Post 572: GREAT TRADITIONAL JAZZ IN A FEW SECONDS

To appreciate the finer points of traditional jazz and the genius of great players, it sometimes pays to concentrate on exactly what is happening in just a few seconds of music.

That is what I am inviting you to do today.

I would like you to click on a YouTube video and then focus on just EIGHT seconds of the performance. I will give you the link in a moment. But first let me set it in context.

The musicians (Tuba Skinny) are playing a tune called Crumpled Papers. This was composed just a few years ago by Michael Magro. It is a relatively simple tune - a 12-bar in the key of D minor. But it has amazing energy and gives plenty of opportunities for exciting improvisation.

In this video, the band plays straight through the tune 15 times. So in total we have 15 x 12 = 180 bars (measures) of music.

For the first couple of choruses, the tune is played by the ensemble, led by the cornet, in a straightforward manner. Then we have a similar two choruses, again ensemble, but led by the cornet producing some variations in the form of chromatic runs.

But now comes the fifth chorus; and this is the one on which I'm inviting you to focus. Shaye on cornet passes the lead to Barnabus on trombone.

Note exactly what Shaye is doing in this chorus during the eight seconds running from 1 minute 44 until 1 minute 52. Barnabus has taken on the melody but she is decorating it by running around (on the D minor chord) in her own subtle, energetic and tasteful way. The two phrases for you to note occur from 1 minute 44 seconds to 1 minute 46 seconds, and from 1 minute 49 seconds until 1 minute 52 seconds. I put it to you that those few notes demonstrate traditional jazz playing and teamwork at its very best. (In most other bands, the trumpet player or cornet player would have dropped out at that point, taking  a breather.)

Now here's the link, with thanks to James Sterling for being there to video the performance for us:

CLICK HERE.

Shaye is always like this - modestly creative, and energetic, instinctively playing notes that are just right and make the band as a whole sound wonderful. She is not one of those self-important players who like to show off their technique by playing pointless screaming high notes. Also, as you see in this and hundreds of other videos, she cleverly directs the musical traffic, so that even a short and simple tune such as Crumpled Papers is developed in a way that is full of variety and excitement.

Post 571: TRUMPET NOTES HIGH ON STEROIDS

When you are in your eighties and still trying to play the trumpet, you have to keep things simple. You are unable to play very high notes because your lips have lost their strength.

Lionel Ferbos is my inspiration. He went on playing in New Orleans almost right up to his death at the age of 103. In his final years he kept things very simple indeed, using only the lower notes. And yet he was still playing some very pretty traditional jazz. 

Lionel Ferbos, who died in 2014.

All was fine with me until recently, when my legs and arms rapidly became very weak and I was feeling unusually tired most days. I hardly had the strength to lift a trumpet to my lips; and my walk became a slow shuffle.

I put it down to old age. But Mrs. Pops Coffee ordered me to see the doctor; and it is never a good idea to disobey Mrs. Pops Coffee.

Blood tests showed I had polymyalgia rheumatica – something of which I had never heard. My doctor prescribed a course of steroids – 15 mg. a day of Prednisolone, to be exact, with the intention of reducing the dose a little in the weeks ahead.

How lucky I am to have such a doctor (and such a wife)! After a few days of the treatment I was able to walk steadily again, to hold my trumpet and to need less sleep.

Yesterday when I was doing what I pretentiously call practice, I discovered to my amazement that I was able to play some of those high notes above the stave. They sounded rather squeaky but they were there all right. I can only put this down to the steroids which must have strengthened my lips as well as my arms and legs. Another curious side-effect has been that my fingernails and toenails are growing much more quickly than before and need trimming every couple of days.

However, I have no intention of using my new-found steroid-induced ability to attempt high notes when playing with my friends in traditional jazz bands.

In my view, traditional jazz with a soul does not require trumpets producing lots of raucous high notes which seem to be mere exhibitionism and do not contribute much to the beauty of the music, especially in ensemble work.

