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 472: 'CRUMPLED PAPERS' - MYSTERY SOLVED

A few years ago, a new tune appeared on the streets of New Orleans.

I heard that it had been used in the TV series Tremé, where it had been played by the most important band in the 21st-Century Revival of traditional jazz - Loose Marbles.

It is a tune I like and recommend, for several reasons. It is short (essentially a 12-bar theme), lively  and very catchy. It is in a minor key (D minor) and it's good to have a minor-key tune in our programmes occasionally. As it seems to use a very small number of chords (possibly only D minor, G minor and and A7th), it is also easy to improvise on.

It was called Crumpled Papers and I could find no reference to it in earlier jazz literature. So where had it come from? Who was the composer?

For a long time, that was an unsolved mystery. However, John Dixon has let me know it is a Michael Magro tune. John told me: Michael ‘wrote’ this, as in just came up with a nice simple melody for a basic 12-bar minor blues. We actually recorded this a couple years ago with him on clarinet, Marla on trumpet, Tyler on bass, Justin on snare drum, and Ben Polcer on piano. Not sure if the recording will ever see daylight though.

So the mystery is solved. Michael, as you probably know, founded Loose Marbles way back in September 2000 and he still runs that band in New Orleans today.

Michael Magro

Modest though its beginnings may have been, Crumpled Papers is a great little tune, given the way it lends itself to improvisations. Have a listen to it, as played by Tuba Skinny. There's a choice of videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSLTjnqs648

For a slightly more pedestrian performance, but less affected by audience noise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mzwmIzkB4w

Thanks as ever to those two great video-makers digitalalexa and RaoulDuke504.

Post 17: USING MINOR KEYS IN TRADITIONAL JAZZ

In other posts, I have classified (by chord progressions) types of tunes in the repertoire of traditional jazz bands. I have done so mainly by looking at their opening bars.

There is another small group of tunes that are distinctive. These are the tunes in a minor key (or sometimes with just one theme in a minor key). I am surprised there are not more tunes in the traditional jazz repertoire using minor keys. The effect of the minor is striking and unusual. For an obvious example of this, just hum St. James' Infirmary to yourself.

Most of these tunes are usually played not in any old minor key but specifically in C minor, G minor or D minor.

The important point is that playing an occasional tune in a minor key gives variety to a jazz concert. And variety is necessary if you want to interest and entertain your audience.

To improvise on minor-key tunes, you have to make a mental adjustment and 'think minor'.

Some you might consider using are:

A Bientôt
A Jazz Battle
At the Jazz Band Ball (usually starts in G minor - part A)
Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen
Big Chief Battleaxe [one theme]
Big House Blues [final theme]
Black and Blue
Blue Drag (sample it - sung by Albanie - by clicking here)
Blue Skies
Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me
The Boy in the Boat
Caravan
Comes Love
Crying for the Carolines
Crumpled Papers (interesting 12-bar normally in D minor)
Dark Eyes (though the opening chord is the dominant seventh - not minor)
Deep Bayou Moan (Shaye Cohn's lovely 2017 composition - click here )
Diga Diga Doo
Egyptian Ella
Fourth Street Mess Around
Green Leaves of Summer
Hush-a-Bye
I Lost My Gal from Memphis
I'm Humming to Myself
I'm the King of the Swingers (part A)
It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing
La Roulotte
Joseph Joseph
Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho
King of the Zulus
(Sweet) Lotus Blossom
Lullaby of the Leaves (little known but well deserving a revival)
Michigander Blues
Midnight in Moscow
Minor Drag
Mother's Son-in-Law
My Heart Belongs to Daddy
New Orleans (the Hoagy Carmichael tune)
New Orleans Bump
No Moon at All
The Panic is On
Petite Fleur
Puttin' on the Ritz (Chorus)
Russian Rag (great example at 23 minutes 20 seconds in this Tuba Skinny video: Click here to watch )
Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
Shout 'Em, Aunt Tillie
Sing Sing Sing
Steppin' Out With My Baby
St. James' Infirmary
Summertime
Take Me Away from the River
That Da Da Strain (usually starts in G minor - part A)
The Mooche
Tight Like This
Sway
You Let Me Down
When I Get Low I Get High
Willie the Weeper [first theme]
Who Walks In
Why Don't You Do Right?