I'm a touch confused. How many times do we read on this site "...but is it ivy?" or "it's not ivy..." then you post album cover after cover of black jazz musicians. Who I'm sure at the time couldn'y give a **** about no white boy college ivy crap. The only album you might see here in the frat house is the WASP-lite Ray Coniff Musak. There were no black faces in the halls of Ivy league academia back then. These guys had natural style and knew how to dress instinctively. Nothing to do with no Ivy.

Just to but in - or is it butt in? - I never know...

There is a rather rich crossover between the Ivy League style & Modern Jazz, Mr. B - Not as you say anything much to do with getting a good degree, but a stylish little twist in the story all the same.

You can see it in Dexter Gordon, Chico Hamilton and of Miles in the late '50's.  It wasn't just the white West Coast musicians. Not in Art Blakey, he was wearing workman's overalls.

Oh, this is a great thread. Somebody's got to tell me how to post pictures, I've got tons.

Last edited by Decline & Fall (2009-05-17 15:05:15)

Last edited by Russell_Street (2009-05-19 04:23:47)

PS. Russell, I quite like being called Big B!

I agree with The Beatnik in that those black jazz musicians used the Ivy style for their own means ( which may very well have varied from person to person at that ). I also am not at all convinced they secretly would have subverted the college boy style, neither do I believe they were more or less talked into it ( by e.g.  slick managers) as for reasons of being more 'acceptable' ( to a white audience, mind you they might have liked a little bit of attention from caucasian ladies though ).
What I do think, however, is that it just made sense to them to do so because they had an eye for style as such and they were naturals at looking good indeed, the very thing that made them move on when times changed. And they would add what they thought went well with the basics, as it should be IMO....

Last edited by Alex Roest (2009-05-19 05:57:16)