I did a section on western swing in my (History of) American Music class on
Tuesday. During the Spring semester, my students listened to western swing and
thought it sounded like country music to them. This time the current crop of
students heard the same exact tunes and thought they sounded like jazz. (Just
for the record, I played Milton Brown's "Hesitation Blues", Ocie Stockard's
"There'll be Some Changes made," and five Bob Wills tunes - "I'll See You In My
Dreams, "Take Me Back to Tulsa," "New San Antonio Rose," "Roly Poly," and the
Tiffany trascription "Mission To Moscow." An inadequate sampling, but I only
have one semester to teach them the entire history of American music from
pre-Revolutionary War days to the present, in all musical genres.)
After class, I played the same recordings for the jazz professor whose office is
across the hall from mine. He's a New Zealand-born baritone sax player named
Bruce Johnstone who used to play with Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, before he
tired of the road and settled down to teaching. I half-anticipated him to
guffaw, but instead he absolutely loved the music. His comment on "Roly Poly"
and "Mission To Moscow" (which, as an old Benny Goodman number written by Mel
Powell, he was very familiar with) was "amazing, simply amazing" as he shook
his head affirmatively. He had been familiar with western swing before, but I
don't think he was quite ready to hear THIS much jazz coming out of those
fiddles, guitars, and electric mandolins.
It has always irked me that so many jazz fans, critics, and historians dismiss
western swing so casually, but the musicians can hear it. They can tell what's
going on.
Tom Bingham
School of Music
SUNY Fredonia 14063
frmrsdotr1 <no_reply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


So what's next in this discussion? Been a long time no activity.







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