Think of Shaye Cohn. She is probably the best and most creative traditional jazz cornet player in the world today and yet she opts for subtle, inventive musical phrases that rarely go above the stave. In fact, having listened to her in about 450 videos, I have never heard her play a note higher than Concert A above the stave. Music theorists call it 'A5', equivalent to vibrations at 880 times per second (880 Hz). You can hear Shaye using this note when playing Dallas Rag.

Shaye is an example to us all. There are trumpeters who can frequently be heard squeezing out notes at 1046 Hz (the note called 'C5') and even higher. But what's the point?
============
I must add the footnote that in January 2018 we finally heard Shaye play a high Bb (in Echo in the Dark). This was not mere exhibitionism. She was merely copying precisely the trumpet lead in the original recording of this pretty tune by The Original St. Louis Crackerjacks.

Post 570: TRADITIONAL JAZZ? LET'S PLAY 'NEW ORLEANS WIGGLE'

Today I would like to bring to your attention another early classic from our heritage - one I haven't heard played much in the last couple of years. I think it deserves a revival.

I am speaking about New Orleans Wiggle. This was one of the tunes given to us by the violinist, composer and bandleader Armand J. Piron. 

Between 1923 and 1925, his orchestra made about fifteen influential recordings. The tunes included Bouncing Around, Red Man Blues, Kiss Me Sweet, Bright Star Blues and Mama's Gone, Goodbye - all of which were originals that Piron himself helped to compose.

But there was also New Orleans Wiggle, jointly written by Piron and his trumpet player Peter Bocage.

You can hear the recording they made of this tune BY CLICKING HERE.

What makes it such a good tune for our bands to master?

First, it provides a contrast with the many war-horses that most bands play. It offers the musicians more of a challenge and more interest than many tunes in our repertoire, because it has a structure that you need to study, and includes a key change. It offers plenty of syncopation and plenty of breaks - both of them essential elements in classic New Orleans jazz.

Despite what I have just said, the tune is easy to learn, without being too easy. This is because all three of its themes are underpinned by pleasant, straightforward chord progressions.

There is a four-bar introduction. Then comes Theme A, 16 bars in length. The melody takes us up through a series of syncopated arpeggios. This is great fun. The Piron Orchestra plays it twice.

Then Theme B begins with a sequence reminiscent of I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate (which Piron also wrote, a few years earlier). But at the second round of this chord priogression, it is extended beyond the 'Sister Kate' structure to 20 bars, with a series of breaks that occupy six bars. The Piron Orchestra also plays this theme twice, with the clarinet taking the breaks both times.

We then go straight into Theme C, with the key change. (Usually it means going from Bb into Eb.) This final theme consists of 32 bars and lends itself to breaks at several points. The melody is merry enough. And you will find the chord familiar from dozens of other tunes. It even ends with that simplest of progressions - The Sunshine Chord Sequence. Piron plays Theme C twice, doing some clever things with the breaks.

Finally, there is a neat 4-bar Coda, well worth learning and playing.

Piron's recording lasts only two and a half minutes, partly, no doubt, because of the restraints of recording processes at the time. But of course today's bands could extend it by playing Theme C more than twice.

However, as I have mentioned in earlier articles, there is much to be said for brevity.

I noticed that when Michael McQuaid's Piron's New Orleans Orchestra played the piece at the Whitley Bay Festival in 2015 (CLICK HERE to view), they paid due homage to Piron, strictly retained his structure, and finished the piece in an even shorter time.

Post 569: TRADITIONAL JAZZ COMES IN FOUR-BAR BLOCKS

It seems to be the case that humans (in the Western world at least) like their popular music to be served in digestible phrases containing four bars, or multiples of four bars. This was almost invariably the case in the popular music written between 1850 and 1950 and still played by traditional jazz bands. There is something in the DNA of composers and audiences that makes them expect little statements of music to fit perfectly into 4-bar or 8-bar shapes. Maybe it has something to do with the natural rhythms of walking (left-right-left-right) and our capacity to sing up to four bars with one intake of breath.

