Post 106: TUBA SKINNY'S CD 'OWL CALL BLUES'

Readers asked me to re-publish what I wrote in 2014 about Tuba Skinny's CD - Owl Call Blues - which was released at the end of August that year.

I would much prefer that you all listen to it and buy it! Go to their website: CLICK HERE  and follow the instructions.

The band's friend (and occasional guitarist) Max Bien-Khan recorded the music with his equipment over several days in one of the New Orleans houses in which Tuba Skinny musicians live. The resulting acoustic is of a very high quality.

Here's what the CD contains:

1. Crazy 'Bout You: a standard Tuba Skinny performance of the pleasant, simple 16-bar tune, with singing by Erika and good ensemble work. I enjoyed Shaye's cheeky Ab on the very last note played - turning the final chord into Bb7th!

2. Rosa Lee Blues: vocal by Greg (abetted by Erika) in this 12-bar blues, which is slightly unusual in having an eight-to-the-bar rhythm and being played in the key of G.

3. Cannonball Blues: An amazing key-changing 12-bar blues with a terrific head arrangement. I love the moment when Shaye shakes her cornet though about 12 notes in half a second while changing the key from Eb to Ab! And it's clever how they slide down to the Key of C for Todd's tuba chorus before sliding up again to Ab.

4. Got a Mind To Ramble: One of those Erika vocals that we all love. Essentially a simple 8-bar theme in Bb - just the sort of material out of which nobody can make more than Erika and Tuba Skinny do.

5. Short-Dress Gal: Many of us know and love the 1927 original by the Sam Morgan Band. Tuba Skinny recreate it with their usual skill and Barnabus does a great job on the trombone, in the style of Big Jim Robinson on the Sam Morgan recording.

6. Owl Call Blues: I think for many of us this haunting song alone is worth the price of the CD. Shaye and Erika composed it; and here the band performs it lyrically for us. I have written before about Owl Call Blues   HERE .

7. Too Tight: The bouncy 16-bar blues highlights the strings and also Todd on the tuba.

8. Oriental Strut: Johnny St. Cyr's complex multi-part 1926 composition is very well executed, with a typical Tuba Skinny arrangement including some tricky breaks and rhythmic effects.

9. Ambulance Man: This 1930 Hattie Hart song is a duet with a story to tell. There is very good ensemble support. Basically a 12-bar Chorus in Bb but with a preceding Verse. (Don't like to say this but maybe it starts just a shade too slowly. It picks up later. Perhaps the slow start is deliberate - for dramatic effect.)

10. How Do They Do It That Way?: This Victoria Spivey song from 1929 is a favourite with the band and their followers. There are plenty of videos of them performing it. And I believe it's the only number they have recorded twice for CDs: it was also on their Garbage Man CD. So we are in familiar territory, though with a new arrangement. On this occasion they have chosen to play one Chorus in Eb and then one in Bb (Erika's preferred key) before Erika's vocal solo. But they return to Eb for a remarkable final Chorus, displaying Shaye's talents as she plays almost the entire Chorus solo, against stop chords.

11. Dallas Rag: This tune (devised and recorded by The Dallas String Band in 1927) has settled into Tuba Skinny's repertoire and I have written about it before ( CLICK HERE TO READ ). Although it's based on a simple chord sequence, given its liveliness and the use of breaks, it is a great fun number. Good work all round. Fans of Robin will enjoy hearing him strut his stuff.

12. Untrue Blues: Another 8-bar theme bouncily played and well sung by Erika. You'll enjoy hearing Shaye playing the fiddle here. Like Rosa Lee Blues (above) it's played in G.

13. Somebody's Been Lovin' My Baby: One of those sad tales that suits Erika's voice very well. A 32-bar song. Sounds like another example of a key that is hardly ever ventured into by other traditional jazz bands - A minor.

