Post 481: NAME THAT TUNE!

Today a little puzzle for you, using snippets from a couple of lead-sheets.

Question 1

Which classic traditional jazz number begins with this?

Question 2

This is an extract from another famous jazz tune. Although the key signature is not shown in this extract, I can tell you it is in three flats - the key of Eb. What is its title?

I will publish the answers in my next post (Post 482), on 2nd March.

Meanwhile, if you think you know them and care to email me, I will also publish the name of the first person to send the correct answers.

ivantrad (at) outlook (dot) com

POST 480: LADIES SHAKE 'EM UP AT UMBRIA JAZZ FESTIVAL

The Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band, made up entirely of great lady musicians who are based in New Orleans, is to play at The Umbria Jazz Festival in mid-July 2017. The Festival is held in Perugia, Italy.

Shaye Cohn, who founded the band, has now dropped out and her place is to be taken on trombone by Haruka Kikuchi - the superb Japanese-born musician.

In case you are unaware, let me tell you that in the summer of 2016, Shaye Cohn put together in New Orleans this traditional jazz band comprising only ladies. We are lucky to live at a time when so many of the greatest traditional jazz musicians are ladies and when so many of them happen to have settled in that city.

And in this band, you find SIX of them making up what may well be one of the greatest all-female bands ever.

Another interesting feature of the band is that Shaye Cohn played trombone - something I had never seen her do before. Is there nothing that young lady can't master? Even before this, she had become established as one of the finest trad jazz piano and cornet players of all time, as well as being very good on violin, string bass and accordion. The other ladies are Chloe Feoranzo, Marla Dixon, Defne Incirlioglu, Julie Schexnayder, and Molly Chaffin Reeves - every one a heroine of our musical times.

Shaye's original purpose was to give a demonstration of traditional jazz at the Girls' Summer Band Camp in New Orleans. But the all-ladies band - once formed - was too good to waste and fans pleaded for them to play elsewhere.

They were invited to play at the famous Abita Springs Opry on 19 November. 

The concert they gave was traditional jazz of the finest kind - tasteful and yet always exciting and full of intelligent ideas. They opened with Some Day Sweetheart and then continued with Root, Hog; or Die!, Sugar Blues, When You Wore A Tulip, Make Me A Pallet on the Floor, and - to finish - Hindustan.

Having done the good work behind the scenes, Shaye gave herself a secondary role in performance, leaving Marla to play the trumpet, lead the band and do the announcing.

Everyone was interested to see how Shaye would fare playing her newest instrument.

What she did was exactly what we might expect of her: she played a perfect and accurate though simple and basic line, fully conscious of the harmonising and rhythmic responsibilities of the trombone in our music. On Sugar Blues (played in the rarely-used key of G) she took a complete solo chorus and the audience loved it.

Root, Hog; Or Die! - played in C minor - romped along, with plenty of mini-solos and Marla providing the vocal.

Among the highlights of the concert were a beautiful two-chorus solo by Chloe on Make Me a Pallet (which they played in F) and an exquisite vocal duet at the end of When You Wore A Tulip (played in Ab) with Chloe singing the melody and Marla perfectly harmonising on lower notes. Chloe was also the vocalist on Sugar Blues, which she sang with great passion.

(I am mentioning keys because they differ from those sometimes used for the tunes in question.)

Pumping the band along, Molly on guitar and Julie on string bass provided the chords very solidly, four to the bar; and 'Dizzy' as ever maintained metronomic gentle percussion on the washboard, and took very neat solos, including a full chorus on When You Wore a Tulip.

Molly is a fine singer, as well as being a brilliant player of the guitar and banjo;  and she gave a lovely rendition of Make Me a Pallet. In fact, Make Me a Pallet is my favourite performance in this video. Molly reminds me of Carol Leigh singing with Kid Thomas; and every member of the band plays it beautifully, with terrific teamwork.

Chloe's clarinet was stunningly eloquent throughout and Marla was her usual exuberant self – passionately singing and also playing some wonderful stuff on the trumpet. On this occasion she did not use her famous Derby mute but her playing with the plunger mute on Sugar Blues and Pallet on the Floor was outstanding.

What a treat for us all! Let's hope this band - in addition to its performances in Italy - will continue to get together from time to time and that there will be many more videos for us to enjoy all over the world. The signs are good. The band has continued to accept occasional gigs. For example, they made their début at The Spotted Cat on 25 June 2017.

Shaye herself decided to leave the band early in 2017, and her place on trombone was taken by the great Haruka Kikuchi. And when Molly Reeves was not available, her place was taken by the excellent singer-guitarist Cristina Perez Edmunds.

