Post 134: LETTER FROM AUSTRALIA - A TUBA SKINNY PERFORMANCE

Today I received this:-

Hello Ivan, 

On Saturday the 18th October, Maree and I were treated to some absolutely fabulous New Orleans Jazz by a superb band of musicians called Tuba Skinny. It was a beautiful evening in Melbourne and the band were playing in a large tent on the banks of the Yarra River. We were able to stand one row back from the stage (we wangled this only because we are small and the taller people around did not mind) and had a great view of all the activities on the stage. The washboard player Robin Rapuzzi was directly above us on the stage. Erika has a great blues/jazz voice and the rest are superb on their individual instruments. The show went for about 90mins and we enjoyed every minute of it.

But wait there's more. After the show the band members came out to sell their recent CDs so we bought their CD titled "Pyramid Strut" and six of the band members autographed it. We also took some photos.

All in all a very memorable and enjoyable evening.

Cheers,

John and Maree

Post 133: 'WILLIE THE WEEPER' - THE 1920 JAZZ TUNE

On Tuba Skinny's CD called Owl Call Blues (released in August 2014), there is a recording of Willie the Weeper.

Willie the Weeper is a tune from 1920, attributed to Walter Melrose, Grant Rymal and Marty Bloom. However, it was remarkably similar to Willie the Peeper, composed in 1912 by Harry Armstrong, Billy Clark and James Coogan, so we may consider it as largely plagiarised. This point was established by the great music researcher and sheet music collector Audrey VanDyke. (For a comparison of the two tunes, CLICK HERE.)

It's a tune every band should be able to play because it always goes well and because it has a number of interesting ingredients.

It consists of two themes of 16 bars each. The first is in a minor key. The second is in the related major. As for structures, the first theme may be considered as an 8 + 8, whereas the second is an AABA  (four bars of each).  On top of these features that give it the variety to make it interesting, Willie The Weeper is simply a jolly good tune. Below it is in D minor and F, but it goes well in other keys too, especially G minor and Bb. You may choose - as many bands do - to add a 4-bar Introduction and to play Theme B first. Most bands treat Theme B as the 'Chorus' and improvise on this part, which uses the simple Sweet Sue Progression (Dominant 7th to Tonic) three times, with an interesting 'Middle Four'.

The tune was recorded very long ago by such bands as King Oliver's. But for a YouTube performance of the tune by a modern band with Theme B in Bb:

CLICK HERE.

And for a special treat (a Tuba Skinny version):

CLICK HERE
or CLICK HERE.

Post 132: SPIRITUALS, GOSPEL SONGS, TUBA SKINNY AND 'JUST A CLOSER WALK'

Ever since the great Sam Morgan Band recorded Over in The Gloryland (in New Orleans, 1927), it has been customary for our bands to include some hymns, spirituals and gospel music in their repertoire. Think, for example, of these tunes. All of our bands play at least a few of them.

Amazing Grace

At The Cross
By and By

Does Jesus Care?

Down By The Riverside

God Will Take Care of Me
Higher Ground

His Eye is on the Sparrow

How Great Thou Art

In the Garden

In the Sweet By and By

In the Upper Garden

It's Nobody's Fault But Mine

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

Just a Little While To Stay Here

Lead Me Saviour

Let the Light from the Lighthouse Shine on Me

Lily of the Valley

Lonesome Road

Lord, Lord, Lord, You Sure Been Good to Me

Man from Galilee

The Old Rugged Cross

This Little Light of Mine

Old-Time Religion

Only a Look
On Revival Day

Over in the Gloryland

Precious Lord, Lead Me On

Pass Me Not, Oh Gentle Saviour

Peace in the Valley

Rock Me

Roll Jordan Roll

Royal Telephone

Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down

Sometimes My Burden is Too Hard to Bear

Walking With the King

We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

When I Move to the Sky

When the Saints Go Marching In
Where He Leads Me

The wonderful young band Tuba Skinny has hitherto devoted its energies to reviving obscure numbers from the rags and blues of the 1920s, though in its early days (before Alynda Lee Segarra left the band) they made beautiful recordings of the spirituals Rock Me and Peace in the Valley.

