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From: Tom Bingham
Date: December 16, 2002
Thanks to Robert and Buddy for their thoughtful comments on Jean Boyd's book. I have a question about a blanket assertion she makes right at the beginning. (I don't have the book here at the library computer with me.)
In essence, she says that western swing musicians considered themselves to be playing jazz. Is this true in all cases? Would it be more accurate to say that "some" w.s. musicians considered themselves to be jazz musicians, or was the mindset of the 1930's that the music they were playing was a type of jazz?
It seems to me that, yes, a great deal of w.s. is jazz or jazz-influenced, but some of it isn't. Would one consider Bill Boyd's "Under the Double Eagle" to be jazz, for example? (I always seem to use Bill Boyd as an example. Just wondering -- would Jean Boyd by any chance be related to Bill or Jim Boyd?) The whole question of w.s. as jazz or "hillbilly" has, of course, been bumping around for years.
I would appreciate any thoughts on whether w.s. is jazz, a fusion, something completely different.