You can watch the Abita Springs performance by going to Abita Springs' own site and then clicking on the arrow by the name of the band:
http://www.abitaopry.org/html/AO2016-11.html
It is also to be seen here:
https://vimeo.com/201161078
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NOTE ADDED IN JULY
Sure enough, the ladies seem to have had a great time and to have been popular in Italy. There are on YouTube several videos of them at the Festival.
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Footnote:
I am deeply indebted to my blog-reading friend and Louisiana resident Michael Brooks for supplying me with some of the information.

Post 479: 'MOOSE MARCH'

My introduction to 'Moose March' was hearing the Ken Colyer band play it about 50 years ago. Probably Ken had picked up the tune during his time with the musicians in New Orleans.

In order to learn tunes to play on my cornet and keyboard, I like first to try to establish the dots and chords for storage in my mini-filofaxes. Here's what I came up with for 'Moose March'.

You will note that it has two themes - the main 32-bar melody and the 'fanfare' interlude. This is how jazz bands can still occasionally be heard playing it.

What I did not discover until very recently is that this traditional jazz 'standard' is in fact taken from a quite long and complex good old-fashioned brass band march, called The Moose. It was composed in 1909 by Mr. P. Hans Flath (about whom I know nothing). It has a 4-Bar Introduction, followed by a first Theme of 32 bars. Then comes another Theme, also of 32 bars. Next there is a four-bar link (the start of 'The Trio' - see below) leading to a change of key from Eb to Ab and ONLY THEN comes the 32-bar Theme and 16-bar Fanfare Interlude as played by the jazz bands. So the truth is that when we play Moose March we are really using only 48 bars of a much longer composition. That's the kind of thing that happened in the early days of jazz repertoire creation.

Post 478: 'THE MINER'S DREAM OF HOME'

It has been some time since I heard a band play The Miner's Dream of Home - one of the oldest tunes in our repertoire: it was composed in 1891.

It used to be a favourite of the late English trumpet-player and bandleader Sonny Morris. His playing was always tasteful and he enjoyed sentimental and gentle melodies such as this.

It is easy to play, since it has a simple 32-bar melody, to be taken only at a moderate pace; and the chord sequence is basic - pretty well intuitive.

So may I recommend it to you, especially if you are a 'learning' band wishing to increase your repertoire? Here's how I have it in my mini-filofax collection.

If you would like to hear the tune performed very pleasantly and with appropriate unpretentiousness by an English jazz quartet, click here. Should you wish to offer a vocal, the words are:

I saw the old homestead, and the faces I love.
I saw England's valleys and dells.
And I listened with joy, as I did when a boy,
To the sound of the old village bells.
The log was burning brightly.
'Twas a night that should banish all sin,
For the bells were ringing the old year out
And the new year in.

Post 477: 'CHLOE (SONG OF THE SWAMP)'

Let us have a look at Chlo-e (Song of the Swamp) which is a lovely and unusual tune from the 1920s. Some of our jazz bands still play it and I am very pleased that this is so.
Chloe was composed in 1927 by Charles N. Daniels, under his pseudonym of Neil Moret; and the lyrics were by the great Gus Kahn, who was very important in the history of our music. Working with various composers, Kahn wrote the words for such songs as these:

My Baby Just Cares For Me
That Certain Party
Making Whoopee
Carolina in the Morning
Love Me or Leave Me
I Never Knew That Roses Grew
Yes, Sir, That's My Baby
I Wonder Where My Baby is Tonight
I'll See You in My Dreams
Spain
It Had to be You
Pretty Baby
Memories
On the Road to Home Sweet Home
It Looks Like a Big Time Tonight
Coquette
Crazy Rhythm
Toot Toot Tootsie
Ukulele Lady
Ain't We Got Fun
Chloe
Side by Side
On the Alamo
Nobody's Sweetheart Now
You Stepped Out of a Dream

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Chloe may have been used first in the 1927 musical called 'Africana' but there is no definite evidence for this, even though, on the original sheet music, a picture of the singer Ethel Waters apparently connects it to that show.

Whatever the truth, it must have soon become popular because it was recorded during the late 1920s and during the 1930s by several famous orchestras and singers.

Chloe begins with an interesting but somewhat spooky 16-bar Verse in a minor key (usually A minor). The words of this verse are:

'Chlo-e! Chlo-e!'

Someone calling, no reply.

Night shade's falling, hear him sigh.

'Chlo-e! Chlo-e!'

Empty spaces meet his eyes.

Empty Arms outstretched, he's crying.....

(and so we are led into the 32-bar Chorus in the related major key [C]).

'Through the black of night, I got to go where you are.

If it's wrong or right, I got to go where you are.
I'll roam through the dismal swamp land searching for you,

'Cause if you are lost there, let me be there too.
Through the smoke and flames, I got to go where you are,

For no place could be too far, where you are.

Ain't no chains can bind you,

If If you live, I'll find you,

Love is calling me.

