Post 606: TUBA SKINNY'S CD 'SOME KIND-A-SHAKE'

Tuba Skinny’s latest CD, released in April 2019 and entitled ‘Some Kind-a-Shake’, contains 14 tracks and is remarkable for four reasons.

First, it was recorded at The Living Room Studio in New Orleans. This is a former church, a spacious wooden building, now equipped with a huge range of technical equipment and offering excellent acoustics. So the CD is possibly the most ‘professional-sounding’ of all Tuba Skinny’s recordings.

Second, the band on this occasion comprised ten players, including two reeds. The result is an unusually full-bodied sound.

Third, to an even greater degree than before, most of the tunes are highly orchestrated with slick, ingenious arrangements. Little is left to chance.

Finally, two of the tunes were composed by participating musicians. The title track, ‘Some Kind-a-Shake’, written by Shaye Cohn in 2018, is a riffy number with well-drilled backing and rhythmic effects, a 16-bar fluent ‘verse’ interlude, and an amusing link and coda in which various instruments play one at a time in an eight-note arpeggio! And Ewan Bleach’s ‘Berlin Rag’, composed in 2016, is craftily scored, with an intriguing structure that seems to dance teasingly around the key of D minor.

'Saturday Night Function’ is a highlight, with five 12-bar solos, including two particularly tasteful by Craig on clarinet and Todd on sousaphone, sandwiched between single statements of Ellington and Bigard's 16-bar theme. The unusual rhythmic pattern backing Ewan’s solo is typical of the attention to detail that permeates this CD. You hear the same kind of thing behind Craig’s solo in ‘Ballin’ The Jack’.

Erika sings Fats Waller’s ‘Squeeze Me’, which she also performed on the band’s album ‘Rag Band’. The earlier recording was made before a live audience at The Spotted Cat, so this new version is much cleaner in sound, but the arrangement and key (Eb) are pretty much the same. The strings – in the familiar chromatic descents - and Ewan’s alto saxophone provide lovely support.

Erika also duets with Greg on the Memphis Minnie song ‘I’m Going Back Home’ (in the unusual key of A) and on ‘Wee Midnight Hours’ - based on ‘Midnight Hour Blues’ originally recorded in 1932 by Leroy Carr. Both these are established favourites with fans of Tuba Skinny.

Greg gently sings the 8-bar Blind Blake song ‘You Gonna Quit Me’, followed by a pleasant solo from Barnabus, and some exquisite teamwork choruses.

The up-tempo ‘Ballin’ The Jack’ has Craig shining on baritone sax and Ewan playing a clarinet chorus against stop beats; and there is a vigorous ‘Jubilee Stomp’, with lively work from Craig and plenty of tricky links and breaks perfectly executed.

'Echo in the Dark’ and ‘Stealing Love’ are gentle, melodic pieces, with the lead shared around and sweet combined work from the reeds. 'Too Late’ keeps closely to the spirit of the 1929 original by Dave Nelson and King Oliver, even with Rhadamanthine scrupulosity including the drop from Eb to C for just one chorus.

Many bands play May Aufderheide’s ‘Thriller Rag’ in F; but Tuba Skinny go for the more challenging Ab, in an exciting up-tempo version.

Shaye Cohn’s own playing seems to have reached an even greater peak in the last couple of years. Whether beautifully melodic in ‘Echo in the Dark’ or rapidly and energetically creative in ‘Deep Minor Rhythm Stomp’ (a super tune for dancers), she is always exciting to hear. 'Echo in the Dark' is the tune in which Shaye reaches the second highest note (concert Bb) we have ever heard her play on record. She is not merely showing off technique, as many players do, but is required to play it as part of the melody. There's an amusingly tense moment when she approaches it for the final time near the end of the track: we keep our fingers crossed for her and she pulls it off - with only the tiniest hint of a struggle!

There is superb, neat, complementary playing and soloing throughout by Barnabus, Robin and Todd, and by the strings - with quite a few finger-picking solos.