14. Willie the Weeper: Jazz bands have been playing this one since 1920. Tuba Skinny give a lusty creative performance, almost entirely with full ensemble and preferring the keys of G minor and Bb to those used by many bands - D minor and F. (By the way, Robin has said this is his favourite track on the CD).

15. Travellin' Blues:  A standard 12-bar, with Shaye on fiddle and Greg providing the vocal - again abetted by Erika.

Post 105: PLAYING TRADITIONAL JAZZ - WHICH CHORD ARE YOU ON?

You are a player of the clarinet, or trumpet, or trombone. Your band is playing 'Oriental Strut'. It's your turn to improvise a 32-bar chorus on the final theme. You are in the key of F. Off you go.

Now: imagine that I stop you suddenly in the middle of the 13th of the 32 bars and ask you to tell me which chord you are on. Would you be able to give the correct answer?

The reason why I ask is this. When I was in New Orleans in April 2015, I was interested to find out just how the great musicians currently working there go about their business. I managed to have conversations with several of them - people such as Tommy Sancton, Ben Polcer, Charlie Halloran, Aurora Nealand, Todd Burdick and John Dixon. What astonished me was how seriously they take their work and how thoroughly they have prepared and trained.

Two great musicians I had the pleasure of meeting -
Tommy Sancton (clarinet; left) and John Dixon (banjo; right)

I tried several of them with the kind of question I have asked above. To my surprise, the answer from all of them may be summarised as 'Of course. You have to know the chord structure as well as the melody.'

They would usually go on to say that, after playing a tune many times, they had the chords 'in their fingers' and no longer needed to think of them consciously. But, if challenged with my '13th bar of Oriental Strut' question, they would certainly be able to name the chord.

One of the great clarinet players told me he had studied very closely the recordings of his idol, George Lewis, who is generally believed to have been a rare genius who could play instinctively, by ear.  He discovered that even if George was not a good reader of music, he was always right on the arpeggio of the correct chord. However, there was one exception: George was not too good on playing around with chords on the 6th (for example, the A7 chord when in the key of C). What an amazing observation! And doesn't it tell us a lot about how seriously the current generation of New Orleans musicians take their musical studies?

==================

Footnote: The answer to my original question is E7th. Did you get it?

Post 104: GOOD AND BAD VIDEOS

Al (whose channel is digitalalexa):
the greatest traditional jazz video-maker in the world.

I spent an evening watching YouTube videos of bands playing in English pubs and clubs. They were almost all TERRIBLE! Tunes were the same old well-worn standards. The musicians were mostly men of my own very old age. Their playing was uninspired, mechanical, dragging, weary, lacking creativity. In some cases the effect was just a din in which you could hardly pick out individual instruments. It was depressing.

Yet YouTube is a wonderful resource. It also offers us thousands of videos of music well played by good traditional jazz bands.

Like many of you, I guess, I spend a lot of time watching those videos. They give me a huge amount of pleasure and I am so grateful to the many persons, mostly anonymous, who have taken the trouble to make high-quality videos of outstanding live performances.

However, it is disappointing that so many jazz videos of live performances are of low quality. Here are the the most common faults:

(1) The sound is poor; or there is far too much external (non-music) noise. (This may be excusable only when the music itself is outstanding or historically important.)

(2) The band has been filmed when it happens to be giving a mediocre performance, such as those I mentioned above. It would be better for such films to be scrapped. There is a good deal of tedious, laboured playing (sorry to say - usually old men playing in English pubs! No wonder young people do not show interest in their music).

(3) Too much happens on the video before the band plays the first note of the tune. What is the point of showing a band standing around, talking amongst themselves for almost a minute? It would be better for these sections to be cut out, so that the music begins no more than five seconds after the video starts rolling.

(4) Similar to (3) above: sometimes a too-long spoken introduction is provided by the band-leader or an announcer. If there is nothing specially interesting in this, it should be edited out: the title of the tune can be given in the title of the video.

