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 >>

cite as

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

location of experience: New Orleans

Listeners

Danny Barker
banjoist, Composer, Guitarist, Singing […]
1909-1994

Listening to

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New 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

Originally submitted by 5011Henning on Thu, 04 Jun 2015 10:55:46 +0100
Approved on Sat, 20 Aug 2016 15:42:54 +0100