Barry Mazor wrote:
>
> The further I've gotten into the Jean Boyd "Southwestern Jazz" book, the
> more the attitude of the thing has made it unpleasant....sometimes it does
> look simply like a "sticking to my thesis no matter what" problem, which
> was what I'd called it being charitable, but by the 38th time she praises
> musicians for wanting not to play "screechy" country fiddle or being "that"
> sort of musician but playing "real jazz, " you kind of have to get the
> prejudice!
My own limited experience in talking to Will's sidemen is that he didn't
consider what he was doing to be purely either jazz or country, but a
new hybrid form derived from all kinds of influences. Wills was
certainly not foolish enough to think that he was doing exactly the same
thing that Basie was doing, or Roy Acuff either. However, I think he
would take offense at the notion that there was anything to be ashamed
of in the country roots of his music.
Wills was very country, almost a primitive in the sense that he was
unable to improvise a fiddle solo (he had to stick to the melody) and
that he was unable to grasp the concept of equal numbers of bars in
blues songs. He hired Jesse Ashlock to play improvised solos for him and
he let the band figure out where he hell he was going next, bars be
damned.
(You have heard black blues guys do this; they'll jump from the 1 chord
to the 4 chord real "early", especially if they are playing solo, rather
than just sit there on the 1 being boring. It was characteristic of 20's
and 30s blues especially, I believe because the form had not been
cemented yet) However, his major influences were Bessie Smith (he sang
just like her) and Emmit Miller, the blackface pop musician and writer.
In the 40's he had a gigantic big swing band with full horns as well as
stringed instruments and he sounds like a big jazz dance band to me. How
the hell anybody could have gone to Spade Cooley to be "less country" is
beyond me.
--
Joe Gracey
President-For-Life, Jackalope Records
http://www.kimmierhodes.com