(5) The cameraman swivels around too much to film the surroundings and the audience, often with the result that the microphone is turned away from the band and sound is lost.

(6) The video-maker has filmed only part of the tune. Just when it's getting interesting, the video ends.................!

There can be other problems, such as camera shake or poor camera angles when the video is taken among a crowd of people. We must excuse these little defects if the musicians and the sound quality are good.

Among my favourite suppliers of traditional jazz videos are those whose channels are named:

digitalalexa
stolpe31
RaoulDuke504
ragtimecave
TheWsm0
Wild Bill
James Sterling

You can find their 'channels' on You Tube.

When I was in New Orleans during April 2016, I met one of the best full-time professional traditional jazz musicians - a guitarist who also occasionally puts a video on YouTube. He told me that he rejects about nine out of every ten of the videos that he films. Why is he so scrupulous? He explained that he wants the videos he puts up to be as near perfect as possible. Some are obviously spoiled by such things as traffic noise. But at the other extreme, he sometimes rejects a video simply because he notices that at some point a chord man has accidentally played a wrong chord, or a clarinettist has messed up slightly on a single bar. Maybe this gentleman is over-rigorous in censoring his videos so ruthlessly, but I wish there were a few more people who would have the courage to reject sub-standard material.

Finally, (despite the difficulty of trying to point the camera through a crowd of people) for an example of good, sensitive and intelligent amateur outdoor filming of traditional jazz: CLICK ON HERE.

And for a really exciting half hour of traditional jazz well filmed on YouTube (I have watched it several times): CLICK ON HERE.

And for a sustained piece of great musical entertainment filmed by digitalalexa, CLICK HERE.
-----------------------
FOOTNOTE
These books are available from Amazon:

Post 103: TALKING WITH TUBA SKINNY

During my visit to New Orleans in April 2015, I had the pleasure at last of hearing in person the wonderful young band Tuba Skinny, which I have been praising in my writings for many months. My main article about them (CLICK HERE TO READ IT) had been viewed by 20,000 people by the time of my visit. I attended three of their performances.

The picture above shows the band as I saw them on April 14th. Left to right are: Craig Flory, Shaye Cohn, Barnabus Jones, Erika Lewis, Todd Burdick, Jason Lawrence, Max Bien-Kahn and Robin Rapuzzi. At other performances they had Charlie Halloran on trombone and Jonathan Doyle on reeds.

Tuba Skinny playing at
The French Quarter Festival
in New Orleans, April 2015.

I was specially pleased to see Max Bien-Kahn playing regularly with the band (Greg Sherman had departed to the north) as I have always admired Max's strong, solid, concentrated performances with the band on YouTube, and I don't think he has had the recognition he deserves.

A bonus was that I was able to have a chat with some of the players.

I had the great privilege of a long chat with
Todd Burdick, 'Mr. Tuba Skinny' in person.

Todd Burdick is best known as the Bb tuba player and founder member of Tuba Skinny.

After Hurricane Katrina, many young musicians migrated to New Orleans. Todd moved there from Chicago and he told me that at the time you could find a pal and jointly rent a shotgun house near the French Quarter for just 400 dollars a month. (The price by 2015 had risen to 900 dollars a month.)

It was a hard life and I guess some of them soon gave up. But many settled. They made just enough money to survive by playing for tips on the streets. They started to find like-minded musicians who became their friends and formed themselves into bands. A good example was Loose Marbles - a band in which founder members were Ben Polcer and Michael Magro, who encouraged promising newcomers to pass through the band's ranks and hone their skills. Many of the musicians who developed their talents in Loose Marbles have gone on to form bands of their own. Tuba Skinny is one of those bands.

From Todd Burdick and Robin Rapuzzi (washboard), I learned a good deal about Tuba Skinny. By the way, Robin told me that as an infant he had occasionally visited Nottingham to stay with his grandmother. This appealed to me as Nottingham is where I live and am writing right now.

Robin tapes his fingers and prepares his thimbles
before performing at The French Quarter Festival.

