tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post2390057662680991161..comments2024-03-01T08:19:54.547+00:00Comments on BobFromBrockley: "Folk music", folk music, trad jazz, and the trad leftbobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15439386754907203808noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-45475928606050174952008-02-21T10:24:00.000+00:002008-02-21T10:24:00.000+00:00I know this is three months old, but it's been bug...I know this is three months old, but it's been bugging me. I'm not sure I made myself clear in this piece. When Sidney Bechet was first recording in 1923, he was not playing "traditional" jazz; he was right at the cutting edge, as they'd say today. (And he was still at the cutting edge when he recorded Shiekh of Araby in 1941.) <BR/><BR/>Likewise, when Paul Mattick, say, was writing in the 1930s, he was not of the trad left; he was cutting edge. <BR/><BR/>When bebop came along, repeating the chops Bechet played in the 1920s became increasingly un-cutting edge. When modern jazz comes along, jazz played as if time had stopped before the war was called "trad" jazz. Similarly, people who regurgitate today what Mattick wrote in the 1930s are rightly called the "trad" left. <BR/><BR/>Now, there's nothing wrong with playing music Bechet-style in 2008. But there is something wrong with thinking Mattick-style in 2008, because the world has changed so much. <BR/><BR/>So, sometimes you have to play a few extra chords. Sometimes you have to get up and leave the room.bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15439386754907203808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-29927978678110475832007-11-02T19:07:00.000+00:002007-11-02T19:07:00.000+00:00Not at all Bob: just good to see my heroes given a...Not at all Bob: just good to see my heroes given a name-check. My only dispute would be with the term "trad": to my ears guys like Bechet, Wild Bill and The Lion are forever modern, regardless of the vaguaries of fashion. Charlie Parker rated Bechet.<BR/><BR/>for a much more learned piece on the relationship between jazz and the left, I recommend my comrade Bruce Robinson's piece 'The Freedom Principle' on the Workers Liberty website at:<BR/>http://www.workersliberty.org/node/6873Jim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00364272346989690845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-63931485841007093042007-11-02T10:10:00.000+00:002007-11-02T10:10:00.000+00:00Jim, I thought you'd be offended about what I said...Jim, I thought you'd be offended about what I said about trad jazz!bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15439386754907203808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-23096252590393412982007-11-01T21:41:00.000+00:002007-11-01T21:41:00.000+00:00Sidney Bechet, Wild Bill, and The Lion... anyone w...Sidney Bechet, Wild Bill, and The Lion... anyone who singles those guys has got to have taste and knowledge... they epitomise the so-called "trad" players who took their music to the extremes: Bechet, in paricular, was simply a force of nature. It pisses me off, that these guys are now all but forgotten, whilst the likes of Gilad Atzmon, playing his good, but not particularly exciting post-bop, is hailed as some sort of genius. he isn't; he's a competent sax player - that's all.<BR/>I've worked with a *great* jazz player (Wild Bill Davison), and I know greatness when I see and hear it.Jim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00364272346989690845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-17117660380167308732007-11-01T01:46:00.000+00:002007-11-01T01:46:00.000+00:00Ha.... and here I thought music was just music.. t...Ha.... and here I thought music was just music.. to be enjoyed or not.. ;-)Incognitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09692949516037191969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-86921070806731497402007-10-30T14:03:00.000+00:002007-10-30T14:03:00.000+00:00Sometimes you have to play a few extra chords….wel...Sometimes you have to play a few extra chords….well said. <BR/><BR/>I am interested in seeing your next Lexicon of the ages; Trad-Left would work nicely I think. It isn’t positive or negative, and that is a rare in this day and age. <BR/> <BR/>And that picture of Woody will always rule, even if he was a Stalinist.... and a smoker as well!Roland Doddshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17819155097718124744noreply@blogger.com