Hi Dave:
And they are good pages! I still don't get why you took as a personal attack my question about why a
"revival" was needed when original musicians were still around making music. You never did answer
that question, but I do appreciate your off-list apology and efforts to raise the level of discourse
on-list. Again, my original post concerned the new Condon/Freeman box set, and the accompanying
question was not an attack on anyone (particularly you) but rather an observation that Condon,
Freeman and others who actually made records in the real "jazz age" were still recording in the late
1940s, so why the need for a "revival"?
Based on the fact-based parts of your posts, and the wealth of fact-based information on your
website, I think I found part of my answer. What was called a "revival" wasn't really that. It was
more an extension of the "old style" jazz styles into a new generation of musicians. The form had
never died out, so it wasn't being "revived."
In some ways, but not an exact analog, the so-called "revivalists" were like punk rockers in the
late 70s -- rejecting the current directions their chosen genre of music had taken and going back to
a "simpler" kind of rhythm and song structure. I put "simpler" in quotes because, as Dave correctly
points out, well-played Dixieland jazz requires superb chops and rhythm.
One other point Dave made is true, and backs up my point about "revival" being a wrong term for what
happened. The interaction between the young guys and the old original musicians, plus Atlantic's and
others' recordings in New Orleans of real musicians playing in the original ways (and the
establishment of Preservation Hall), shows again that the old music and musicians hadn't died out
enough to need a "revival," except maybe on swing- and bop-obsessed radio stations on the coasts.
Thinking further on this, I wonder if this idea of a "revival" came partly from record collectors,
who need a "cause" so they can boast that what they have is special and rare. Just before, and at
the time, that the first young "revival" musicians were getting together, many of the original 78s
were either being reissued (Avakian at Columbia, among others) or compiled into LPs (Keepnews and
Grauer for RCA, among others). So there wasn't really a "scarcity" of anything but original 1920's
pressings of records (and also keep in mind that bootleg 78s had proliferated in the 1940s, so the
old music was readily available and not "extinct" or "dormant" by any measure).
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Radlauer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2015 10:10 AM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Not a Frisco site
> Incidentally, I would add that while my site may contains much on the Trad
> revival, that is far from the majority of the content.
>
> I do have pages dedicated solely to:
>
> Eddie Condon
> http://jazzhotbigstep.com/24348.html
>
> Teagarden
> http://jazzhotbigstep.com/34301.html
>
> Muggsy Spanier
> http://jazzhotbigstep.com/108201.html
>
> Pee Wee Russell
> http://jazzhotbigstep.com/206.html
>
> NORK
> http://jazzhotbigstep.com/41101.html
>
> ODJB
> http://jazzhotbigstep.com/305.html
>
> Buddy Bolden
> http://jazzhotbigstep.com/179.html
>
> Not to mention great depth and award-winning broadcasts/pages on:
> James P Johnson
> http://jazzhotbigstep.com/24264.html
>
> Jelly Roll Morton
> http://jazzhotbigstep.com/67001.html
>
> Basie, Ellington, Casa Loma, Goodman, Artie Shaw, Billie, Bix and Ella.
> Early jazz violin and guitar.
> Cheatham, Bechet, Armstongs (Louie AND Lil), Fats Waller, Fatha Hines,
> Django, Clarence Williams and Women of Jazz
>
> Best,
>
> Dave R
>
>
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