In total, then, this a well produced CD, with a wide range of contrasting tunes demonstrating the dazzling standard the band has reached ten years after its formation.

The artwork as usual is by Shaye.

Post 605: SEARCHING FOR TAINTED TUNE TITLES

'We're now going to play that good old number from the 1930s - Fats Waller's I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby.'

'One, Two; One, Two Three....'.

'Hold on! Hold on!' shouts the bass player, hunting through his chord book. 'Does it come under I for I'm Crazy? No. I can't find it.'

'Try under C,' calls the piano player. 'You've probably got it as Crazy 'Bout My Baby'.

How often I have heard such conversations delaying the start of tunes and also making the band look incompetent.

A Friend's Chord Book

When you are compiling an extensive alphabetical chordbook or list of repertoire, you have to take so much care. In the case of the I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby example, it might pay to have the chords under both letters.

Another troublesome problem is how to handle tunes beginning with an apostrophe.

For example, do you put 'S Wonderful under I because it means It’s Wonderful, or does it go under S?

If you set out the title correctly with the apostrophe included and then tell your computer to ‘SORT’ your titles into alphabetical order, you are likely to see 'S Wonderful end up neither under 'I' nor under 'S'.

But on a gig, you may need to find a tune quickly. So you need a good system.

There’s a similar problem with all the ’Taint tunes. Think, for example, of ’Tain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do, ’Tain’t No Sin to Take Off Your Skin, ’Tain’t What You Do, It’s The Way That You Do It, ’Tain’t Nothing Else But Jazz. Do you want them pedantically under 'I' [for It Ain't] or under 'T'?

The best solution, when preparing such lists, is to omit the apostrophe, ensuring that you begin the title positively with a letter rather than a punctuation mark. Then, the 'SORT' into alphabetical order on your computer will convert any list into something more useful. So use TAINT rather than ’TAINT.

Then there's the matter of tunes that have an apostrophe very near the beginning, as in I'm Alone Because I Love You. Would you expect this to appear before, or after, If I Had You ? It makes things easier if you establish a rule and stick to it.

In my case, I keep little notebooks containing leadsheets. These are supported by a separate Index. I have found the best solution for this Index is to show letters only. In other words, I get rid of all spaces and punctuation marks. I then let the computer 'sort' the titles in alphabetic order and - by thinking only of the letters, I can instantly find any tune. Here's an extract from my Index:

