Post 521: 'DEAR ALMANZOER' (TUBA SKINNY)

'Dear Almanzoer' was composed in 1927 by Oscar ‘Papa’ Celestin and was recorded in New Orleans by his band in April that year.

You can watch a video I made of Tuba Skinny playing this tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvpjHTmj8IM

In their performance, Tuba Skinny have kept very closely to the structure of the original recording, even though their instrumentation is slightly different from Celestin's. Playing, like his band, entirely in the key of E flat, they open with the 16-bar VERSE (03 seconds – 26 seconds). This VERSE, which unfortunately is played only once in the entire recording, is in my opinion the most attractive part of the whole piece: it is both catchy and merry. It ends on the chord of B flat 7th, which leads neatly into the tonic at the start of the 32-bar CHORUS (played from 27 secs. to 1 min. 12 secs.).

After this, there are FIVE successive improvisations on a 12-BAR BLUES structure. The opening two are played by the clarinet (Jonathan, 1 min. 13 secs – 1 min. 47 secs.). EXACTLY AS ON THE CELESTIN 1927 VERSION, Jonathan’s first Chorus is backed by off-beat stop chords and the second by single and double stop chords. Getting this tricky rhythmic pattern right is a fine example of the care and trouble Tuba Skinny take in preparing their music for public performance.

The third 12-bar blues is taken by Shaye on cornet (1 min. 48 secs. - 2 mins. 04 secs.); and the final two by Barnabus on trombone (2 mins. 05 secs. - 2 mins.40 secs.). Note here a very small difference from the original Celestin recording: Tuba Skinny have reversed the order of events with the cornet and trombone solos.

To end the piece, Tuba Skinny (like Celestin) do not go back to the Verse (which is a pity in my opinion, as it deserves a second hearing); instead they simply play through the 32-bar CHORUS one more time, ending with a double snap from Robin's cymbal.

When I filmed this video (in 2015), the only vantage point I could get in the large crowd was right behind Jonathan. However, I hope this angle helps you appreciate Shaye’s fingering and also the energy and hard work she has always put into her playing. Unlike most cornet and trumpet players, she rarely allows herself a break. When she is not leading the ensemble or soloing, she still contributes – gently decorating the solos of Jonathan and Barnabus.

The whole performance is so respectful of, and faithful to, the original Celestin recording. It shows beyond doubt the loving care with which Tuba Skinny re-create such forgotten gems from long ago. 'Dear Almanzoer' may also be heard on Tuba Skinny's 'Blue Chime Stomp' CD, recorded in 2015, in a performance remarkably similar to this one, though Robin, like percussionist Abby Foster in the 1927 Celestin recording, at the very end gives only a single snap on the cymbal, rather than a double.

Post 374: TUNES C - E

I have spent hours collecting titles of tunes commonly played by traditional jazz bands. Here's the second batch - titles from C to E.