In recent months, they seem to have turned their attention just a little more to the 'conventional' repertoire popular with other bands. For example, they have started playing High Society.

And in the field of gospel music and spirituals they have introduced Just a Closer Walk With Thee. This is among the best-known and most frequently played of all the spirituals. It is much in demand at jazz funerals. It is played in various ways and at contrasting tempos.

I was surprised when I noticed this week the new video put up by our friend the wonderful video-maker codenamed digitalalexa. I hardly expected Tuba Skinny ever to play this tune.

Everything they touch seems to turn to gold. It has happened again with Just a Closer Walk. You may have heard hundreds of performances of this tune. But have you ever heard one better than this?

CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT.

Digitalalexa has done well with both the sound recording and the pictures. It never seems to be easy for video-makers to get good sound recordings in Royal Street, but this one succeeds. (Unfortunately, there are also a few street 'noises off' but these do not detract from the beauty of the performance.)

The Band maintains a slow, gentle tempo. Erika sings the song with great feeling, in a manner reminiscent of her performance of 'Owl Call Blues'. She makes the most of the long-held notes, pitching perfectly and using rubato in a most subtle manner. The treatment of the tune by the rest of the band proves yet again what great art there can be behind apparent simplicity. First the theme is stated by Barnabus on trombone. Then Shaye and Craig join in, adding close harmony. After Erika's first vocal, we have two stunningly beautiful instrumental ensemble choruses, with first the clarinet and then the cornet taking the lead. Shaye plays some lovely muted cornet behind Erika's second vocal. The banjo, tuba and washboard throughout provide a solid and respectful foundation.

It is all made to look simple. But what a performance!

Commentator Alan Bates writes it 'brings tears to the eyes.....best one yet'. Well said, Alan.

Post 131: 'DALLAS RAG' (TUBA SKINNY)

On Tuba Skinny's latest (6th) CD, which is called Owl Call Blues, they have included the tune Dallas Rag.

Dallas Rag! What a great tune. It's simple enough - a 4-bar introduction followed by two 16-bar themes both using a chord sequence that follows the Sweet Sue Chord Progression and is rounded off with the Sunshine Progression. But it romps along when well played by a great band such as Tuba Skinny (who, by the way, must be credited with the recent revival of this fine old number).

There's also a great video on YouTube of Tuba Skinny in March 2013 playing Dallas Rag in the French Quarter of New Orleans. They take it at a cracking pace and build in all kinds of variety in their treatment of the tune. You can watch the video if you CLICK ON HERE. As often in the past, we must be grateful to the video-maker codenamed digitalalexa for his high-quality filming. The musicians in the video include the great Jonathan Doyle and Ewan Bleach, whereas Craig Flory has replaced them on the latest CD.

For a terrific more recent performance by them (kindly filmed by the videomaker codenamed RaoulDuke504):
CLICK HERE.

Dallas Rag dates from 1927, when it was devised and recorded by The Dallas String Band. It could possibly have been composed by their Coley Jones, the great mandolin player and leader of the group, but nobody knows for sure. If you wish, you can also find that original performance on YouTube.

A correspondent kindly supplied me with a leadsheet.

Post 130: 'SKID-DAT-DE-DAT' - FROM ARMSTRONG TO TUBA SKINNY

Skid-Dat-De-Dat (sometimes spelled Skit-Dat-De-Dat) is a real curiosity within the traditional jazz repertoire. I suppose some would describe it as a 'stop-start' tune because on six or more occasions the band stops playing and leaves one instrument alone to improvise a two-bar 'break'.

Certainly this tune does not fit into any conventional pattern of composition: there's no 32-bar a-a-b-a or 12-bar blues structure to be spotted here.