It's amazing to think that about 80% of all the popular songs were written with precisely 32-bar choruses (i.e. 8 batches of four bars). The tune could take the form of a 16-bar statement followed by another similar 16-bar statement with a conclusive resolution. Think of Indiana or Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey? or Moonlight and Roses or From Monday On or It's a Sin to Tell a Lie or Marie.

The very common alternative was to write 4 batches of 8-bars in which the first, second and fourth more or less used the same musical phrase, but with a 'middle eight' providing a contrast. This structure became known as A - A - B - A. The 'middle eight' bars (B) are often referred to as the 'bridge' or 'release'.

To get the feel of this type of tune, think of Making Whoopee or Smoke Gets in Your Eyes or I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby or Lonesome Road or That's My Weakness Now.

But what about other possible multiples of 4?

I don't know of any tunes consisting of ONLY four bars. Skid Dat De Dat might be considered as one: it seems to require nothing but four bars plus improvised two-bar breaks. But there are quite a few in the jazz repertoire that comprise only eight bars. Sallee Dame and Ice Man are good ones using only two chords. Old-Time Religion uses an eight-bar theme with a very simple chord structure. So does Don't Worry, Be Happy. Leroy Carr's How Long, How Long Blues has the feel of a 12-bar blues but in fact it comprises just eight bars. Similarly, The Girls Go Crazy is an eight-bar tune, using the harmonies of the final eight bars of a standard 12-bar blues structure. Crow Jane is playable as a striking and unusual 8-bar blues, though it sometimes has a tag - repeating the final two bars. Postman's Lament and 'Taint Nobody's Business If I Do and Vine Street Drag and Jelly Roll Morton's Blue Blood Blues comprise a basic 8-bar block and chord progression that can be developed ad infinitum. The same is true of Too Tight Blues, Mississippi River Blues, All I Want is a Spoonful and I'll See You in the Spring. Spicy Advice, made famous by Bunk Johnson, has a very simple 8-bar structure. These are all very effective tunes for traditional jazz bands.

[By the way, there are two tunes called Vine Street Drag. I am referring to the one by W. Howard Armstrong. The other (by J. Brown) is essentially the 32-bar main theme of Tiger Rag.]

The next multiple of 4 brings us to tunes of 12 bars. I need hardly write here about the massive topic of the 12-bar blues format (obviously using three batches of four bars). There are simply hundreds of these 12-bar tunes - and no traditional jazz programme is complete without one or two of them.

There's a large repertoire of really good 16-bar tunes that bands don't play often enough, in my opinion. Some are particularly good for jazz effects, as they allow for 'breaks'. Think of Do What Ory Say or Up Jumped the Devil or If It Don't Fit, Don't Force It, Sweet Like This, or Don't Go Away, Nobody or How Come You Do Me Like You Do or Hot Nuts, Get 'Em from the Peanut Man (and the almost identical Hurry On Down to My House, Baby) or Walkin' The Dog or Winin' Boy Blues or You've Got To See Mamma Ev'ry Night or Oh Miss Hannah, or Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down or Rip 'Em Up Joe or Jamaica March or Walking With The King or I'm Watchin' The Clock.

These are all terrific numbers to play and (because of their simple chord progressions) not too difficult to make sound exciting. And there are some more gentle 16-bar numbers - Careless Love and Royal Telephone and Faraway Blues and Bye and Bye and My Life Will be Sweeter Some Day with lovely but simple harmonies to be milked. The Ellington tune Saturday Night Function is something special. And Of All The Wrongs You've Done to Me is another good one from the 1920s. Early Hours, composed in 1953 by Monty Sunshine and Lonnie Donegan for the Ken Colyer Jazzmen, is a touching 16-bar tune, lovely in its simplicity.

Some of the 16-bar tunes are given an additional two-bar tag at the end (virtually repeating the final two bars). This can happen on the final chorus only or (as in My Sweet Lovin' Man and It's Right Here For You and I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate) on every chorus.