ILoveParis285

ILoveYou(ColePorter)288

ILoveYou(Thompson/Archer)294

ILoveYouBecauseYouUnderst289

ILoveYouSoMuchItHurts167

ImAloneBecauseILoveYou168

ImAlwaysChasingRainbows356

IMayBeWrongBut293

ImBeginningtoSeethLt386

ImBlueandLonesome28

ImComingVirginia1140

ImConfessin1142

ImCrazyBoutMyBaby1141

ImDreamingofaWhiteChristm229

ImForeverBlowingBubbles333

ImGettingSentimentlOY387

ImGoingAwaytoWearY290

ImGonnaLockMyHeartand244

ImGonnaMeetMSwtieN382

ImGonnaSitRightDown&W167

ImHenerytheEighthIAm35

ImHummingtoMyself315

ImintheMarketforYou1143

ImintheMoodforLove292

ImLookingOver4L289

ImNobody’sBaby47

ImPuttingAllMyEggs390

ImShyMaryEllenImShy356

ImSittingonTofthWld391

ImSorryIMadeYouCry256

InaMellowTone47

InAppleBlossomTime155

InaShantyinOldShantyTown257

Indiana122

IndianLoveCall244

INeverKnewthatRosesGrew356

INeverKnewWhataGalCdDo379

InHarlemsAraby370

IntheGarden388

IntheGloaming383

IntheGoodOldSummerTime190

IntheMood374

IntheShadeoftheOldAppleTr284

InTheSweetB&B289

IntheUpperGarden389

IntoEachLifeSomeRain294

InWalkedBud361

IOnlyHaveEyesforYou274

ISawMummyKissingSantaCl294

IsItTrueWhatTheySayabtD1115

IsleofCapri113

ISurrender,Dear386

IsYouIsOrIsYuAintMB317

ItDontMeanaThing333

ItFeelsSoGood164

ItHadToBeYou287

ItHappenedinMonterey295

ItIsNoSecret462

ItLooksLikeaBigTimeTont421

ItLooksLikeRaininCherry422

ItsAllRightWithMe351

ItsaLongWaytoTipperary1115

ItsaSintoTellaLie179

What it means is that, for example, if I want 'I'm in the Market for You', I find it as
ImintheMarketforYou1143
and this tells me the tune is to be found in Notebook One, Page 143.

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

Post 604: HOW KINGSLEY AMIS DESCRIBED TRADITIONAL JAZZ

Over the years, I have jotted down interesting and insightful remarks I have come across concerning traditional jazz. I would like to share some of them with you.

Ken Colyer (one of the most important English traditional jazz musicians of the second half of the Twentieth Century):

Take it easy. Keep it down. Give plenty of light and shade.

Ben Marshall (banjo-player) writing in The Ken Colyer Trust Newsletter, December 1992:
...the whole band acting like a rhythm section, concentration on ensemble work, seeking the inner rhythms, dynamics, swing, lift, energy, passion, all the things we talked of for hours on end.

From Ken Colyer: A Musician for All Seasons, by Malcolm Robinson, Spring 1990 (in Jazz Beat):

Through the months that followed, Ken learned and developed his playing, and achieved his still unmatched understanding of the subtle dynamics and harmonies of the beautiful New Orleans music: the easy tempos, the relaxation, the emphasis on ensemble with no one instrument ever dominating, the solos growing out of the ensemble, the rolling beat with the trumpet always riding the 4/4 bass figure, gently pushing then pulling back like a surfer; all to create the feeling of tension, relaxed heat and bounteous emotion that New Orleans jazz fans understand so well.

From a book about Preservation Hall:

....music in the African tradition - circumlocution rather than exact definition...

Narvin Kimball:

In those days, players had to learn to 'sleep fast'.

Kingsley Amis (in The Times, March 1991):

Rhythm was what made you tap your feet in time to the stuff, and you certainly did that if you were not actually dancing to it. If alone, or in the right company, you gave little yells of enjoyment and encouragement, as some of the listeners do to this day. With a four-man rhythm section, piano to drums, pounding out their four-to-the-bar in a contentedly unliberated fashion, and the wind instruments often avoiding the actual beat but never ignoring it, nobody who was not worse than deaf could fail to respond to the driving pulse. Of course, it was more a metrical pulse, and real rhythmic interest and diversity lay in what those other instruments, aptly called the melody instruments, were playing. And melody, which comes first and last in jazz, as in any self-respecting music, is in another sense the heart of this.

To reproduce the tune, the air, to do no more than embellish it, was likely to be thought inadequate except in slow ballads. Effectively the aim was an alternative tune, a counter-melody, or a disconnected series of them, sometimes in scraps rather than flowing, improvisatory in manner, delivered here in a solo passage, there divided among two or three, dry and harsh rather than limpid in tone, often distorted in pitch, its points of tension arranged across the steady underlying beat. When successful, the result was exciting and absorbing in a way otherwise unknown, intense but abstract, encouraging no mood or thought beyond itself, satisfying.

Benny Green:

It would seem that there is in the make-up of a jazz musician a strong instinct of defiance of authority and contempt of humbug which has always seemed to me one of the most attractive features in the jazz world. I have seen so many bubbles of pretension pricked by every grade of humour from epigram to obscenity that I am now convinced that the jazz musician is one of the most beautiful creatures on the planet.

An Irish fiddler speaking on BBC2 on 23 February 1991:

The great thing about traditional music is that it has no shelf life. There is no sell-by date.