what I usually do is break up a message like this and write it as
a conversation. They get complex very fast.

I think every music can be 'cultural icongraphic art.'

And Blues is the icon of what? If the reply as I would suspect
is of the slave condition, then Jump and Swing would be the
icon of freedom.

Thinking ahead to what might happen in New Orleans I heard a
funny remark which may belong in the context of reconstruction:
the phrase I heard was, "Even the old stuff is new." Meaning that
a recreation and gentrification of the area would only benefit
those who experience the icon rather than the reality.

I remember a few years ago, one of the best programs on the
public radio here was from the state capitol. It was called
"Downhome Dairyland" by Rick March. It was about Polka music.
it was about how one area had different styles than the other
based on the ethnicity of the population. It was about how the
Germans brought polka to Texas where it became Conjunto.
And it was even about an ethnic presentation of polka where
Hispanic and German bands took the same stage at a national event
in Washington DC.

But when I mentioned this to anyone they thought it was silly and
frivolous because it was, you know, polka: no class ethnic music
with silly lyrics about the jilted lover telling his
sweetheart to jump off a bridge. That is the "Jump off
The Bridge Polka" BTW. I suppose there is an equivalent in the
blues world for such a sentiment. But the iconography is
all different.

And I find it most odd that white people of a certain age
are the ones who have become guardians of the style.
Guardians of the Style is a phrase specifically applied
to barbershop harmony. The Hi-los _sound_ like
barbershop to some people, but they are not guardians
of the style like groups such as The Sweet Adelines and
Excaliber. In the case of these blues aficionados or
cognoscenti the authenticity of the tragic rarely makes
way for the joy and freedom in more upbeat expressions.
Bedroom jazz falls into a similar category: people of my age
admire the likes of Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck over
Maynard Ferguson or Ted Heath becaue they fit their idea of what
jazz is: bedroom or seduction music. Something that
'goes better with coke' to borrow the borrowed phrase
from Gil Scott Heron.

So in the icongraphic sense blues = tragic = serious.
But OTOH Swing = joyous = silly. I just happen to be
serious about my swing and jump blues. I'll venture, though
I cannot give proof, that swing and big band music in it's
complexity is, in that complexity, a higher art form.
Stan Kenton always maintained this as a fact.

Finally, I have been most puzzled by music education
for young people. In their school bands they are taught
the big band classics. Yet when they leave school, they have virtually no place to practice the skills learned except in
the few bands that tour and as studio musicians. To me, this is a
tragic loss. Something similar happens in Drum Corps: the
joy and exultation in playing as a unit is lost nearly
as soon as it has been experienced.

If you think I'm getting off track, the common thread here
is joy in the music-- happy music-- to put it simply.
That is the icon I want to portray.