I had often wondered how Tuba Skinny go about unearthing the obscure tunes from the 1920s and 1930s that now form a substantial part of their repertoire. Todd pointed out that it's no longer necessary for someone to have a vintage 78rpm recording. Today there is so much available, not only on re-issued CDs but even on the internet - especially YouTube. For example, the band introduced Dear Almanzoer into its repertoire in 2014. This is a lively composition by Oscar 'Papa' Celestin and was recorded in 1927 by his band. Thanks to the kindness of various YouTube uploaders, Todd said, you can freely listen to - and learn from - the Celestin original.

I had wondered whether the members of Tuba Skinny get together for private rehearsals occasionally. After all, some of their music is tricky, with complicated arrangements. Think of Cannonball Blues as a typical example: with so many surprising key changes and various ensemble phrasing patterns to remember, you can't just turn up and play such a tune. Everybody needs to have learned exactly what their rôle is at any given point. Robin told me much of the experimenting and 'rehearsing' takes place on the street. They like to play in Royal Street twice a week if possible. But they do also have an occasional private rehearsal in one of their houses, perhaps once a month. They had recently been rehearsing once a week - but this was in the lead-up to the recording of their seventh CD - Blue Chime Stomp. The recording took place over two days in early April 2015.

They told me they guessed The Smoking Time Jazz Club Band - similar in some ways to themselves, but continually playing even more complicated arrangements - surely gets together to rehearse more frequently.

I asked about the 'arranging' of the more complex of Tuba Skinny's tunes. It seems obvious that Shaye Cohn is the expert in this matter and has a big say (though she modestly claimed she does not need to do much other than 'direct the traffic' in performance). I was assured that the band's decisions are acephalous and that all contribute ideas, though it's a fact that Shaye will sometimes supply a 'chart', especially for banjo and guitar players.

I mentioned Maple Leaf Rag as an example. It had been recently introduced into Tuba Skinny's repertoire and obviously they had to decide in which key to play it (some bands go for Eb moving into Ab; but Tuba Skinny chose F going into Bb). They also had to make up their minds about which of the tune's four possible melodic themes they should play and in which order, and whether with any distinctive treatments. And they had to decide whether to include an introduction, bridges and a coda. If you watch THIS VIDEO (CLICK ON TO VIEW)  you will see what they came up with. Enjoy especially the use of those long harmonising notes in the final choruses preceding the out-chorus. When they played Maple Leaf Rag at The French Quarter Festival a few weeks later, with slightly different personnel, the arrangement was essentially the same, though with two fewer of the 16-bar final choruses, and also this time there was a two-bar coda - I guess a spur-of-the-moment Shaye-ism that took nobody by surprise! Enjoy it in THIS VIDEO (CLICK ON).

Todd told me he had recently deputised in another band which had also played Maple Leaf Rag. But their version turned out to be quite different from Tuba Skinny's. Did this cause him any difficulty? Not really. He easily picked up what was going on.

I was gratified when Erika Lewis told me she was aware of these writings of mine. She said that when they were planning a play-list they would sometimes consult my list of their tunes to remind themselves of titles they hadn't performed recently and that perhaps ought to be revived. So I have become the honorary archivist to the band! CLICK HERE to see my list.

The first time I saw Tuba Skinny in person was when they were playing in a very crowded bar. I assumed the great number of people had all gone there specially to hear the band. I was wrong. I was trapped in the middle of the crowd near the bar, unable to move and quite a few yards from the stage. But when the band started to play, I found the din  of conversation around me was so loud that I could hardly hear the music. And so it continued. I felt so disappointed for the musicians, even more than for myself: they were producing such wonderful music and yet only a few people near the stage could hear them clearly.

When I eventually met Shaye, I told her how sorry I was that the band had been treated in this way. She shrugged her shoulders philosophically and said, 'Well, it's a bar....'.

