Jazz on Downton Abbey


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I was watching a 'Downton Abbey' episode last night where a jazz band was playing in the mansion of an ultra-rich British family in 1914. About 90 seconds into one of the tunes, the snooty grande dowager snorted, "I wonder if each of them know what the others are playing". I howled!!

A hundred years later, a lot of people still don't get it.
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mitch4t

Showing 1 response by frogman

I don't know about the racist part, but I have to agree with you. To relegate Dixieland to "chaotic playing" shows a serious lack of understanding of the building blocks of jazz. It is a highly interactive form of ensemble playing with logic, structure and defined instrumental roles; albeit in a simpler harmonic language.
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