Post 195: 'BASIN STREET STOMP'

Basin Street

Here's a catchy, riffy, easy tune for your band to try, if you don't already have it in your repertoire,

It's Basin Street Stomp (quite different from Basin Street Blues). It has a simple 32-bar structure (a  -  a  -  b  -  a) and a few built-in 'bluesy' notes to give it a special flavour.

According to one source, it was written by Nick La Rocca and Howard Chandler Franks in 1914. But this is surely incorrect.

I have had an email from Bill Edwards that says:
According to one source, it was written by Nick La Rocca and Howard Chandler Franks in 1914. The 1914 may be in question, but the copyright for the piece in 1954, which was posthumous for La Rocca at the very least, is not. I've been trying, by request, to rectify the LoC records on this with other information on the piece, but for the moment, there is an official record that LaRocca and Franks were involved.
https://books.google.com/books?id=zjYhAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=%22howard+chandler+franks%22&source=bl&ots=Z8p7TE0ppS&sig=ACfU3U0o4tNlr51krBRAAlokWk7xS4CQNw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjh8D5qoThAhVtuVkKHbNNAUQQ6AEwCXoECBEQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22howard%20chandler%20franks%22&f=false
Also, correspondent Franklin Wade has kindly sent me information that the tune appeared first in 1951 on a recording made by The Basin Street Six, where the liner notes stated that it was 'one of their own originals'. The Basin Street Six were Pete Fountain (only 21 years old at the time, clarinet), George Girard (trumpet), Joe Rotis (trombone), Roy Zimmerman (piano), Charlie Duke (drums) and Bunny Frank (bass).

All somewhat confusing. But this is roughly how the tune sounds - to me.

Post 194: 'CLIMAX RAG' PLAYED BY SHOTGUN

Have you seen this video of Marla Dixon's Shotgun Jazz Band? They are playing Climax Rag, written by James Scott 100 years ago. We are all indebted to the videomaker codenamed bljl1223 for making this available to us on YouTube.

Haruka Kikuchi

It has so much to offer:

1. sensational playing and teamwork;

2. super breaks;

3. a stomping and precise rhythm section (John, Tyler and Justin);

4. James Evans and Haruka (having recently settled in with this band) really enjoying themselves and playing some amazing unrestrained stuff;

5. a 'quiet' chorus;

6. a front-line-only chorus;

7. a super raw final chorus;

8. a fun coda;

9. twelve variations on the final Chorus with a range of entertaining and interesting treatments;

10. Marla's dynamic leadership throughout.

The whole performance is driven along by the pulsating poom-poom-poom-poom rhythmic pattern (rather than um-chook-um-chook) that I personally find thrilling and entirely appropriate to this type of tune.

Try for yourself. Set your feet tapping by

CLICKING ON HERE.

Post 193: 'BUGLE BOY MARCH'

Several tunes played by traditional jazz bands started life as Marches, composed for brass bands or military bands or light orchestras.

Bugle Boy March is one of those tunes with an introduction and three sections (including a key change for the third). Many bands have it in their repertoire. This is not surprising because it has good melodies, an easy chord structure and a final theme on which it is easy to improvise.

Here's how it sounds to me. But if you want a really tidy version, go to the one prepared by the great and generous Lasse Collin:
CLICK HERE.
As you can see, I have entered mine in one of my mini-filofaxes. This is how I hear and play it:

For my convenience (being a Bb instrument player), I have put it in the key of G, modulating to C at Section C.

So in fact its Concert Key is F, modulating in to Bb.

The final theme (C) is a straightforward 32 bars (16 + 16) and easy to present in various ways, with multifarious decorations.

The march was composed in 1907 by Francis A. Myers (1875 - 1960). Myers played clarinet for four years in the band of John Philip Sousa before going on to become a formidable band-leader, composer and music tutor.

Band-leaders like to tell their audiences the story (probably true) of how this tune got its name - Bugle Boy March.

Myers himself entitled it The American Soldier. But in the early days of rival jazz bands - particularly in New Orleans - when musicians discovered a good new tune such as this, they would play and learn it from the sheet music and then cut the title off the top of the music with scissors and give the tune another name. This was intended to make it hard for other bands to get hold of it!

So the name Bugle Boy March stuck; and is still preferred by jazzers.

Post 192: 'SALAMANCA BLUES'

A reader asked me who composed Salamanca Blues, which can be heard on Tuba Skinny's 2012 CD 'Rag Band'.

