of Blue Note was Albert Ammons 
and Meade "Lux" Lewis. Look at Blue Notes first years, pre-bebop:
http://www.jazzdisco.org/blue-note-records/discography-1939-1944/session-index/
It was all "old-timers" and Dixieland revivalists!

It's all interconnceted, so forming "tribes" is a silly exercise. I do think there were "tribes" 
back in the 50s, among that tiny niche group of hardcore jazz fans and record collectors, but who 
cares about that now? Much of it is out there for free listening on Spotify and other streamers --  
in modern times, people should come to jazz on their own terms and find their own tastes.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clark Johnsen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2015 10:29 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Apology if that was unnecessarily heated


> ​Guys, guys!
>
> Take a concerted break together and skip the solos (if I may say). It has
> been for me instructive to read all the good stuff y'all had to write. Now
> let me add twopence from my vast ignorance of the field.
>
> It seems to me that most current knowledge of jazz history derives from
> recordings, which impose their own template on developments.
>
> Before he died I listened every week to Ray Smith's Jazz Decades radio
> show, which taught me most of whatever I know about the decades in this
> discussion. The shows are online at
> http://www.wgbh.org/audioPlayers/jazzDecades.cfm and sound as good as ever.
> He was a player too and therefore closer to the music than most DJs.
>
> Although it wasn't broadcast in Boston, whenever on the road I greatly
> enjoyed picking up Jim Cullum's Riverwalk Jazz radio show, in which his
> versatile band recreated
> many styles, along with stories told by era participants. It too is online:
> http://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/
>
> clark
>
> On Sat, May 23, 2015 at 4:10 PM, Aaron Levinson <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> Yeah I actually didn't "denigrate" anything Dave which makes your whole
>> attitude on this subject that much more baffling to me and many others
>> here. You apparently love just making things up and them randomly ascribing
>> them to other people.
>>
>> "Some people" I guess are just wildly insecure and need to act out in a
>> way that is both undignified and bewildering!
>>
>> Good luck with that...
>>
>> AA
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> > On May 23, 2015, at 3:52 PM, Dave Radlauer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >
>> > Aaron --
>> >
>> >>> you seem intent upon elevating it at the expense of other things <<
>> >
>> > And I don't understand why *some people* --  and this is part of my
>> > complaint about contemporary American culture in general  --  insist on
>> > denigrating it at the expense of other things.
>> >
>> > Opinions.  We've all got 'em
>> >
>> > Dave
>> >
>> > On Sat, May 23, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Aaron Levinson <
>> [log in to unmask]
>> >> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Dave-
>> >>
>> >> First,  I didn't "invalidate"anything so please don't attempt to speak
>> for
>> >> me that's equally offensive and petulant. I asked you to back up your
>> own
>> >> assertion of a "significant black audience", I did not make the case for
>> >> that barometer in the first place I simply asked for YOUR evidence to
>> >> buttress your contention.
>> >>
>> >> You failed to provide it and then attempted to back pedal and dismiss
>> its
>> >> importance. I stand by my simple assertion of trad jazz as atavistic
>> >> despite you looking it up in the dictionary.
>> >>
>> >> Listen you love it and that's great have at it I'm genuinely happy you
>> >> are doing the work but you seem intent upon elevating it at the expense
>> of
>> >> other things and that strikes me as both petty and mean-spirited and
>> >> beneath you and everyone else on this list.
>> >>
>> >> AA
>> >>
>> >> Sent from my iPhone
>> >>
>> >>> On May 23, 2015, at 1:19 PM, Dave Radlauer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>
>