Quote of the month

I'm reading a wonderful book about early jazz [...], and there's a comment by Joe Oliver, 'King' Oliver, one of the earliest hot bands in New Orleans, and he was talking about the dynamics of a jazz band, and the key word is texture - it's all about texture. I could say that about our conception of string band music. The other thing he said, and this is a paradox in a way, is that all the instruments of the band blend together to create that texture, one sound; but on the other hand, you hear each instrument separately...

Bill Dillof of the Canebrake Rattlers string band, interviewed in the Old Time Herald, vol. 11, no. 3 (Feb.-Mar. 2008)

BIB editor's note: This - combined with a feeling of 'this needs to be done now' - is also what I like most in a bluegrass band. It's exemplified in the classic Flatt & Scruggs band, and in bands from the Washington and Baltimore areas in the 1950s and '60s.