Shaye  (Photo courtesy of an Australian correspondent)

Well, it was composed by none other than Shaye Cohn. As performed on the CD, it is a short, unpretentious, medium-tempo, charming and melodic piece, without a vocal. The whole thing is over in less than three minutes and it comprises just 76 bars (measures), which are made up of six segments:

1. 12-bar simple blues in F, firmly stated as a trombone solo by Barnabus Jones.

2. 16-bar soaring theme in F, just as firmly stated on Shaye's cornet - starting on the high F. There is some lovely tremolo support from the banjo and the harmonies are beautiful.

3. A key change! With no modulation, the full ensemble is straight and decisively led by the cornet into a 12-bar blues in Ab.

4. A second 12-bar ensemble in Ab.

5. Another 12-bar in Ab, this time stated by the banjo with (from Jonathan Doyle's clarinet) some cascading sweetness over a Db chord and also a two-bar solo 'break' - the only break in the 76 bars.

6. A final 12-bar ensemble blues chorus, again firmly started by Shaye on the high F - turning the chord into an Ab6. But, with a slight rallentando, all is brought to a calm neat ending.

Why did Shaye call her composition Salamanca Blues? I don't know. My first guess was that it was named for Salamanca in Spain. Tuba Skinny have visited that country. But there is also a 'Salamanca Market' in Hobart, Tasmania. Maybe the band busked in that market some time before 2012, but I have no evidence of a trip to Tasmania before 2013. A friend has suggested - very plausibly - that it was inspired by the small city called Salamanca in the Southern Tier region of New York. He reminded me that the band played shows in that general region at about the time when the tune was composed.

That excellent video-maker codenamed TheWsm0 filmed the band reviving the tune in 2018, during the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans:

CLICK HERE.
Why not buy the CD, which also contains such treats as Jackson Stomp, Banjoreno and Russian Rag?

Post 191: SIGNALLING THE BRIDGE

In many tunes, there is a section known to musicians as 'The Bridge'. Usually it comes right in the middle of the tune - for example starting at Bar No. 17 in a 32-bar tune. Where the tune has an a-a-b-a structure, the Bridge is section 'b' and is also known as 'The Middle Eight'.

Sometimes, when bringing a tune to an end - and often following a vocal - the bandleader does not want to go right back to the beginning to play the whole thing yet again; instead, he or she prefers to finish off by playing just the second half. This means going back the the Bridge.

To signal this, the band-leader makes the shape of a bridge, using the fingers or the whole hand. Here's an example:

Here is Marla doing it:

And here is a fine example of Shaye (using forefingers to create a bridge) letting Max and Greg know they are to go back to the Bridge at the end of the chorus that is just finishing:

You can also see Shaye giving exactly the same signal and message at 3 minutes 48 seconds during this lovely performance filmed by my friend James Sterling:
CLICK HERE.

Post 190: TUNES WITH SIMILAR CONTENT

Shake It and Break It (the 1920 tune of that title by Qualli Clark and Chiha), That Da Da Strain (1922, Dowell and Medina) and Willie the Weeper (1920 Melrose, Bloom and Rymal, but probably taken from an earlier song) are examples of tunes that have a surprising amount in common, if you analyze their opening strains. There are plenty such groupings, I think, in the canon of traditional jazz tunes.

Here's Shake It and Break It.

And now consider That Da Da Strain.

Finally, here's Willie the Weeper.

All three tunes have a first theme that comprises sixteen bars in a minor key (the Verse, if you like) followed by 16 bars in the related major key (the Chorus).

Look at those first themes. All three tunes begin by tumbling down the arpeggio of the minor chord in a very similar way.

All three tunes make considerable use of the related 7th in those sixteen bars.

All three tunes use an 8 + 8 structure in those first 16 bars, with each 8 very similar to the other.

Even in the major key second strain, two of the three tunes open with the same V7 - V7 - I  -  I structure.

Footnote: I am very grateful to the correspondents who supplied me with these copies of the music.

Post 189: SMOKING

When my father was a soldier during the Second World War, one of the kindest and most generous things wives or relatives thought they could do was to send packets of cigarettes to 'our boys'. Smoking was considered fashionable and normal.

How times have changed!

I'm lucky. I am a non-smoker. Several times, in my youth, I wished I could give up non-smoking, but I lacked the will to do it.

