Danny Barker in New Orleans - early 20th Century
from Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It, page 20:
Everything in New Orleans was competitive. People would always be betting on who was the best and greatest in everything. That's where the battles of music came in. Lots of the bands couldn't read too much music. So they used a fiddle to play the lead--a fiddle player could read--and that was to give them some protection. The banjo then was strictly a rhythm instrument. Buddy Bolden would say, "Simmer down, let me hear the sound of them feet". The New Orleans bands, you see, didn't play with a flat sound. They'd shade the music. After the band had played with two or three horns blowing, … more >>
Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro, Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It (London, 1992), p. 20. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1433411745947 accessed: 7 December, 2024
Listeners
Listening to
hide composersNew Orleans street music | performed by Buddy Bolden |
Experience Information
Date/Time | early 20th Century |
Medium | live |
Listening Environment | in the company of others, outdoors, in public |