If you have a conversation with Shaye, you find she has a sharp intelligence, good humour, charm, and wisdom beyond her years. She is articulate; and yet she values her privacy: she is sweetly and admirably inscrutable.

No wonder the band still so much enjoys playing in the street, where they can be clearly heard and be given respect by people who love their music. 

I had constantly wondered how Shaye manages to create all those wonderful phrases she plays (often with a mute) as a backing to Erika's vocals and also in support when the trombone or clarinet takes the melody. I asked her whether, while playing, she was thinking her way through the chords. She paused to consider my question for a moment, as if she had never thought about the process before. Yes, she knew the chords all right; but she felt that her inventions had become 'intuitive'.

In chatting with Barnabus, I got on to the unlikely topic of diminished chords. When I hummed a particularly enjoyable phrase he had played over a diminished chord in a YouTube video some years ago, he remembered exactly the one I meant and said he had picked the phrase up from Ewan Bleach! Barnabus also told me that Shaye is particularly fond of diminished chords.

One evening I bumped into that brilliant and ubiquitous trombonist Charlie Halloran. When he told me he would be playing with Tuba Skinny the following night (deputising during a very rare absence of Barnabus Jones), I asked him how he would cope with Tuba Skinny's often complex head arrangements. What if they played Deep Henderson, for example? He said Deep Henderson would be no trouble, as he knew their arrangement well. However, he told me 'I expect they will dumb down the programme a bit to make allowances for me.'

Well, I went to the concert. And I can tell you this: Tuba Skinny did not 'dumb down' at all. They played a typical programme, complex arrangements included. And how did Charlie cope? Brilliantly. He played some wonderful stuff and, as far as I could tell, never put a foot wrong.

I enjoyed observing how Shaye prepares a playlist. At The French Quarter Festival, for a quarter hour before the performance started, she sat in her place looking at her notebooks and working out a programme. She wrote the tune titles in large lettering on a sheet of paper which she then placed on the floor in the centre of the band, so that all members could know what was coming next. I noticed how skilfully she made the programme entertaining by alternating slower and quicker tunes, and mixing instrumental with vocal numbers, and even ensuring a variety of keys.

There are many people in the UK who wish Tuba Skinny would tour here. I raised this matter with some of them. I found they would like to visit the UK, but they have looked into the matter thoroughly and discovered so many obstacles (particularly financial and bureaucratic). I'm sorry to have to say this but I can't at present see how a tour in the UK will be viable in the foreseeable future. We can't expect the band to undertake it at a considerable cost to themselves.

Having admired his work through YouTube
for some years, it was a great pleasure
for me to meet Robin Rapuzzi.

Watching Tuba Skinny perform their specials - such as Freight Train Blues and the new ones by Shaye - Tangled Blues and Blue Chime Stomp - it was such a joy to observe at close quarters how brilliant they all are, and such perfectionists.

Post 102: CHARLIE HALLORAN, TROMBONIST

Just have a listen to this most unusual performance:
CLICK HERE.
One of the hardest-working and most versatile of the hugely-talented musicians I met during my visit to New Orleans in April 2015 was the trombone player Charlie Halloran. Charlie is one of the many young players who migrated to New Orleans - in his case from St. Louis - shortly after Hurricane Katrina.

Charlie had earlier studied at Webster University and went on to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

It is not surprising that Charlie is in great demand. Is there any tune in any style that he can't play brilliantly? It seems not. I should mention that he's a pretty good singer, too.

Charlie Halloran (left) playing in The Shotgun Jazz Band

During the four days of the official French Quarter Festival he played in at least nine concerts featuring various contrasting bands - The Palmetto Bug Stompers, Tom Saunders and the Tomcats, Diablo's Horns, The Panorama Jazz Band, Steve Pistorius's Southern Syncopators, Cori Walters and the Universe Jazz Band, Orange Kellin's New Orleans Deluxe Orchestra, and Tim Laughlin's Band. On top of these official Festival engagements, I saw him twice - in the evenings - playing with The Shotgun Jazz Band and (deputising for Barnabus Jones) with Tuba Skinny.

