Post 512: MAKIKO TAMURA AT THE TOP

Many of us have enjoyed over recent years the videos uploaded to YouTube by ragtimecave. This gentleman has recorded the wonderful jazz scene in Japan, where so many fine young players have come through the system of jazz bands in high schools and jazz at university.

One particular young star whose rapid progress we have followed with immense pleasure has been the clarinet player Makiko Tamura. She has appeared in dozens of videos with various combinations of fellow musicians.

Her playing has always been tasteful and technically very good. But I think that in 2017 Makiko Tamura has emerged as a big star, with leadership qualities as well as immense talent.

Have a look at the video filmed in Tokyo on 20 May, 2017, in which she plays After You've Gone. I find myself responding with tears of joy to what I am hearing. What a privilege it is for me to have lived long enough to hear this young musician playing so brilliantly.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT.
And the other members of the band are very good too.

Tamura begins by playing the song (including the Verse) right through at a gentle pace. Then she doubles the tempo and plays three increasingly storming Choruses with immense fluency. Later, after fine contributions from other members of the band, she returns to trade fours with the banjo player. There is a thrilling ensemble Chorus to bring the piece to an end.

You can also enjoy a thrilling performance of Clarinet Marmalade by Makiko Tamura sitting in with The Shotgun Jazz Band when she visited New Orleans in October 2017:
CLICK HERE.

I hope you enjoy the performances as much as I have.

Post 511: 'SIDE BY SIDE' AND THAT MOST COMMON OF MIDDLE EIGHTS

Yesterday I was playing Side by Side and I couldn't help noticing that its middle eight chord structure was just the same as the most common and simple structure found in so many other of our tunes. It offers a really good demonstration of the effectiveness of the 'Circle of Fifths'.

A few examples of other tunes with the same pattern are:
Do Your Duty
Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue
Girl of My Dreams
Give it Up
Hometown
I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me
Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall
Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
Stevedore Stomp

To begin with, the Middle Eight's first chord is III7 (for example A7th in the key of F). This happens in the Middle Eight of dozens of our tunes.

And over the eight bars, we find two bars on each of the 'Circle of Fifth' chords as we head towards the usual V7th.

To make clear what I am trying to explain, the result (in the key of F) is:

A7 | A7 | D7 | D7 | G7  | G7 | C7 | C7

How does it sound? Surprisingly effective, in this and a huge number of other tunes our bands play.

Side by Side was composed in 1927 by the great Harry Woods. Words were provided by Gus Kahn.

For an interesting performance of the tune, CLICK HERE.

The Middle Eight starts at 48 seconds.

Post 510: 'BALTIMORE'

The song Baltimore first came to my attention when I watched a YouTube video (filmed by the excellent RaoulDuke504) of Madeleine Reidy (Maddy and Her Jazz Friends) singing it in Royal Street, New Orleans, in 2016.

You may find the performance:
BY CLICKING HERE.
I discovered it was a song composed in 1927 by the great Jimmy McHugh. The lyrics were by Danny Healy and Irving Kahal.

I also soon realized it was not specifically about Baltimore the great seaport city in Maryland. It's about a dance craze called 'The Baltimore' that originated there. It was maybe something like the Black Bottom or the Charleston, though I guess far less popular.

The song has a 16-bar Verse and a 32-bar (aaba) Chorus and, in the sheet music, is in the key of Eb. Maddy plays and sings it in F, starting with an instrumental Chorus  and saving the Verse until the start of her vocal.

According to the lyrics, 'The Baltimore' seemed to involve 'swayin' like an old see-saw'. Apparently you 'count the beat, you double it, then repeat and then you slide your feet right over the floor...' (instructions I would find impossible to follow!). There is plenty of good rhythmic punctuation of the melody, especially in the Middle Eight. 

I thought it would be a good tune to learn and that it would be very helpful to see the sheet music.

My friend Mikko Vaisala, who runs the Doctor Jazz band in Finland, also took a fancy to this tune. He pointed out to me that there are many performances of it available on YouTube. Try THIS ONE (click on), for example, where again it is played in F.

And for a very slickly-orchestrated early version from Frankie Trumbauer (with Bix on cornet) CLICK HERE.

Good news it that, thanks to the kindness of the Sheet Music Archivist at The University of Missouri, Mikko was able to obtain a copy of the original sheet music. So there's no excuse now for us not to play it. Many thanks, Mikko.

