Post 536: HARUKA KIKUCHI BACK IN TOKYO

What a summer Haruka Kikuchi has been enjoying! She was in Italy with The Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band for the Umbria Jazz Festival, where they played a series of performances. Several very good videos from those have appeared on YouTube.

And then she spent some time on a trip back home to Japan, where she met up again with her old friends - that very fine band The New Orleans Jazz Hounds.

The generous video-maker codenamed ragtimecave seems to have filmed almost an entire gig. Yes, there's a whole batch of glorious videos. They play storming versions of standards such as Clarinet Marmalade, Somebody Else Is Taking My Place, Savoy Blues, and Down in Honky Tonk Town. One of my favourites is an eight-minute version of Marie, in which Haruka is joined by two other excellent trombonists, making a 'front line' entirely of trombones. Each takes a couple of solo choruses, with the other two providing a tasteful riffing backing to the second chorus. They also play an exciting 'front line only' chorus. Watch it by clicking here.

So we get to see Haruka, with the brilliant clarinet star Tamura Makiko, both in their kimonos. Wonderful! Watch them on Buddy Bolden's Blues by clicking here.

I hear that Tamura Makiko is likely to be visiting New Orleans for a holiday in October. Haruka intends to make some recordings with her.

As regular readers will know, Haruka is my unofficial adopted grand-daughter! I have so much enjoyed meeting her in New Orleans. Here we are earlier this year.

Post 493: THE SECONDHAND STREET BAND

During my brief visit to New Orleans in February 2017, I came upon this band - new to me - called The Secondhand Street Band. They were playing in Royal Street, giving a spirited performance and displaying considerable technical skills.

Since I returned to England, I have found from the internet that they appear to have been formed in 2015 from musicians who migrated to New Orleans from Sweden, Hungary, France, the U.K, the Netherlands, California, Massachusetts, New York, and even a couple from Louisiana - all seeking to make a living by busking in New Orleans. There are plenty of YouTube videos of them, from which you may observe that they have a variety of possible line-ups and play music in a range of styles (one of which they call 'funky').

I was able to make videos of them performing Buddy Bolden's Blues (CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT) and Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (CLICK HERE).

If you would like more information about the band, their website is:

http://www.secondhandstreetband.com/

Also, to sample some of their recordings, try:

https://secondhandstreetband.bandcamp.com/

Post 331: 'ST. LOUIS TICKLE' AND 'BUDDY BOLDEN'S BLUES'

The famous Buddy Bolden's Blues is played occasionally by most traditional jazz bands. It's the one beginning with the words 'I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say You're nasty, you're dirty, take it away....'.

I'm not the first person to notice that the tune of Buddy Bolden's Blues is in fact the second theme in the composition St. Louis Tickle.

St. Louis Tickle was composed in about 1904 (when Buddy Bolden was a star on the New Orleans music scene).

The composers were named on the original sheet music as 'Barney and Seymore' (elsewhere 'Seymour'). But it is probable that these names were a pseudonym for Theron Catlan Bennett (1879 - 1937) - who became a well-known composer, music publisher (in Chicago) and music-shop owner (in Denver).

Having examined the sheet music, which is a well-structured through-composed early rag, I assumed that Bolden's Band 'lifted' the second theme from this composition, put words to it and made it their own.

However, internet sources claim the tune was composed by Bolden himself. Or that it was composed by the trombone player in his band - Willie Cornish - or at least that Cornish put the words to it. If Bolden's Band composed it, the composer of St. Louis Tickle must have lifted it from them.

But he did not live in New Orleans, so would he even have heard it in those days before mass media? And why would a composer of his obvious talent need to steal an idea for a theme? And how do we account for his distinctively 'raggy' rhythms and notes in Bars 7 and 8 and Bars 14, 15, and 16? They are more subtle and complex than the simplified version used in the song.

My theory would have been that Bolden's band lifted and adapted the tune from St. Louis Tickle. But we are confidently assured by the experts that Bennett stole the tune from Bolden and sneaked the melody into his composition.

Whatever the truth, Buddy Bolden's Blues exists and you can hear many performances of it on YouTube, notably a very relaxed, soulful one by the late Pat Halcox:

CLICK HERE.

And you can hear a lovely, tasteful version of St. Louis Tickle played (in 2015) by some of our favourite New Orleans-based musicians BY CLICKING HERE. This is a most delightful performance. May I urge you to watch it? Listen out for the 'Buddy Bolden' theme at 55 seconds.

Elsewhere, you can hear St. Louis Tickle performed by various artists, for example the California Feetwarmers. Note the Bolden theme, starting at 30 seconds into the film.

CLICK HERE.

Finally, here's the original 1904 sheet music. I have marked in RED where the Bolden theme begins. It runs just for the repeated 16 bars. Then the composition moves into its next theme.