I got to go where you are.'

Searching for a girl at night, through swamp lands, and going through smoke and flames? How on earth did this situation arise? Weird, isn't it? 

The important thing is that the Chorus, which is the only part that most bands play these days (and the only part that is played on many of the classic recordings), has a memorable melody, almost as strange as the words. The way it achieves its effect, I think, is by giving itself a sort of minor flavour while it is actually written in the major key. It does this partly by beginning each 16 with four bars on the dominant seventh rather than the tonic and then following these with some bars on the tonic seventh and, what is more, beginning these bars by using the flattened seventh as the melody note.

I am sorry if I make it sound complicated but it is an easy tune to learn and to improvise upon, so I think bands would be well advised to have it in their repertoire, if only to provide something to contrast with other tunes in their programme.

It is not easy on YouTube to find a simple, straightforward version (featuring both Verse and Chorus). Here's a highly arranged recording by the Duke Ellington Orchestra, but you have to wait till 1 minute 22 seconds to hear the Verse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YKWKIfEN8Y

There was of course a famous irreverent version by Spike Jones, which you may also find on YouTube if you wish. It includes the Verse.

At least four video-makers have filmed Tuba Skinny playing this tune (Chorus only) and you may find the resulting videos easily enough on YouTube.

The lead-sheet for this tune is readily available: it has been provided in The Firehouse Jazz Band Fake Book, with which all jazz musicians are familiar. 

It is also available on the famous site run by Lasse Collin, though he does not include the Verse and his suggestions for chords are slightly different from those of the Firehouse Jazz Band. Here's the Firehouse version:

Post 476: 'YAAKA HULA HICKEY DULA'

Having been told I would be asked to play Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula in a band that had been put together for a particular occasion, I remembered that I have always been puzzled by the number of bars (measures) in the VERSE of this song.

Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula was written in 1916 by E.R. Goetz, Joe Young and Pete Wendling. It was one of those 'Hawaiian' songs fashionable at the time. Its CHORUS is no problem: eight bars on a very familiar and easy chord progression (IV  -  IV  -  I  -  I  -  II7  -  V7   -  I  -  I ) - repeated to make sixteen bars in total.

But the VERSE is unusual in that it contains 25 bars. This is weird because:

(a) virtually all musical phrasing in traditional jazz comes in multiples of 4 (or 8) bars, so we would expect the verse to consist of 24 bars; and

(b) standard chord books I have consulted present the verse as 24 bars.

Listen to any of the 'big name' recordings (Kid Ory, George Lewis, Bunk Johnson) and they all play 25-bar verses. If you play the tune, I expect you play 25 bars too. Certainly The Shotgun Jazz Band plays the 25 bars as in this video (click here).

So how is this explained?

In the early days, the tune was for singing rather than for playing by jazz bands. It was written with a Verse that ran to 38 bars: 

Within those 38 bars, note the repeat of the first 13 bars. Repeated sections of THIRTEEN bars in trad jazz are so unusual as to be almost non-existent. But that 13th bar is the apparently 'extra' bar that will make up the jazz band's 25.

Jazz bands OMIT the REPEAT that should occur after Bar 13 above. This means they play the 38 bars MINUS the repeated first 13. Result: 25 bars.

Regular readers will known I'm obsessed by that great band Tuba Skinny and you may be wondering how they play this tune. Well, watch this video and you will see they play the 25 bars: CLICK HERE.

You can also find Loose Marbles, with Barnabus on trombone and Shaye on piano, sure enough going for 25 bars:
CLICK HERE.
(What a super video, by the way!)

For an earlier classic sample (the Bunk Johnson version),
CLICK HERE.

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My books Tuba Skinny and Shaye Cohn and Enjoying Traditional Jazz are available from Amazon:

Post 475: THE MESSY COOKERS

In Post 469, I wrote about a band called John Zarsky And The Trad Stars.

Now, reader Roman Zlatopolsky has alerted me to another New Orleans band that seems to have much in common with the Trad Stars.

This band is called The Messy Cookers. As with The Trad Stars, it seems that it was a trumpet player who had the idea (about four years ago) to form the band and who now manages it. Also in common with The Trad Stars, the trumpet player in question invites some of the best players from other bands on the New Orleans scene to join him to make up (usually) a six-piece band. The trumpet player is young Alex Owen, and among the players he has employed so far are:

Albanie Falletta (guitar)

John Eubanks (guitar)

Dave Bandrowski (guitar & banjo)

Steve Pistorius (piano)

Andy Reid (bass)

Tate Carson (bass)

Benjamin Amón (drums)

James Evans (reeds)

Christopher Johnson (reeds)

Jon Ramm (trombone)

Russell Ramirez (trombone)

The Messy Cookers have produced two CDs which consist almost entirely of popular standards - well played, as you would expect from musicians of this calibre. The same is true of the few videos of them to have appeared on YouTube.