During the years 1912-1928 (and less frequently later), some popular composers experimented with 20-bar tunes (yes - the next multiple of four). Think of After You've Gone, What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes At Me For?, New Orleans Stomp (second theme), Oh You Beautiful Doll, The Darktown Strutters Ball, Drop That Sack, Hard-Hearted Hannah, Take Me To The Land of Jazz, I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan, Keeping Out of Mischief Now, You've Got the Right Key but the Wrong Keyhole, Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries, You Got Me Crying Again, What-Cha Gonna Do When There Ain't No Jazz? and Papa De Da Da. There is also the famous Chorus of Wa Wa Wa, written in 1926 by Mort Schaeffer for King Oliver's band. Here too there was usually an opportunity for 'breaks'. In Drop That Sack, Papa Dip and Wa Wa Wa, for example, the breaks come in bars 13, 14 15 and 16. I'm Making Believe is a fine 20-bar song from a later period (1944).

In a later stage of traditional jazz development, we find Chris Barber in 1959 producing Hush-a-Bye - a delightful minor key tune of 20 bars.

There's a lovely 24-bar song by Georgia White and Richard M. Jones. It's called I'm Blue and Lonesome (Nobody Cares for Me). You can find it performed exquisitely on YouTube by Tuba Skinny. The Chorus of Over in the Gloryland also comprises 24 bars. So does the Chorus of Sing On - and the Chorus of Tailgate Ramble. And I'm Coming, Virginia. And there are plenty of 24-bar blues (essentially a 'doubling up' of the 12-bar blues chord progression). Also there was a fashion in the first two decades of the Twentieth Century for songs that had VERSES of 24 bars, even though the better-known CHORUS had a conventional 32 bar-structure. Examples are Dardanella, San and I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles.

Oh Daddy (sometimes sung as Oh Papa) is a 28-bar tune (next up in the multiples of 4). This interesting example, which also has a Verse of 12 bars, was composed in 1921 by Will Russell and Ed Herbert. You can hear Erika Lewis singing both Verse and Chorus at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3o1ox_dcUs

The 28-bar Way Down Yonder in New Orleans allows for the inclusion of some hiccuping breaks starting at Bar 13; and the 1928 composition I'll Get By As Long As I Have You, with music by the prolific Fred Ahlert, cleverly uses two similar statements of 14 bars each to make up the full 28, and leaves you feeling that you have been listening to a 32-bar tune.

I have already mentioned the 32-bar structures. About 80% of all the songs traditional jazz musicians play have 32-bar themes. They constitute the bulk of our material. So there is no need for me to give examples here.

An interesting curiosity is the haunting Goodnight My Love, which could have sounded fine as a 32-bar tune (16 + 16) but which has an extra four bars inserted (starting at bar number 25), making it an even more emotional 36-bar tune.

There once was even a fashion for 40-bar tunes (essentially 10 batches of four bars). Think of Somebody Stole My Girl, If You Were the Only Girl in the World, Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye, Sailing Down the Chesapeake Bay, and Cakewalking Babies from Home. Amor comprises 40 bars, but with a structure that involves a 16-bar segment followed by a 'Middle Eight' and then another 16-bar.

The lovely French tune La Mer (though rarely attempted by traditional jazz bands) uses the conventional a - a - b - a structure but substitutes 12 bars for the usual 8 in each section, with the result that it runs out at a very unusual 48 bars instead of the usual 32. And Cole Porter's Samantha uses 48 bars in an interesting way: essentially there is what could be a complete 32-bar tune [16 + 16] but Cole Porter then adds a further 16-bar theme.

James Hanley's Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart extraordinarily comprises 56 bars. It sounds like - and is - a song of standard a - a - b - a construction. But the 'a' sections consist of 16 bars, while the 'b' is the conventional 8 bars. So the total 56 comprise three 'a' sections (3 x 16 = 48) plus the 'b' section (8 bars), making the 56-bar total.