When I was 60 years old and trying to play traditional jazz, I was kindly allowed to sit in with a band playing regularly in a Norfolk pub here in England. It was a great learning experience for me. I joined the band and stayed with it for several years. But breathing inside the pub was unpleasant: there was a fug of tobacco smoke. Many in the audience (not to mention three members of the band - one of them a doctor!) were serious smokers. At the end of every gig, my eyes were sore, my hair and skin were stinking and my clothes needed to go straight in the wash.

On top of all this, goodness knows what damage was being done to the health of everyone in the pub. (Those three smoker musicians, by the way, have all since died.)

After a few years, at the start of 2004, the pub landlord was enlightened enough to put up a notice banning smoking from the bar in which the band played (though not in the rest of the pub). This made a huge difference. I enjoyed the gigs so much more.

As you may know, a ban on smoking in public places was eventually introduced by law in the UK in July 2007. Since then, playing in jazz bands in indoor venues has become much more pleasurable.

Why am I picking on this subject today? Because a blog reader told me how sad it was to see musicians having to endure such a smoky atmosphere when they played at some jazz venues in America. This blog reader (O.K. - it's Wally, from Canada) admits that he himself is a smoker. And yet he is understanding enough to appreciate that singers and trumpet players, for example, have to gulp air in through the mouth rapidly and frequently while performing. They need to fill the lungs with good air - not something choking and lethal.

Sadly, some of the musicians themselves are smokers - even among those young stars in New Orleans whose generation ought to know better. I am saddened. We have come to love these brilliant young people; and their music brings us so much pleasure. It is a pity they do something that not only makes their work harder but will probably shorten their lives.

But there is some good news. I visited New Orleans in April 2015, and was pleased to note that smoking was by then banned in some of the venues in which the bands play. And I noticed very little smoking during my several visits to The Spotted Cat. I was also told by locals that a law-enforceable ban (as in England) was due to come into force on April 22, a few days after I left.

Post 188: THE OLD FISH JAZZ BAND

Here's more good news for those of us who are concerned about the future of our music. Robert Duis has introduced to me The Old Fish Jazz Band.

I know nothing about the band - apart from what I have learned from YouTube. They seem to have played in Bucharest and other European cities. But it seems they are based in Berlin. Their instrumentation varies a bit between performances but essentially they are a six-piece, including washboard percussion and brass bass (reminiscent of Tuba Skinny).

They make even an old chestnut such as Bill Bailey sound very exciting, as you will find if you watch this. A correspondent has told me that the trombonist in this video is Kristoffer Alehed from Sweden, where he leads a quartet named Swing Tarturo. Another told me the lady washboard player/singer is none other than the famous Jessy Carolina, with her husband on clarinet.

CLICK HERE.

After listening to that, you may be tempted - as I was - to explore more of their videos.

Post 187: 'STACK O' LEE BLUES'

I got round to a task I had put off for months. I would sort out and learn - once and for all - Stack o' Lee Blues.

I always knew there was confusion about this tune, and also that its origins were obscure. That's why I had avoided it.

According to Wikipedia, 'Stagger Lee' or 'Stack Lee' of 'Stag Lee' was Lee Shelton, an underworld character who in 1895 murdered a rival called Billy Lyons. The original song (probably written in 1897) was a kind of folk-song about this event.

But a quick survey of bands and individuals performing it on YouTube shows that the confusion is even greater than I thought. I found 12-bar blues versions but with differing tunes. One version sounds the same as Frankie and Johnny. And there was an eight-bar version (played by Johnny Wiggs) with yet another quite different tune, sounding suspiciously like the final eight bars of Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor:

Click here.
Of all the variants, my favourite is the version played by Sidney Bechet and actually entitled Old Stack o' Lee Blues. It's a 12-bar, with a pleasant, simple melody and some interesting chord changes, including what sounds like a tonic diminished on the eighth bar. (It happens to sound very simiar to Faraway Blues.) Have a listen:

Click here.

Post 186: 'IT'S THE TALK OF THE TOWN'

My pianist friend Eddie told me he was hoping to introduce It's The Talk of the Town into his band's repertoire.

The music, published in 1933, is by Jerry Livingston with lyrics by Marty Symes and Al. J. Neiburg.

We both agreed that, although this tune was quite unlike most typical traditional jazz standards, it would be a very pleasant ballad to include in programmes, if only to provide some contrast.

(Privately, it occurred to me that it would probably be a difficult tune to master.)

When I arrived home and thought about it, I realized it is in fact fairly simple. It has a conventional 32-bar structure, using the familiar pattern:

 a  -  a  -  b  - c.