All that in four days. What stamina! What energy!

Charlie playing with Diablo's Horns
at the French Quarter Festival 2015.
(Photo courtesy of David Wiseman)

Charlie approaches his music in the same way as a great athlete approaches competition. He always aims to get a good sleep and does not stay out late when he doesn't have to. He makes a point of eating well.

Even on a day when there will be a lot of playing, he aims to be up by 9am to spend some time practising the trombone - 'warming up carefully' and 'playing long tones'. He carries in his kit a gel that he can apply to his lips in case of emergency. He says this helps prevent his lips from becoming swollen later in the day. (I noticed that Haruka Kikuchi, another great trombonist, occasionally applies vaseline to her lips during a performance.)

Yet, despite his massive talent, Charlie is such a modest and gentlemanly person, always friendly and willing to chat during his few spare moments. He loves his work but enjoys being a side-man rather a leader or star. When he told me he would be playing with Tuba Skinny the following night (deputising during a very rare absence of Barnabus Jones), I asked him how he would cope with Tuba Skinny's often complex head arrangements. What if they played Deep Henderson, for example? He said Deep Henderson would be no trouble, as he knew their arrangement well. However, he told me 'I expect they will dumb down the programme a bit to make allowances for me.'

Well, I went to the concert. And I can tell you this: Tuba Skinny did not 'dumb down' at all. They played a typical programme, complex arrangements included. And how did Charlie cope? Brilliantly. He played some wonderful stuff and, as far as I could tell, never put a foot wrong.

Listen to Charlie for yourself:

In this video, Charlie talks to us and gives a demonstration of some styles: CLICK HERE.

Listen to a lovely gentle tune in 3/4 time with The Panorama Jazz Band:  CLICK HERE. You will need then to click the arrow button to run the video.

For You Always Hurt the One You Love with The Shotgun Jazz Band  CLICK HERE.

And for a totally different setting:  CLICK HERE.

Or watch him having Mardi Gras fun with The Panorama Parade Band:  CLICK HERE.

=======================
Footnote

My book Enjoying Traditional Jazz is available from Amazon.

Post 101: CLARINET (AND SAXOPHONE) PLAYING - GOOD AND BAD

Please note: this article was first written with clarinet playing in mind. But it applies to saxophone players as well.

To hear a clarinet player doing just what a traditional jazz clarinet player should, CLICK ON THIS VIDEO. The clarinet listens well to the trumpet lead and harmonises beautifully. It is a great demonstration of what can be achieved even with very limited resources.

My friend Jonathan Graham - a fine guitarist and a trumpet player - told me he has been listening to lots of jazz recordings from the 1920s and has come to the conclusion that the clarinet is usually the most important instrument in the band.

It is the clarinet player who provides the drive, the energy, the decoration of the melody, syncopation, tone colouring, most of the polyphony - in fact much of the 'jazziness' of the music.

A good clarinet player has to know the chord changes of every tune - either by rote or intuitively - and he has to be a master of rapid arpeggios. His fingering must be confident and fast. He must also be skilful at throwing occasional long bluesy notes into his playing - usually flattened thirds and sevenths.

I guess that good clarinet players have spent hundreds of hours practising scales and arpeggios, perhaps backed by recordings that give them a clear melody around which to weave their magic.

The best clarinet players avoid playing right on the beat - especially on the first note of every bar. Coming in after the first quaver or on the second beat contributes better to the syncopation. They also avoid playing too many bars comprising nothing but quavers and crotchets. Triplets, semiquaver runs, dotted notes and trills - as well as those 'hanging' long bluesy notes mentioned above - add so much to the excitement.

Above all, in ensemble work, where the trumpet is stating the melody, you won't catch good clarinet or saxophone players on exactly the same notes as the trumpet. Why? For three reasons.