Post 568: THE STAMFORD STOMPERS - AN UPDATE

The Stamford Stompers. have been a busy little band since they were formed in July 2014. They have played at many wedding drinks receptions, birthday parties, rural events and summer bandstand concerts in the parks. They also continued their outreach work, taking our music to the people in shopping centres, as in this video, filmed in November 2017: CLICK HERE TO VIEW.

That performance was in the county town of Lincoln, but they also greatly enjoy entertaining the shoppers and tourists visiting their architecturally-beautiful home town of Stamford.

You may watch them here - on an exceptionally hot day - playing some relaxed jazz in a park bandstand: CLICK HERE.

Performing at the Centenary Church in Boston, Lincolnshire, before a large audience on 18 July last year, they received a standing ovation.

At a wedding, Summer 2019.

As you can see, the band normally has four players, though their singer Helen also performs when a vocalist is required:

Performing for the High Sheriff's Reception at Burghley House

You can hear The Stamford Stompers playing Yes, Sir, That's My Baby  by clicking here. For a video of them playing Has Anybody Seen My Girl?, CLICK HERE.

And for the band's website, click here.

Post 567: THE GENEROUS MAKERS OF GREAT VIDEOS

If, like me, you spend many hours watching YouTube videos of traditional jazz bands playing in the USA - and particularly in New Orleans, you must have noticed that dozens of the videos have been put up by two video-making enthusiasts who use the code-names digitalalexa and RaoulDuke504. And more recently James Sterling has also come on to the scene. And there others - such as Wild Bill and jazzbo43, who have captured many good New Orleans performances for us. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude; and I think the bands too must be grateful to these people for spreading their fame to many thousands throughout the world. 

A great experience I had in New Orleans during April 2015 was meeting two of these video-makers. They were enthusiastically filming at the French Quarter Festival.

RaoulDuke504 has the advantage of living near New Orleans. I met him while he was filming the Tuba Skinny performance at the Festival. Here he is:

I had the great privilege of shaking his hand and thanking him for the pleasure he has given me (and so many thousands of people) with his wonderful videos.

Digitalalexa is actually two people - husband Al and his wife Judy from New Jersey. They travelled down frequently to New Orleans and had a grand time filming their favourite bands. Al and Judy film the same performance from different angles and when they return home Al edits the two videos into one, trying to make the most of the best shots they have obtained between them. It was a great honour to meet Al and Judy several times at various events. Al told me his videos by 2015 had over three million 'hits'. It was through their videos that I (and hundreds of other fans) first discovered Tuba Skinny and some of the other great bands. So I am deeply grateful.

Here is Judy at The Louisiana Music Factory, where they were about to film a Tuba Skinny Concert.

And here at the same event is Al.

These wonderful modest people enjoy their relative anonymity. But I hope they won't mind my featuring them on this Blog and saying a Big Thank You to them on behalf of us all for bringing us such pleasure.

Good news is that Al and Judy produced the first video of Tuba Skinny to be viewed more than a million times: THIS ONE - CLICK ON TO WATCH IT.

By the way, Al and Judy also founded The 2015 French Quarter Festival and Tuba Skinny Appreciation Society. Al and Judy designed and then Judy embroidered a batch of these lovely souvenir bannerettes. They distributed them to several fans to wave during the Parade and they also gave some to the members of Tuba Skinny.

What terrific souvenirs. I treasure mine!

James Sterling lives in Florida and can get to New Orleans in five hours by car. In January 2015, he came upon a YouTube video of Tuba Skinny (probably one of digitalalexa's). He told me it changed his life for ever. (Exactly the same experience had happened to me a year or two earlier.) He said: 'I watched Tuba Skinny videos for 6 hours straight, finally stopping at 1am'. Since then, James has made the journey three or four times each year. In 2016, I had the pleasure of meeting James and his wife, too. Here he is in Frenchmen Street. Thank you, too, for all the good work, James!

