[78-L] Good post from fnarf

[Randy Skretvedt]

Along with Lunceford and Teddy Hill, the Claude Hopkins band is another black orchestra which plays very nicely in a semi-sweet style.

I think Ken Burns got it *so* wrong with his jazz documentary.  He seemed to be determined to tell the hoary old story that jazz was exclusively a black music, that whites stole it, corrupted it and made all the money, blah blah blah.  I fully agree that most of the major innovators in jazz are black, but that doesn't mean that there weren't talented white musicians with their own styles.  I look at jazz as being like the music in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," which allowed the earth folks and the aliens to communicate.  The emergence of jazz marked the first time that white Americans and black Americans found themselves on the same wavelength, truly communicating with each other, appreciating each other, enjoying each other's talent.  There are a number of interracial jazz recording sessions in the '20s and '30s, and eventually these get-togethers came out of the closet with the public performances of the Goodman Trio and Quartet, and later on
 the mixed groups at Cafe Society and Nick's/Eddie Condon's.