Re: Bill Dixon's Favorite Album!!

In Reply to: Bill Dixon's Favorite Album!! posted by Fabio Rojas on February 26, 1999 at 23:47:34:

To: Fabio Rojas

Thank you for your query, and I hope the following is eluciditory:

I don't have a "favorite album" from the published work that has been made available to the public. From the standpoint of chronology, each of the recordings amply identifies and attests to the musical points of view that I was attempting, and as a result, all merit the same feelings of achievement for me.

In terms of being able to "recommend to people listening" to me "for the first time" something that might better represent and "clue" them in to my preferred, personal musical concerns, that is extremely difficult, since we all hear, feel, sense and experience (not necessarily in that order) things differently. At the risk of being pedantic I can say that academically, the two volumes of BILL DIXON IN ITALY might be "easier" for a neophyte listener to initially experience than say the the two volumes of VADE MECUM, since melodies, as primarily defined (universally), are more readily apparent in the former than the latter. But even if this is acknowledged as some form of surety, it is not a totally accurate barometer able to predict 100 per cent exactly what will strike the listening fancy of any listener.

The idea and fact of music itself initially "inspired [me] to play." I developed a love of music at a very early age, and it was that love and awe of music that served as the impetus, propelling me to attempt to "do it."

Relating to the trumpet itself, the following recordings, which I heard early in my life, served as a virtual thesaurus of what the instrument was capable:
--"Sleepytime Down South" (originally Louis Armstrong's theme song);
--anything by all of the Ellington trumpeters (especially Rex Stewart: "Subtle Slough (Just Squeeze Me)" and "Boy Meets Horn";
--"I Surrender Dear" by saxophonist Benny Carter on trumpet;
--"Flight of the Bumblebee" and "Carnival of Venice" by Harry James;
--anything by Charlie Shavers;
--all of the Basie trumpeters but especially Harry Edison and Emmett Berry;
--Bobby Hacket;
--anything by: Dizzy, Fats, Kenny Dorham, Clark Terry, Miles, Tony Fruscella;
--and in all fairness, to those trumpet players that I've left out, I, unlike most of my contemporaries, derived something from the work of all the trumpet players.

I started late on the instrument (I was 20 when I started to study), and in that instance, it was (or I found it) necessary to be both gregarious, and fanatical and, most importantly, undiscriminating relating to sources of information.

Have I adequately answered you questions?

You may also be interested to know that in June-July of 1998, I recorded a two-volume CD with British percussionist Tony Oxley of trumpet and percussion duets entitled PAPYRUS, which is in the process of being readied for release (on SOULNOTE) sometime this spring.

Follow Ups:

• Re: Bill Dixon's Favorite Album!! Fabio Rojas 01:54:22 2/28/99 (0)