However, they have performed twice at the Abita Springs Opry, as a result of which you can have a good introduction to this band at:

http://www.abitaopry.org/html/AO2014-09.html

Or you may prefer to watch a more recent performance at Abita Springs (in which the band lacks a trombone but is graced by the presence of Albanie Falletta and James Evans):

https://vimeo.com/201133551

Post 474: 'SHAKE IT AND BREAK' - SORTING OUT THE CONFUSION

You may have noticed that our jazz bands play two quite different tunes that are both called Shake It and Break It. This used to cause me confusion and I learn from correspondents that it has puzzled some of you too.

Although I may be wrong on some points, I will try to sort out the confusion by explaining what seems to have happened, as far as I can tell.

SHAKE IT AND BREAK IT  (1)

This tune was composed in 1920 by Lou Chiha (music) and H. Qualli Clark (lyrics). No, I did not make these names up!

It consists, after an Intro, of three strains of 16 bars each.

As played by our jazz bands, the first strain (normally played twice) seems to be in a minor key and involves some arpeggios being prettily run around. The second strain is in the related major key and its main characteristic is that it is a stuttering melody allowing for two two-bar breaks.  This is the strain used by most bands for the improvising of solo choruses.

The original words of the song suggest that it's about a 'new dance' in which the ladies 'shake' their taffeta dresses.

There is a terrific recording of the King Oliver Band playing what I have described so far. They play that first strain and then stick entirely on the second strain. Listen to the recording by clicking here.

Today's top band - Tuba Skinny - uses only the same two strains as King Oliver: CLICK HERE.

Many other bands (like Oliver's and Tuba Skinny) omit the third strain completely - finding quite enough to work on in the first two strains.

However, the tune and lyrics of the third strain dominate in blues singer Charlie Patton's recording entitled Shake It and Break It from 1929. So, although this has the same title, it sounds quite different from the King Oliver version. Charlie plays just this melody - not the two strains heard on the Oliver recording.

When the tune is played today by jazz bands, the third strain is sometimes added to the two previous strains and is played in the same key as the second strain and there is a vocal for this third strain only - a vocal that freely adapts the words of the original.

A reader has kindly sent me a photo-copy of Chiha and Clark's original printed music:

SHAKE IT AND BREAK IT (2)

This tune is often introduced by bands as Shake It and Break It; but it is actually Weary Blues, composed in 1915 by Gates, Matthews and Green. As you probably know, Weary Blues (which sounds anything but weary), has three strains. The first two are both 12-bar blues, usually played in F. The melodies are snappy and memorable.

Then there is a third strain, usually in Bb. This is exciting, with rapid riffs full of quavers, and a chord sequence on which musicians love to improvise. So this is the strain on which solo choruses are played.

Why do some bands announce this tune as Shake It and Break It? I am fairly sure it is because they fit words to that third strain. They are pretty well the same as those of the third strain in the 'official' Shake It and Break It ('Shake it! Break it! Hang it on the wall', etc). That, I think, is what has caused the confusion.

CLICK HERE for a performance of Weary Blues - played brilliantly by one of today's greatest bands and without the vocal - but under the title of Shake It and Break It.

For a performance of Weary Blues (correctly titled) but with the Shake it and Break It lyrics sung by Ben Polcer at  4 minutes 11 secs, click here.

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FOOTNOTE
The books Enjoying Traditional Jazz and Playing Traditional Jazz - both by Pops Coffee - are available from Amazon.

Post 473: PLEASE COME HOME

Everybody knows the songs Baby, Won't You Please Come Home? and  Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home? but did you know there are also two very good songs both called Daddy Won't You Please Come Home??

The more famous of these was composed by Sam Coslow for the 1929 film 'Thunderbolt'. A very fine recording of it was made that same year by the lovely singer Annette Hanshaw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJwLB7KHAwo

I hope you will enjoy that as much as I do.

But there was an earlier Daddy Won't You Please Come Home?, composed in 1921 by Noble Sissle (words) and Eubie Blake (music). This too is a delightful song and was written for a New York musical called 'Shuffle Along' - a show that helped launch the careers of Adelaide Hall and Paul Robeson, and also introduced New York to the use of syncopated jazz rhythms in musicals.

Thanks to the kindness of Audrey VanDyke, the great collector of vintage sheet music, this song has now been made available to us all. I hope that a lady singer in one of our jazz bands will be inspired to revive it soon. It has a good and straightforward 16-bar Verse as well as a fine 16-bar Chorus of the type fashionable in the 1920s - lending itself to instrumental 'breaks' in Bars 9 to 12. Yes, this would be a really good tune to play.