Post 509: FATS WALLER'S 'SQUEEZE ME'

Squeeze Me was composed and published in 1926. The composers were given as Fats Waller and Clarence Williams. Clarence was, of course, also the publisher. (Don't confuse this song with Just Squeeze Me - another good jazz tune. Just Squeeze Me was composed in 1941 by Ellington and Gaines.)

In the early days of Tuba Skinny, this great young band recorded and often performed Squeeze Me. The song really cried out for a lady singer (even though Fats Waller himself provided the vocal on one of his recordings); and Erika Lewis showed just how brilliant she is. Take her performance and compare it with the original sheet music. You find she keeps the words virtually to the letter, but her timing and varying of pitch illustrate well what a great instinct she has for jazz. She decorates the melody exquisitely; and her little touches of rubato are spine-tingling.

The Band plays the tune in Eb, to suit Erika's voice; and it sounds very good in that key, even though the original sheet music has it in G. Unlike some other bands, Tuba Skinny perform the whole piece - the 12-bar Verse as well as the 16-bar Chorus. They easily build some 2-bar breaks into the Chorus and they also make the most of the chromatic runs at the end of the Chorus.

You can watch Tuba Skinny perform the song BY CLICKING HERE. As so often we have to thank the generous video-maker codenamed RaoulDuke504 for making it available to us.

Here - for comparative purposes - is the sheet music from 1926:

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Footnote
My books, Tuba Skinny and Shaye Cohn and Playing Traditional Jazz are available from Amazon.

Post 508: AMAR PELOS DOIS

I haven't watched television for decades; and it was many years ago that I last witnessed a 'Eurovision Song Contest'. So I missed the 2017 Finals on Saturday 13 May.

However, I heard later that the Portuguese entry had won and it received high praise as a song of real musical quality, unlike so much of the rap, pop and disco offerings of today. The song is called AMAR PELOS DOIS.

So I found it on YouTube and had an agreeable surprise. Introduced by some lush sounds from the orchestral strings, it proves to have two themes, each of 16 bars (8 + 8).

It is a gentle tune in 3/4 tempo. It is in the key of F, though richly endowed with G minor and D minor chords. Its simple, appealing, swooping phrases - much repeated - quickly imprint themselves on the listener's mind.

The beginning of Theme A, as it sounded to me.

And Theme B.

But what specially interested me was that it had so much in common with the songs composed in the Golden Era of the 1920s and 1930s. It was the kind of song Gershwin, Vernon Duke, Hoagy Carmichael, Richard Rodgers, Harry Warren, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter or Oscar Hammerstein might have written. It has a good melody; and the deceptively-simple music is comfortably served up in the eight-bar phrases so beloved by all jazzmen.

The structure is identical to that of most of the 'spirituals' in the traditional jazz repertoire. Like Lily of the Valley, Down By The Riverside, Precious Lord, Take My Hand, and In The Sweet By and By it has a 16-bar Theme A (equivalent to a VERSE) and then a 16-bar Theme B (equivalent to a Chorus).

So I think it's a tune of considerable interest to traditional jazz fans and musicians. And I'm glad it won.

Post 507: PUZZLE - THE ANSWERS

The answers to the puzzle set in Post 506 are:-

=============================

1. MUSKRAT RAMBLE
2. BIG CHIEF BATTLEAXE
3. ALLIGATOR CRAWL
4. BOUNCING AROUND
5. RIVERBOAT SHUFFLE

Congratulations to all who sent in correct answers, especially Henry Kiel (Germany), John Whitehorn (England) and Robert Duis (The Netherlands), who were the first three.

Post 506: TITLES PUZZLE

A little traditional jazz puzzle for you today. Can you complete the names of these jazz classics?

[Example

- a - a l       - t - - e t        - - u e -

= Canal Street Blues]

=============================

1.  - u - k - - t       - - m b - e

2.  B  -  -       - h i - -      - a t - - - - x -

3.  A  -  -  -  g  -  t  - -         -  r  -  w  -

4.  B  -  -  n  -  i  -  -       -  r  -  u  n  -  

5.  -  -  v  -  r  b  -  -  -     S  -  u  -  -  l  -

I shall publish the answers in my next post (Post 507, due on 16 May), together with the names of the first three people to send in the correct answers. If you wish to take part, please send your answers to:

ivantrad (at) outlook (dot) com

Post 505: 'MOTHER'S SON-IN-LAW'

I put up on YouTube a video of Tuba Skinny playing Mother's Son-in-Law at the 2015 French Quarter Festival. To watch it:
CLICK HERE.

