[78-L] Price's Price

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Malcolm Smith" <malcolms at redshift.com>
> This opens the door on a sad part of the history. Yes, it was Europe,  
> especially France, where most of the early interest in jazz and jazz  
> records occurred. There are many on this list who are more familiar  
> with the history than I am and I hope they will add to what I have  
> too say. One simply needs to note the way black musicians were  
> treated in France and the number of them who ended up there and why  
> wouldn't they! I will never forget meeting Lil Hardin in Paris in the  
> early fifties, A fascinating wonderful pianist and singer. She was  
> the pianist in the original Creole Band. One can't do any better than  
> that!  She was greatly respected in Paris unlike here.  Sadly, there  
> is very little in the way of early records of jazz, and what there is  
> is usually recorded with old worn equipment that had been used to  
> record white musicians. We should have records going all the way back  
> to Bolden but don't. Little interest in the first quarter of the last  
> century was shown until a brief revival brought about by the  
> discovery of Bunk Johnson in the early forties. Very sad history and  
> musically a terrible loss.
> 
Actually, the "New Orleans Revival" movement probably started c.1940
or so...there were a lot of jazz fans who discovered that there were still
jazz bands in and around N.O. that still played in the same style that
their earlier predecessors had! In fact, there were a handful of recordings
made of this "original jazz"...which resulted in the "rediscovery" of Bunk
Johnson and a few other N.O. original jazzmen.

This in turn led to a "trad jazz revival" in the UK after WWII; since a lot
of British jazz players emigrated to Toronto after the war, we had our own
"trad revival" here in Toronto. Some of these musicians (like the now-late
Cliff "Kid" Basti(e)n for one) took this revived N.O. jazz VERY seriously!
In fact, Bastien's "Happy Pals" still play every Saturday afternoon at
Grossman's Tavern (and have for close to 40 years!)...in this same "New
Orleans Revival" style...!

Consider that Black musicians were NOT regularly recorded until about
1920 or so...and their recordings were then sold as "Race Records" and
were presumed to only be of interest to Black customers. It wasn't until
Bessie Smith (all but) single-handedly saved Columbia that record companies
figured out there WAS a profitable market for recordings of Black artists;
I have no idea when...or even IF...the young and white "collegiate crowd"
took an interest in ACTUAL jazz, as opposed to the "jazz" they turned into
hits in the twenties...?!

Steven C. Barr