Post 566: NEW EP FROM THE MILK CRATE BANDITS

The Milk Crate Bandits (of Vancouver) have brought out a second EP. It is called 'The View From Out Here' and is a collection of traditional jazz standards, including, for example, Climax Rag, Four or Five Times, Bogalusa Strut and Struttin' With Some Barbecue.

The band again travelled to New Orleans to make the recordings in the Marigny Studios (formerly Luthjen's Dance Hall), which is becoming recognised as one of the best places for the recording of our music. (You will recall that The Shotgun Jazz Band has also been making recordings there.) It is very well equipped and has the perfect old-fashioned dance hall acoustics.

The band members for the recordings were: Kevin Louis, Connor Stewart, Jen Hodge, Sky Lambourne, Aaron Levinson and Jack Ray.

What you will find on this Album are very neat arrangements of the music and highly competent performances from all the musicians. I was particularly struck by the very relaxed nature of the playing - just the kind of style such musicians as Kid Rena, Alphonse Picou, Billie and De De Pierce, George Lewis, Emma Barrett, Sing Miller, Emanuel Sayles, Percy and Willie Humphrey, Lionel Ferbos and Narvin Kimball would have approved of. That's exactly how they believed New Orleans jazz should be played. You notice it even on such usually 'fast' numbers as 'Climax Rag'.

Other interesting features are vocals on 'Bogalusa Strut' and an original set of lyrics (sung by Kevin Louis) on 'Struttin' With Some Barbecue'.

If you would like more information or may wish to obtain the EP, try the band's website:
www.milkcratebandits.com

It was only a few months ago that I first noticed the arrival on the traditional jazz scene of this young band, which takes its name from the fact that it started out by busking in the streets, seated on purloined milk crates.

The founder and original busker was Jack Ray from Australia. He sings and plays banjo (incidentally doing a good job on 'My Foolish Heart' on this latest set of recordings) and, as far as I can tell, he composes some of the tunes played by the band he has formed.

They claim on their website that they provide music to make you 'dance, smile and party'.

You can easily find examples of their work on YouTube.

But I must mention that also in October 2016 they went to New Orleans and recorded several tunes in the The Marigny Recording Studios, so you may want to hear the resulting EP called The Neighbourhood. There are seven tunes on the recording and, although (being 'originals') they may be unfamiliar to you, I am sure that any traditional jazz lover will find them comfortable and pleasant listening. This is because, in keeping with the bulk of our music, they follow the usual structures, such as 32 bar (A A B A), 16 bars and 12 bars and familiar chord progressions. You may even hear echoes of familiar tunes (for example The King of King Street had me thinking The Curse of an Aching Heart and then The Sheik of Araby before it went into a middle eight in which I heard echoes of Girl of My Dreams! Similarly, Marilu had me thinking Some Day, Sweetheart).

Clearly the musicians are very accomplished. And the tunes are brightly arranged, with well-planned introductions and endings. And there are some clever surprises, such as 'funky' rhythmic effects, tempo changes, and a first Chorus (in Southern Lover) played entirely by double bass and drums. (That one, I have to say, also had me thinking of an older tune - Them There Eyes.)

Post 565: ESSENTIAL TO MASTER - SUNSHINE CHORD PROGRESSION

If you want to play jazz, one of the most important things to master is The Sunshine Chord Progression. It occurs time and again in our tunes, particularly in the final eight bars (measures) of 32-bar songs. It feels so right and natural as a musical progression - taking the listener through a sequence of chords all related to the tonic, and eventually - after a brief 'circle of fifths' - landing happily on that tonic chord.

You should practise improvising on this progression in all the usual keys. This will give a terrific boost to your playing. 

I was told by a banjo-playing friend that it derived its name from the great English clarinet player Monty Sunshine (1928 - 2010); but I doubt whether that is the correct derivation, because The Sunshine Progression was used in hundreds of tunes well before Monty was born.

Maybe it's called the 'Sunshine' progression simply because it seems to be so 'sunny' - in the sense that it is so bright, happy and perfect.