First, such duplication means a waste of the band's limited resources.

Second, it misses an opportunity for harmony and polyphony.

Third: the timbres of the two instruments clash. Listen to a trumpet alone playing, for example, a C for four beats. Fine. Now listen to a clarinet alone playing the same C for four beats. Fine. Now have them both together playing that C for four beats. Not so good. The sound is much less pleasant.

So, where the trumpet is assigned to stating the melody, the clarinet and saxophone must steer clear of it. (I have recently heard a jazz performance ruined by a saxophone player who was very loud, very weak on 'teamwork' and trying to play - most of the time - the same notes as the trumpet.) And this includes Middle Eights. Although Middle Eights can be tricky, the clarinet or saxophone player should take the trouble to learn their chord progressions correctly rather than cop out and simply play the melody of the Middle Eight (duplicating what the trumpeter is doing and annoying the rest of the band into the bargain), as I frequently hear a clarinet player do.

The situation can be particularly bad if a band has both a clarinet and a saxophone playing, probably in addition to trumpet and trombone. If the reed players do not play as team members, with a high level of musical awareness, the result can be excruciating. 

It is acceptable for the clarinet or saxophone to play the melody only when it is agreed in advance that it will 'take the lead', while the trumpet player either drops out for these bars or switches to improvising around the melody. Also, when playing a 'solo' chorus, the effect can sometimes be very pleasant if the clarinet player stays very close to the melody, perhaps in a low register. This can make a good contrast after an ensemble chorus led by the trumpet.

Breaks are another feature of traditional jazz in which the clarinet or saxophone can contribute so much to the excitement of the music. (If you don't know what I mean by 'break', I am referring to those moments when all the instruments except one drop out after the first beat of the bar, leaving that one instrument to play something interesting and decorative. Breaks are often assigned to the clarinet.)

Consider for example the famous 4-bar break in Jazz Me Blues. A weak clarinet player may simply play this:

Technically that is all right. But it is hardly dynamic and exciting. It would be far better to play something on these lines:

In addition to all this, of course, the clarinet or saxophone often plays the melody - either because the tune is a clarinet feature, or because the band is a small group perhaps without a trumpet, or because the band has made an arrangement of the tune in which either the whole of the melody or one of the strains (in a rag, for example) is best played by the clarinet - if only for variety. All these situations give the clarinet player a great opportunity to demonstrate the instrument's beautiful tones and its expressive, soulful capabilities.

For an example of a modern clarinet-player and saxophone player getting things absolutely right, CLICK ON THIS PERFORMANCE. The clarinet player is John Doyle and the saxophonist is Ewan Bleach. It is also a joyous example of traditional jazz teamwork at its best.
========================

FOTNOTE
The book Playing Traditional Jazz, by Pops Coffee, is available from Amazon.

Post 100: IMPROVISE BOLDLY!

I have received several emails from people who tell me they are trying to learn to play traditional jazz with the help of my blog. Some seem to be seeking a magic formula and think it is to be found in the stuff I write about chord progressions.

This is worrying. It's time to warn you not to take me too seriously. I am no expert. I am a self-taught ever-struggling learner, especially in matters of chord progressions.

Note this: confidence and boldness when improvising are often more important than knowing the tune's chord progression by heart.

In 1997, when I had started taking a serious interest in the music, I closely observed the trumpet-player Marc Caparone at the High Mountains Jazz Festival in Oregon.

Marc Caparone

He was playing some amazing solo choruses and I could tell from his fingering that he was often using notes that seemed quite alien to the chord progression. Yet he was producing some really exciting music.

I had the good fortune to bump into him later and I mentioned this to him.

His reply was unfortgettable: 'That's right. I don't let the chords get in the way!'

Maybe that's the best approach to take.

Post 99: 'GATEMOUTH'

Here's another easy but effective tune for your band to play - if you don't already have it.