Lil Hardin composed it in 1926 for her husband Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five to develop. Basically what she gave Louis was a 4-bar phrase, plus the idea of attaching two-bar breaks.

Putting my examples in the key of D, the four-bar phrase goes like this. Let's call this Segment A:

The two-bar 'break' seems to be normally played on the basis of the chord of D, or D minor. This is an example of the shape it might take. Let's call this Segment B:

The main 4-bar theme is mostly played with all the band harmonising through the long notes. But occasionally - for variety - the players may cut loose and improvise over those four chords, as in this example (Segment C):

Finally, there is a slightly different 4-bar chord sequence [G7  -  G7  -  D7  -  D7] which may be used to give variety. Let's call this Segment D:

Regard these four little units of music as your building blocks. Put them together and there you have it - Skid Dat De Dat!

How does the tune turn out in performance? Well, unfortunately, because most bands find it impossible to memorise a 'knitting pattern' for this tune, they tend to play (usually a shade too slowly) from a printed arrangement on music stands in front of them. The result can be laboured and stodgy.

But it can sound really good, as in the original Louis Armstrong performance, which runs for 3 minutes and 14 seconds. Here and there, Louis uses his voice for a few notes at a time ('scatting') as an alternative to his cornet.

A concise but exemplary performance is given on their CD ('Pyramid Strut') by Tuba Skinny. You can hear it by going to

http://tubaskinny.tk/

and clicking on the title of the tune. This version comprises just 46 bars in total and the recording lasts for only 96 seconds. But all you need is there.

The 'break' is taken 7 times - by cornet, cornet, clarinet, trombone, tuba, banjo and cornet respectively. The piece is beautifully book-ended by the first and last cornet breaks. To bring the piece to a satisfactory conclusion, the whole band joins in on the final chord of the final break - an important point to note. This is a great way to tackle the tune.

B  -  A  -  B  -  A  -   B  -  A  -  D
B  -  C  -  B  -  A  -   B  -  D  -  D
B - all in on final chord

As far as I know, there is only one YouTube video of Tuba Skinny playing this piece. It runs for about 140 seconds - longer than on the CD because extra breaks are given near the end of the piece to the clarinet and trombone.

This is well worth watching if you fancy studying Skid-Dat-De-Dat; or even if you just want to get the feel of the 'stop-start' nature of this curious tune. It was generously filmed by the video-maker codenamed stolpe31 at Rapperswil in 2013:
CLICK ON HERE.
I do not possess original sheet music or definitive information about Skid Dat De Dat. All I have told you is simply what I have observed. So if you have any more accurate information, I would be grateful to hear from you.

Post 129: 'SOMEBODY'S BEEN LOVING MY BABY' - TUBA SKINNY AND MANDY LEE

I know very little about 'Document Records', though Wikipedia tells me the company was established in 1986 and still seems to be active, now based in Scotland. It is clear this company has done a great service for the history of jazz by rescuing from obscurity and re-issuing hundreds of recordings from the period 1900 to 1945.

It's also exciting to note how influential these old recordings have been on the young generation of great traditional jazz musicians - particularly in New Orleans. For example, Tuba Skinny manage to pick out from the long lists of material tunes that are perfectly suited to their style and to Erika's voice in particular.

On one of Document's CDs, there are eleven songs performed in the 1920s by Mandy Lee. What do we know about Mandy Lee? Who was she? It has been suggested that 'Mandy Lee' was just a name given to an artist (or even more than one artist - certainly it is difficult to be sure that all eleven songs are sung by the same voice). I suppose it's one of those mysteries never to be solved.

Tuba Skinny have taken on the song Somebody's Been Lovin' My Baby; and of course they perform it extremely well. They have included it on their sixth CD (Owl Call Blues - released in August 2014). And you can watch them perform it (filmed for us by the great video-maker codenamed digitalalexa)
BY CLICKING HERE.

