The record changer (Jan-Dec 1944)

The Record Changer, October 1944 all the great solo work of the 17th and 18th century contrapuntalists. Bach's great contrapuntal solo harpsichord fugues did not come about through the harpsichord. This session spoken of in my 17th century quotation was the incubation to Bach's harpsichordal contrapuntal writing. Even the solo writing for the instruments capable of only one melodic line (such as the violin) had their genesis in such sessions as are spoken of in my quotation. Mr. Borneman dismisses a great deal as not jazz. True he takes the best jazz, that which comes from the place of its birth, and calls only this jazz. What are we to call the rest — Bix and the like? To me they are a representation of another jazz dialect. When Mr. Borneman segregates Tatum, Goodman, Wilson and Bix into some unnamed category, we must first understand that there is a difference between hybrid jazz, vitiated jazz, and a jazz, though not New Orleans, yet born of (lance music and speaking the rhythm of dance in its outline. Hybrid is the mixing of two or more breeds, both having been born out of previous digestion and going through no new digestion. Vitiated jazz is a jazz that has lost, through smoothness, flowing qualities of the instrument and a reliance on the sensuous quality of its tone, any stamina it may have had. Classic musicians have satisfyingly done these very things but it has either been part of a composition or the underlying chordal structure has been highly significant. Unless it is done in good taste, it ends up in the endless ripples of either or both hands on the keyboard in the manner of a Liszt. It is a sort of music coming more from indulgence in virtuosity rather than from inner expression. Tatum is a musician par excellence of vitiated jazz. Any emulation by other instrumentalists only leads away from jazz, without the good taste we find in classic music. There is very little that is hybrid in improvisation. Just as the earliest New Orleans jazz or pre-New Orleans jazz is the complete digestion of what otherwise Corrugated 10" Record SHIPPING CARTONS For Sale— 19c Each PFC. BORIS ROSE Det. B, Bks. T-143, Pvg. Gnd. Det. ABERDEEN PROVING GROUNDS, MD. would have created a hybrid music, so whatever we see of Debussy in the best of Bix was completely digested. Bix's piano is not the best of Bix and for Mr. Borneman to say "Bix Beiderbecke's little piano pieces which have been compared to Debussy would therefore tend to make us doubt rather than confirm his value as a jazz musician" is no logical dismissal when we know that James P. Johnson also makes excursions to that whole-tone Frenchman. I might add that his digestion is not one half so complete as was that of Bix, therefore bordering much more on the hybrid. However, for me, such excursions do not in the least detract from Johnson's greatness as a true jazz musician. Of course a digestion of bad influences is not beneficial and maybe the complete digestion by Bix and his followers of the latest academic musical distillations had more of a disastrous effect than the hybrid excursions of Johnson. Jazz it is, however, and therefore comparable to other forms of jazz. I find great satisfaction when Mr. Borneman says : "All untrained singers, Africans as well as Occidentals, tend to sharpen the accented beats and to flatten the unaccented ones." Even if he may be wrong, such statements are basic, something we need in jazz analysis. It reminds me of Grimm's Law of Phonetics. When Mr. Borneman follows this with "strong beats shifted to weak ones by syncopation tend to be flattened in the process," I see reasons for certain changes. But his other statements, the statements of his that I have been quoting, I cannot agree with him upon. I know that there are many jazz enthusiasts who are in accord with Mr. Borneman's views in this matter of jazd through improvisation and classic music through notation. Mr. Borneman weakens the basic strength of the things that can be said with finality by putting equal stress on his later hypothesis. I can thank Mr. Borneman for putting his case quite directly and therefore in a position for my attack. For Sale at 19c Each 10" Victor, Brunswick, Decca, Columbia, Capitol, Sonora, Philharmonic 4-poeket albums in excellent condition, never used. PFC. BORIS ROSE Det. B, Bks. T-143, Pvg. £nd. Det. ABERDEEN PROVING GROUNDS, MD. 76