Gatemouth was written in about 1926 by the pianist Lil Hardin (possibly in collaboration with her husband Louis Armstrong). It has two catchy themes. The first is a 16-bar, using the Sweet Sue Chord Progression, and allowing for breaks - if desired - on Bars 7 - 8. You can even have breaks right through a chorus of this theme, as The New Orleans Wanderers did in 1926 when they recorded it. You can hear their performance if you

CLICK HERE.

That first theme - by the way - is virtually identical to other good old standards, such as Do What Ory Say, Mamma's Baby Boy, Get It Right and the main theme of South.

The second theme is also 16 bars. Normally, bands play both themes a couple of times and use the first for solo improvisations.

You can hear Gatemouth played more recently by The Peruna Jazzmen.

CLICK HERE.

The tune certainly lends itself to a variety of New Orleans treatments, taking advantage of the opportunities to incorporate breaks and stop chords.

It is generally played in Eb:

Post 98: 'MOVE THE BODY OVER'

A friend asked whether I could supply him with the 'dots' for Move the Body Over. It's a simple tune with an easy harmonic progression and is popular with quite a few jazz bands. If you know who wrote it, please let me know. I have been unable to find out. All I know is that George Lewis in the 1950s made it popular with jazz bands.

Here's how it seems to go, according to my ear.

The usual lyrics are as follows:

Move the body over,
Move the body over,
Move the body over here.
I just want you near me
So that you can hear me
Whisper in your ear.
When you sit beside me
I am feeling grand

Specially when you whisper
"Darling hold my hand”.

Move the body over,

Move the body over,

Move the body over here.

Post 97: 'CHRYSANTHEMUM RAG'

Scott Joplin wrote The Chrysanthemum in 1904.

It is a great number. But who plays it these days?

It was one of those subtle, tricky piano rags in 2/4, with plenty of tied notes and many bars comprising eight semi-quavers.

It had a typical four-theme rag structure of the time. After a 4-bar introduction, there was [A] a 16-bar theme (repeated) in Bb, followed by [B] another 16-bar theme (repeated) in F. Then Theme [A] was played again, but this time not repeated. This modulated into [C] a 16-bar theme (repeated) in Eb, and then [D] another 16-bar theme (repeated) in Eb. Finally, what I have called Theme [C] was played again to finish.

And here’s something I find very interesting: with such a structure (A-B-A-C-D-C), and modulations using a total of three keys, this piece was in a direct line of descent from the music of Haydn and Mozart.

During the second half of the Twentieth Century, somebody (probably Ray Foxley) devised a version of Chrysanthemum Rag simplified for the traditional jazz band. Obviously it had to make do with fewer notes, compared with the piano score. But it kept the spirit of what I have described above and it also managed to extract the essence of the melodies of the four themes. It even went through the same key changes.

The 'trad' version was popular in the U.K. at jazz festivals, especially when played by such bands as those of Ken Colyer or Sonny Morris. To hear Ken playing it: CLICK HERE.

I am sorry to say bands in the Twenty-First Century seem to have all but stopped playing Chrysanthemum Rag. This is sad because it is a terrific number, perhaps even more effective in its full-band version than as a piano solo. Probably bands think it too much trouble to learn, with the four strains and key changes to master. It requires playing in a disciplined manner.

Though it is possible to play it fairly ‘straight’ - without much improvisation - it gives plenty of opportunity to the trumpet, clarinet and trombone for neat teamwork. It makes a great speciality number.

So come on bands! Let’s revive Chrysanthemum Rag!

But wait. Where is the band sheet music for us to work from? The answer seems to be that it is nowhere to be found. It has been lost. I guess the musicians who devised the trad band version never bothered to get it printed.

I decided to make my own lead sheet, based on a recording of Chrysanthemum Rag played by an English traditional jazz band about 40 years ago. I put it in keys that are easy for me as a cornet player. I enter my tunes in mini filofaxes. The themes are played in the order A – B – A – C – D – C.