Not only that: the melody is one of those 'climbing up the stairs' types - both in the 'a' eight-bar blocks, and also in 'b' - the Middle Eight. So I'm going to get to work on it and I hope to be playing it well by bedtime tonight!

Post 185: 'THERE AIN'T NO LAND LIKE DIXIELAND'

There Ain't No Land Like Dixieland: My friends and I decided to try this one. We recently practised it together.

I had not previously heard of this song. It was written (words and music) in 1927 by the great Walter Donaldson. I found several bright performances of it on YouTube.

We decided to try it in Ab. So for me on (Bb transposing) cornet it needed to be written in Bb. There are some surprises, notably the chord in bars 27 and 28 (a 7th on the flattened 6th). I offer my effort to you, in case it may be of use to somebody:-

Post 184: CONCERT KEYS AND TRANSPOSING INSTRUMENTS

CORNET - a B Flat Instrument
(so its 'C' sounds the same note as a piano's 'B Flat')

I have had an enquiry from a reader. He says I wrote that Michigander Blues is normally played in the key of D minor. But when he tries it on his trumpet it seems to be in his key of E minor.

So let me explain that several instruments used in traditional jazz are transposing instruments, which means that music written for them appears to be in one key but when played it sounds in a different key. Most trumpets, for example, are Bb instruments, so if you play C on such a trumpet, you will produce the same note as Bb on the piano. The same is true of most clarinets.

You also come across Eb instruments, such as some tubas and saxophones. This means that if you play C on one of these instruments, it will sound the same note as Eb on the piano.

So my trumpet player - performing Michigander Blues in HIS E minor - is actually playing it in D minor (concert pitch - as sounded on the piano).

Why have instrument manufacturers made matters so complicated?  It's simply because they have found - over many decades of trial and error - that the tuning and fingering on the transposing instruments are better if they are built in such a way.

As a player of a Bb trumpet or Bb clarinet, you should in my opinion always refer to the concert key in which you are playing a piece of music with your band. Don't confuse the rest of the band by mentioning your own personal key. So, for example, if the band decides to play Michigander Blues in D minor, then D minor it is, even though you know that you personally will be playing it in your instrument's E minor.

To put it another way, you will always be one tone higher than the 'concert key' that the pianist or banjo or guitar player uses.

So for example if the band announces that it is going to play Muskrat Ramble in Ab, you know immediately that you will be playing in your Bb.

Maybe this sounds tricky, but after a short time such thinking becomes automatic.

Here's Shaye Cohn's Bb cornet. When she plays C on this, it sounds the same note as the Bb on a piano or banjo.

Here she is playing Michigander Blues. You can hear that the band is playing the tune in D minor. But if you watch Shaye's fingers, you will notice that she personally is of course having to play it in the cornet's E minor:
CLICK HERE.

Post 183: CHORUSES AGAINST OFF-BEAT STOP CHORDS

I wish there was more variety of treatments of choruses in the performances of our bands. There are many ways of making 'solo' choruses more interesting. The use of long held notes (as backing) is one. Another is the use of stop chords (for example, the rest of the band - apart from the soloist - playing just the first two beats of each bar).

One of my favourites is the use of OFFBEAT stop chords. In other words, the soloist plays fluently over all four beats of the bar, while the rest of the band plays only the second and fourth beats.

Similarly, you can have the full rhythm section playing a chorus of offbeats only while the melody instruments all continue to play normally. That is very effective.

Like all good things, the device should be used sparingly. For example, in a 32-bar chorus, one instrument could play 16 bars against offbeat stop chords, with another taking over for the remaining 16 bars accompanied by conventional rhythm section backing.

The use of offbeat stop chords impresses audiences and indeed it does not always come easily to the musicians. In particular, the soloist must not let himself or herself be thrown by the unusual rhythm. It takes practice. When taking a solo against offbeat backing, it's best to hit the first note of the bar firmly, at least at the start, to establish clearly where it actually is!

The offbeat stratagem is not at all new. It is an authentic part of the New Orleans tradition.

You can hear Louis Dumaine demonstrating it well with his Jazzola Eight in 1927. Louis himself plays a chorus of Pretty Audrey against such a rhythmic background.

CLICK HERE.

Notice what happens at 1 minute 15 seconds into the recording. Louis plays a full fast 32 bars against stop chords. It is an exciting effect.