You don't have to have a hanker
To be a broker or a banker.
No sir-ee, just simply be
My mother's son-in-law.
Needn't even think of trying
To be a mighty social lion
Sipping tea, if you will be
My mother's son-in-law.
Not got the least desire
To set the world on fire.
Just wish you'd make it proper
To call my old man 'poppa'.
You don't have to sing like Bledsoe*
And you can tell the world I said so.
Can't you see you've got to be
My mother's son-in-law?

(* Jules Bledsoe - a famous Afro-American singer and the original performer of Ol' Man River - was 36 years old at the time when My Mother's Son-in-Law was written.)

The song was composed by Alberta Nichols, who had studied piano at the Louisville Conservatory. The lyrics were written by her husband, Mann Holiner. As a partnership, they wrote over 100 songs, mainly for Broadway shows. Alberta died in 1957.

The song can be performed either as My Mother's Son-in-Law or Your Mother's Son-in-Law - according to the gender of the singer.

When they recorded it for their Garbage Man CD in 2011, Tuba Skinny played a vigorous version in which Kiowa Wells, their guitarist at the time, featured prominently. They played the song in keys that some Bb instrument players would consider tricky, starting with several choruses (including one vocal from Erika) in E minor and then switching to A minor for the finish - with Erika singing the words for the final part of the Chorus.

Watching again my video of Tuba Skinny playing the song at the French Quarter Festival in April 2015, I was struck first by the amazing energy and drive of the performance. But I then noticed it had moved on a bit since the 2011 recording. Obviously Kiowa was no longer with the band and greater prominence was given to all the other instruments, Shaye being especially busy. But more than that: I noticed that we now had not one key change, but TWO, each preceded by a 4-bar Bridge. The band started in G minor and then followed the 2011 structure by going into E minor (including a vocal) and ending (after Robin's solo) in A minor (with Erika singing in that key too). It's a truly invigorating performance.

I then checked out Billie Holiday's recording from 1933 (available on YouTube). Sure enough, her performance also went through the keys G minor, E minor and A minor - in that order. So I guess Tuba Skinny took their inspiration from that recording.

Also, although I have not been able to find the sheet music anywhere, I tried to pick the tune out by ear and put it in my little notebook. I chose a key (A minor) to suit myself.

By the way, my friend Tony Harris (guitarist) has introduced me to another song that has a similar mood and theme. It is called It's All Your Fault and was composed by Cindy Walker in 1941. Cindy was a good composer and deserves to be better known. This (click on) is a version worth listening to.

Post 504: 'LILY OF THE VALLEY'

As an octogenarian Englishman who likes traditional jazz and has a go at playing it, I wish I could occasionally give more praise to our elderly British bands. But I have to face the harsh truth: we (I include myself) are just not good enough.

It's not surprising that our audiences are sparse and that young people don't come to hear us. Our music is often so dull, complacent, predictable, repetitive in format, uncreative and poorly presented. Far from swinging, it is often plodding and tedious.

Here's an example. I recently witnessed one of the well-known English bands playing Lily of The Valley - a fairly simple three-chorder. The tempo was so slow and the drumming weary, heavy and laboured. At times the tune threatened to drag even more. Compared with the great young musicians in New Orleans today, these players (though they possibly played better years ago) seemed to have limited technical skills. The interplay between trumpet, clarinet and trombone was uninteresting. The usual dreary succession of 32-bar 'solos' followed, while the musicians themselves did not look at all enthused. The banjo solo (really necessary?) - though accurately working through all 32 bars - was very basic.

Compare this with a performance of the same tune in Royal Street, New Orleans. Click on here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMZGvF6Hwc4

These youngsters set and maintain a bright, foot-tapping tempo. They find a great deal to 'say' about the music. Starting - unusually - with the trombone taking the melody, they follow up with much creative interweaving involving the cornet, clarinet and trombone. Instead of tedious 32-bar 'solos', there is much exciting ensemble work, sometimes with the cornet and sometimes the clarinet taking the lead. Simple the tune may be, but some of the improvisations are astonishing. The tuba is intelligently used to provide variety and give some respite to the others before they return for a glorious ensemble finish during which there is some remarkable invention and exciting off-beat cymbal-work. They even do something unusual to end: they play the first 16 bars twice.

I hate to sound unkind. But the truth is I would rather spend my time listening to interesting and exciting performances of this quality than to performances by us elderly British musicians.

