CULTURES OF BRASS PROJECT

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The Tailgate Generation

Some exemplar recordings of tailgate players

The Tailgate Generation

This project is aimed at developing a greater understanding of aspects of early jazz, specifically those bands in which trombonists playing in the ‘tailgate style’ had an important structural role. It is based on the hypothesis that players with whom this style originated exercised an instinctive skill and a particular mode of expression that has previously been misunderstood. The style of playing, with its abundant glissando effects, seems to betray a lack of technical competence; in fact it was sophisticated, and the true tailgate style was confined to a single generation of jazz trombonists, even though that style has been imitated by many later players.

The project is assembling empirical information about the players, the instruments they played and the recordings in which their playing is captured.