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| Here is the dogfight in 'That's a Plenty'. It begins at the top right, where you see cornet and clarinet instructed to play the high Ds. The trombone and bass then respond with the low Ds. |
I am indebted to my Canadian friend Stephen Brown for teaching me a new term that describes a feature in the structure of some of our tunes. The word is 'Dogfight'.
Stephen told me that for a full explanation, it is best to go to:
But if you are happy with a brief explanation of how it mostly turns up in traditional jazz, I can tell you the Dogfight is a special kind of 'Bridge'. The Bridge is a link (often eight or twelve bars) between one theme and another in tunes that have more than one theme. What is distinctive about the Dogfight-style bridge is that usually a higher voice (generally the trumpet) plays a short phrase and then there is a short-phrase response from a lower voice (e.g. trombone or tuba) - thus creating a sort of musical dogfight. Get it? A vivid and useful term, isn't it?
If you know our music well, you will notice there are Dogfight links in such pieces as That's a Plenty, Clarinet Marmalade, High Society, and King Porter Stomp.
If you know our music well, you will notice there are Dogfight links in such pieces as That's a Plenty, Clarinet Marmalade, High Society, and King Porter Stomp.
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Haruka Kikuchi on her Wedding Day.
But you can hear her playing a 'Dogfight'
- see below.
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If you are still having trouble grasping the idea, listen to this video which was put up on YouTube by my 'adopted grand-daughter' Haruka Kikuchi! You can hear the Dogfight (in this case a 12-bar Dogfight) from 1 minute 7 seconds to 1 minute 19 seconds, and again from 2 minutes 46 seconds to 2 minutes 59 seconds.