By the way, there is a Victorian hymn called The Lily of the Valley with words written by William Fry for the Salvation Army. Ira Sankey set it to the music of the song The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane, which had been composed by Will Hays. So when jazz bands play Lily of the Valley, the composers are sometimes given as Fry, Sankey and Hays. But this is WRONG. Look at the music (it's on the Internet) and you will find it is a totally different tune.

The Lily of the Valley that our jazz bands play is the one composed in 1917 by Anatole Frieland (music) and Wolfe Gilbert (words).
------
FOOTNOTE
I received the following email from one of my readers who lives in London, England, and had just returned from a holiday in New Orleans:
I could not agree more with your second paragraph and I am suffering from a lack of enthusiasm for watching UK bands since we got back from NOLA.  However, comparison with Tuba Skinny - an imaginative, creative and compelling band of talented energetic young musicians - is a tough 'ask' for the sort of bands I see in England who are often going through the motions in playing numbers they have played many times in the same way over many decades.

Post 503: THE MAKING OF 'SNAG IT'

On 17 September 1926 King Oliver took his Jazz Band into the Chicago Studio to record his composition Snag It. Two takes of the tune survive. Both are available on YouTube.

VERSION ONE: This strikes me as the weaker version, but it has some interesting features (a Chorus led by the tuba; and a 2-bar Coda) that were not on the better version. Also, there is no vocal. My guess is that Oliver would not have been too happy with his own playing (some superfluous notes in the Introduction; and the now-famous four-bar break taken a  shade too hastily) and that he would have considered the final two choruses less tidy than on VERSION TWO.

VERSION TWO: This is better played overall. In structure, the main differences are that it drops the tuba solo chorus and substitutes a vocal chorus. There is also some vocal commenting (which I could have done without) over the final two choruses. Also, Version Two drops the Coda.

Both versions, however, were well crafted, using pretty much the same scheme (the 8-bar Introduction followed by seven 12-bar blues choruses, all in Eb). Oliver had clearly given the piece a lot of thought. It was to have that striking dramatic eight-bar Introduction and then an ensemble first chorus before a second chorus in which the trombone would take the lead against a gentle long-note accompaniment. He would begin the fifth chorus on his cornet with the four-bar break which has since become the one thing in the recording that everybody remembers. The final two choruses would be based on a pleasant riff (played gently by the reeds, with a counter-melody from the cornet and steady soft accompaniment).

But what I have deliberately not mentioned so far is something that strikes me as one of the most interesting features - the rhythmic accompaniment to the third chorus. The clarinet plays the melody, supported by a repeated two-bar rhythmic pattern that goes like this:| 

If that seems hard to follow, listen to it at 1 minute 14 seconds into this YouTube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6fkstiMAbc

This inventive, unusual rhythmic pattern is, for me, one of the best things in 'Snag It'. I think it is something we could all attempt (not only when playing this tune) as it would give badly-needed variety to our rhythmic accompaniments.

It is quite tricky to get the drums, guitar or banjo, bass and piano all hitting this rhythm precisely together. It may need practice. But it is well worth the effort.

Listen again to the full King Oliver recording and see what you think.

Post 502: 'PANAMA' IN JAPAN

Today I would like to recommend to you a video of a band playing that old favourite Panama.

You can watch it here (click on):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1oxk0_mxBg

Why do I like this particular video?

1. Because is was filmed by that fine recorder of the Japanese jazz scene codenamed ragtimecave. He succeeds in getting super close-ups of musicians and he also achieves videos of high sound quality.

2. Because it demonstrates yet again what a terrific traditional jazz scene there is in Japan; and how well the Japanese succeed in bringing on young players.

3. Because this is in many ways an exemplary performance of Panama. Note the teamwork and also the well-judged but not-too-loud driving power of the rhythm players.

It could be argued that this performance goes on for too long. Was it really necessary for every member of the seven-piece band to take solo choruses on the final theme? Perhaps not. But I will grant them that little self-indulgence in a performance of such creativity and energy.

By the way, Panama Rag (originally entitled Panama, A Characteristic Novelty) is a standard in the repertoire of traditional jazz bands. It dates back almost 110 years, having been written by William H. Tyers in 1911. Tyers, born in Virginia, the son of former slaves, lived from 1870 to 1924. The piece of music possibly has nothing to do with the country Panama or the Panama Canal which was under construction at the time: it is said by at least one source to have been named in honour of Aida Overton Walker and Her Panama Girls - a music hall act. Whatever the truth, it is a great number and can sound good no matter at what tempo you take it. It can be strenuous to play, especially for the trumpeter, as there are five themes - all of which are usually repeated.