Post 128: 'MILORD' AND MARGUERITE MONNOT

Milord is not a tune that sits comfortably in a performance of traditional jazz, but I think all jazz musicians would do well to study it.

I was trying to learn it (if you don’t know it, may I recommend you watch Edith Piaf singing it on YouTube?) and I noticed immediately what an astonishing start the Chorus has, harmonically. Set in the key of F, it has three introductory notes (the anacrusis), normally played slowly, leading to an accented Ab as the first serious note of the tune. But this Ab is harmonised against the chord of F major! On the face of it, this should sound dissonant – a horrible clash. And yet the audience loves it. What a daring way to start!

This Chorus comprises 24 bars and is played before the Verse, in which more surprises are to be found. For a start, there is a dramatic shift of key to F minor (Ab), with a melody using the lower range of notes suited to giving a serious message (as indeed the words do).

We would expect the Verse to be 16 bars. But we are given 17 bars, not 16, as there is a ‘bonus’ pausing bar containing the anacrusis. Here's how the Verse ends.

And we would expect the 16th bar of the Verse to end on the chord of C7th (leading us back into the F major as we return to the Chorus). Well, as you can see above, although the Verse does indeed end on the chord of C7th, the melody note played against it is not a C or an E or a Bb as we would logically expect. No! It is Db!

So the C7th chord – completely logical at this crucial moment – is wrenched at its top end into a C7th with a flattened 9th. Mind-boggling stuff!

But who wrote this amazing song?

Marguerite Monnot.

Really? Who was she?

Born in 1903 at Decize – a town on the River Loire - Marguerite Monnot was home-educated by her musician parents. She was a musical child prodigy and developed into a gold-standard musician – a fine performing pianist, well grounded in theory. She studied in Paris and was taught by several classical luminaries. One of these was Nadia Boulanger (who probably trained her in harmony; Nadia was one of the most influential music teachers of the Twentieth Century). Another was the composer and teacher Vincent D’Indy; and there was Alfred Cortot, the great pianist who specialised in the works of Schumann and Chopin.

Her lifetime shyness did not help Marguerite as a performer but it did not hinder her work as a composer, when in the 1920s she started attempting (with success) to write popular songs.

At the age of 33, Marguerite was introduced to France’s best-loved singer, the great Edith Piaf, and they worked together for many years. They became friends and collaborated on many songs that became part of Piaf’s stage act. It was Piaf, of course, who made Milord famous.

Marguerite also wrote film music. And in 1955 she had a huge success when she wrote the score for the musical Irma La Douce, which I remember seeing with great pleasure in Peter Brook’s production at the Lyric Theatre, London, in 1958.

Although Marguerite wrote hundreds of songs, English readers are likely to know her best for Milord and The Poor People of Paris (La goualante du pauvre Jean) and If You Love Me, Really Love Me (Hymne à l’Amour - another technically astonishing song).

I remember a glorious version of If You Love Me, Really Love Me by Nana Mouskouri and I’m glad to find that, too, is available on YouTube: try it and make this a day to remember!

Sadly, in 1961 Marguerite Monnot died in Paris at the age of 58, following a ruptured appendix.

Marguerite Monnot’s career reminds me that the period between 1940 and 1980 was a Golden Age for popular music and its centre was France. Songs had words that were important and worth listening to, with a narrative and drama; and those words were clearly articulated by the great singers such as Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour, Yves Montand, Juliette Greco and Georges Brassens. The singer was accompanied by a real, accomplished pianist or band or orchestra, playing from an arrangement that would include adventurous harmonies, changes in rhythm and key; and even accelerandos, rallentandos and pauses. (You find all these features in Milord.) There was no need for electronic amplification.

How different from the synthetic, mechanical dreary disco music of today!

Marguerite Monnot was an outstanding popular composer of the Twentieth Century and deserves to be better remembered.