In the same year, the great Sam Morgan Band made recordings in New Orleans. Notice what happens in the band's recording of Mobile Stomp.

CLICK HERE.

At 1 minute 28 seconds, for the third chorus, the rhythm section switches to a stop chord offbeat rhythm, against which the reeds continue to improvise prettily over the full bars.

Let us all try more of these variations. Of course, the best bands already do.

CLICK HERE

for a clever variant in which the front line (cornet, trombone and reeds) plays the stop chords while the banjo takes the solo. Note what happens at 1 minute 37 seconds. What about that as an example to us all?

Post 182: 'THAT'S ALL THERE IS! THERE AIN'T NO MORE!; AND THE GREAT HARRY WOODS

I guess that the song That's All There Is! There Ain't No More used to be popular with traditional jazz bands wishing to end their concert in a rousing but definitive way. I've made my own leadsheet of it. To my ear it seems to go like this.

If I'm right, it's a great one to play: taking it fairly fast, you can make it sound exciting and the a-a-b-a  structure with simple chord pattern lends itself easily to improvisation.

I think the tune was composed in 1925 by the great Harry (Henry MacGregor) Woods, who was also responsible for The Clouds Will Soon Roll By, I Wish't I Was in Peoria, I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover, Paddlin' Madeleine Home, River Stay Away From My Door, Side By Side, Try a Little Tenderness, We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye, When the Red Red Robin, When The Moon Comes Over the Mountain and When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful.

What a CV!

What a phenomenal contribution he made to popular music and the repertoire of traditional jazz bands!

Harry lived from 1896 until 1970. He worked mainly in New York. What you may not know is that - from birth - the unfortunate chap had no fingers on his left hand.

Post 181: IMPROVISING ON MIDDLE EIGHTS

Many of our tunes (such as 12-bar blues) do not have Middle Eights, of course. And 32-bar tunes frequently consist of two 16-bar blocks, where there is no conventional Middle Eight.

However, hundreds of tunes (especially 32-bar songs built on an a - a - b - a structure) do have a Middle Eight (the 'b' section).

We can easily be flummoxed by Middle Eights. If you're not sure of the melody or the chord sequence in those eight bars, you can find yourself in trouble.

And some tunes are notorious for their unusual and tricky Middle Eights. Think, for example, of Have You Met Miss Jones?, Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans? and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Even I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket needs care (don't break the eggs!).

In many of the good old standards, it is possible to spot familiar chord progressions (with the famous 'circle of fifths' working its magic). But I'm sorry to say I have discovered no simple trick to help me master Middle Eights. You just have to work hard at them and learn them one by one.

Below are twenty Middle Eights (in their most simplified form) of some popular traditional jazz tunes. As you can see, there is much variety even among them. There are a few cases (e.g. the first three songs below) where you find two or more tunes using pretty much the same progression.

In my examples, I use the numerical system. So, in the Key of C:

1    27    4m    5

would mean:

C    D7      Fminor    G.
-------------------------------------------------------

Yes, Sir, That's My Baby

1   1   4   4   27   27   57   57

We'll Meet Again
17   17   4   4   27   27   57   57

On the Sunny Side of the Street

17   17   4   4   27   27   57   57

I Want a Little Girl to Call My Own

17   17   4   4   67   67   27   57

Egyptian Ella

2m   2m  6m  6m  2m   2m  77   37

(a typical minor key tune's Middle Eight)

Has Anybody Seen My Girl?

37   37  67   67   27   27   57   57

Fingering With Your Fingers

37   37  67   67   27   27   57   57

Girl of my Dreams

37   37   6m   6m   27   27   57   57   

Sweet Emmalina
37   37   67   67   27   27   57   57

I Got Rhythm

37   37  67   67   27   27   27   57

Ice Cream

4   4   1   1   27   27   57   57

Carolina Moon

4   4   1   1   27   27   57   57

When You and I Were Young, Maggie

4   4   1   1   5   27   57   57

I'm Sitting on Top of the World
4   77   1   1   6m   6m   27   57

Lady Be Good

4   57   1   1   6m   6m   2m7    57

My Blue Heaven

4   67   2m   2m   57   57   1   1

I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket

4   4  6b7  6b7  3b7  3b7   57   57  

(Note the tricky bit)

Beautiful Dreamer

57   57   1   1   27   27   57   57

Way Down Upon the Swanee River
57   57   1   17   4   4   1   57

When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful

57   1   57   1   67   27   27   57