Monty Sunshine

It's interesting (and it makes life easier for the performer) that so many tunes played by the traditional jazz bands end with the same simple and pleasing sequence of chords. Here are those chords in the key of C.

What they amount to is:

Bar 1 : Major chord on the fourth note of the scale - setting out on a new adventure.

Bar 2 : Minor chord on the fourth note of the scale - a slight hint of danger.

Bar 3 : The Major Chord of the Home Key - We're safe!

Bar 4 : A Seventh based on the sixth note of the scale - Oh no, someone has just made us laugh.

Bar 5 : A Seventh based on the second note of the scale - one corner yet to turn.

Bar 6 : The Dominant Seventh - always the last step before Home.

Bars 7 and 8 : The Major Chord of the Home Key again - this time for good.

Here's how it looks in the Key of G:

There can be very slight variations. For example Bar 2 is often IV# diminished (i.e. C# diminished in the example above). Bar 5 can be a Minor Seventh based on the second note of the scale. The final two bars could throw in, for example, the major chord on the fourth note of the scale for the final two beats of Bar 7. But essentially it's all the same pattern.

Here are just a few examples of tunes ending with the sequence:

All of Me

April Showers
At The Mardi Gras
Baby Face
Beneath Hawaiian Skies

Bill Bailey

Bourbon Street Parade
Coney Island Washboard

Darktown Strutters Ball

From Monday On

Hiawatha Rag [final theme]

I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover

If I Had A Talking Picture Of You

If Someone Would Only Love Me

It's a Sin to tell a Lie

It's Only a Shanty

Knee Drops

Martha

Merci Beaucoup

Milenberg Joys

My Little Girl

Running Wild

Second Line

Shine

Some of these Days

Spanish Eyes

Tell Me Your Dream

Tiger Rag

Too Late (the Dave Nelson - King Oliver composition introduced into Tuba Skinny's repertoire in 2018)
Who's Sorry Now

Some tunes essentially use the Sunshine sequence, though with slight or subtle variations.

An example is

I Can't Give You Anything But Love

and, as my friend John Burns has pointed out to me, the chords of the eight bars are sometimes compressed into four half-bars, as in

At the Jazzband Ball
When I'm Sixty-Four.

Finally, here's something I find striking: the following tunes BEGIN pretty well with the eight bars that the tunes above use as their FINAL eight. I think that's what gives them their special character:

After You've Gone

I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me

Glad Rag Doll

That's My Home

When It's Sleepy Time Down South.

Correspondent Tom Corcoran let me know what a pleasure it can be to experiment with 1st inversions while running through the sequence. He says he tried it on his ukulele: starting at the first inversion of C and going up up the neck to the other chords; and I realised what a sweet progression it really is. The right chords in the right place made all the difference. Playing around with other progressions I've found some that work well in first-position chords and others that sound better in a descending pattern, depending on the mood of the melody I suppose. Always a new twist and always something new to learn.

Post 564: THE 12-BAR BLUES AND 'OH, YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL'

Everyone knows the CHORUS of Oh, You Beautiful Doll. But do you know the VERSE?

I was very interested to find that the VERSE is in fact a standard pattern 12-bar blues! In the sheet music, the 12 bars are played through twice in the key of Eb. Then there is a switch into the key of Ab and the familiar Chorus begins. (Of course, such transitions from the dominant to the tonic are very common in music, as one theme leads into another.)

Nat D. Ayer (who also wrote the music for If You Were The Only Girl in the World) composed the piece in 1911 - yes, all that long ago. So I think this is a fine example of the way the 12-bar blues form was influencing popular music even during those very early years in the Twentieth Century when traditional jazz bands were beginning to emerge. Handy's pioneering Memphis Blues, also with the standard 12-bar main theme, had appeared just a year earlier.

And, as we all know, the 12-bar blues went on to be the basis of about a tenth of the tunes our bands have played in their performances ever since; and of course it became the basis of rock'n'roll.

Here, from the original sheet music, is the transition point where the 12-bar blues (VERSE) ends and the CHORUS begins.