Caffeine	Aaron Gunn	2010
C Jam Blues	Ellington & Co	1942
Cakewalking Babies	C Smith, H Troy, C Williams	1924
California Here I Come	Meyer, de Sylva, Jolson	1921
Call Me Back, Pal o’ Mine	Harold Dixon (m), Lawrence Perricone (wds)	1926
Call Out March	Don Vappie	2005
Camptown Races	Foster	1850
Canal Street Blues	Joe King Oliver	1923
Candy Lips	Mike Jackson & Jack Laurie	1926
Cannon Ball Blues	Charlie Rider, Jelly Roll Morton, Marty Bloom	1926
Caravan	Duke Ellington, Irving Mills & Juan Tizol	1937
Careless Love	Koenig, Williams, Handy	1935
Carolina in the Morning	Donaldson & Kahn	1922
Carolina Moon	Joe Burke & Benny Davis	1929
Carpet Alley Breakdown	Cal Smith and Henry Clifford	1926
Carry Me Back To Old Virginny	James A Bland	1878
Cataract Rag	Bob Hampton	1914
Cemetery Blues	Sid Laney	1923
Ce Mossieu Qui Parle	Sidney Bechet	1952
C’Est Si Bon	Betti & Hornez	1947
C’Est Magnifique	Cole Porter	1952
Chant, The	Mel Stitzel	1926
Charleston	J P Johnson Mack	1923
Chattanooga ChooChoo	Warren, Gordon	1941
Chattanooga Stomp	Joe Oliver and Alphonse Picou	1924
Cheek to Cheek	Irving Berlin	1935
Cherokee	Ray Noble	1938
Cherry	Redman & Gilbert	1928
Cherry Red	Joe Turner & Pete Johnson	1939
Chicago	Fred Fisher	1922
Chicken Ain’t Nothing But a Bird	Cole & Johnson & Accooe	1899
Chimes Blues	Oliver	1923
China Boy	Dick Winfrey & Phil Boutelje	1922
Chinatown	Schwartz and Jerome	1906
Chloe	C N Daniels [or Moret?] & Kahn	1927
Chocolate Avenue	Clarence Williams (prob purloined from Herman Blount, aka Sun Ra)	1933
Christopher Columbus	Razaf & Berry	1936
Chrysanthemum Rag	Scott Joplin	1904
Cielito Lindo	Sebastian Yradier Carlo Fernandez Neil Wilson [Mexico]	1923
Ciriciribin	Pestalozza & Thaler	1898
Clarinet Marmalade	Shields & Ragas	1917
Climax Rag	James Scott	1914
Clouds Will Soon Roll By, The	Harry Woods (m) and George Brown	1932
Cold Morning Shout	Bobby Leecan	1927
Collegiate	Jaffe & Bonx	1925
Come Back Sweet Papa	Barbarin and Russell	1926
Come Fly With Me	Jimmy Van Heusen (m) & Sammy Cahn (w)	1958
Come on and Stomp Stomp Stomp	Waller, Smith, Mills	1927
Coney Island Washboard	Hampton Durand, Jerry Adams, Claude Shugart, Ned Nestor	1926
Copenhagen	Walter Melrose and Charlie Davis	1924
Coquette	Kahn, Lombardo & Green	1928
Cornet Chop Suey	Armstrong	1926
Corrine Corrina	J. Mayo Williams & Bo Chatman	1929
Corrine, What Makes You Treat Me So?	Blind Boy Fuller	1937
Cotton Pickers Drag	Ben Tinnon	1930
Cotton Pickers Rag (1 of 2 tunes with this title)	Harry O. Sutton	1899
Cotton Pickers Rag (2 of 2 tunes with this title)	William J. Braun	1899
Cradle Song	Brahms	1868
Crazy	Willie Nelson	1961
Crazy Blues	Perry Bradford	1920
Crazy 'Bout You	Bill 'Jazz Gillum' McKinley	1935
Crazy Rhythm	Kahn, Meyer, Caesar	1928
Creole Belles	J Bodewalt Lampe	1900
Creole Jazz	Claude Luter	?1950
Creole Love Call	Ellington (from Oliver)	1928
Creole Song	Ory OR trad ? 1900	?1900
Crow Jane	Skip James	1931
Crumpled Paper	Michael Magro	?2010
Cryin’ for the Carolines	Harry Warren, Sam Lewis, Joe Young	1930
Curse of an Aching Heart	Al Piantadosi & Henry Fint	1913
Cushion Foot Stomp	Clarence Williams	1927
Daddy's Little Girl	Bobby Burke & Horace Burlach	1949
Daddy Won't You Please Come Home	Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake	1921
Daisy Bell	Harry Dacre (pen name of Frank Dean) (w & m)	1892
Dallas Blues	Hart A. Wand (m) & Lloyd Garrett	1912
Dallas Rag	Dallas String Band	1927
Dancing with Tears in my Eyes	Joe Burke (m) & Al Dubin (w)	1930
Dangerous Blues	Billie Brown [daughter] (m) & Anna Welker Brown [mother] (w)	1921
Dans Les Rues D’Antibes	Bechet	1952
Dapper Dan	Von Tilzer & Brown	1921
Dardanella	Felix Bernard & Johhny Black (m) & Fred Fisher (w)	1919
Darkness on the Delta	Livingston, Symes, Neiburg	1932
Darktown Strutters Ball	Shelton Brooks	1915
Dauphine Street Blues	George Lewis & ‘traditional’	c1951
Davenport Blues	Bix Beiderbecke	1925
Dear Almanzoer	Oscar Celestin	1927
Dear Old Southland	Creamer & Layton	1921
Deed I Do	Rose & Hirsch	1926
Deep Bayou Blues	George Lewis & L. Marrero	1943
Deep Henderson	Fred Rose	1926
Deep Purple	Peter de Rose (m) and Mitchell Parish	1933
Delia Gone	Blind Blake Alphonso Higgs	1952
Delta Bound	Alex Hill	1934
Desafinado	Antonio Carlos Jobim	1959
Destination Moon	? Nat King Cole	?1950
Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best	Jule Styne (m) &Leo Robin
Dill Pickles	Bryan and Johnson	1910
Dinah	Harry Akst, Sam Lewis, Joe Young	1925
Dippermouth Blues	Oliver, Armstrong, Melrose	1923
Dirty Rag	Shields, Bonano and Brownlee	?1925
Dixieland Doin's	Tiny Parham	1929
Dodo Blues	C.W. Stoneking	2006
Do It Right	Jones	1929
Do Lord	Vernie O. Fossett	1950 apprx.
Donde Estas Corazon	Luis Martinez Serrano	1924
Do Something	Sam Stept (m) & Bud Green (w)	1929
Do What Ory Say	Kid Ory	1943
Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans	(w) Eddie de Lange & (m) Louis Alter	1946
Do Your Duty	Wesley Wilson	1933
Doctor Jazz	Joe 'King' Oliver & Melrose & Stitzel	1927
Does Jesus Care?	J. Lincoln Hall (n) F. Graeff (w)	c 1900
Don't Be That Way	Benny Goodman, Edgar Sampson, Mitchell Parish	1938
Don’t Blame Me	McHugh & Fields	1932
Don’t Bring Lulu	Rose, Brown, Henderson	1925
Don’t Dilly Dally on the Way	Charles Collins and Fred Leigh	1919
Don’t Get Around Much Any More	Ellington & Russell	1940
Don't Give up the Ship	Dubin & Warren	1935
Don't Go Way, Nobody	Percy Cahill	1906 (or even earlier)
Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree	Sam Stept, L. Brown & C. Tobias	1942
Don’t Sweetheart Me	Friend & Tobias	1943
Don't Monkey With It	Ade Monsborough & Dallvitz	?1960
Don’t You Feel My Leg	Danny Barker, Blu Lu Barker and J. Mayo Williams	1938
Doodle Doo Doo	Art Kassel & Mel Stitzel	?
Down Among the Sheltering Palms	Olman and Brockman	1914
Down By The Old Mill Stream	Tell, Taylor	1910
Down by the Riverside	Traditional	Pre-1918
Down Home Rag	Wilbur C Sweatman & L Brown	1911
Down in Honky Tonk Town	Chas McCarron & Chris Smith	1916
Down in Jungle Town	Morse & Madden	1908
Dream	J Mercer	1944
Dream a Little Dream of Me	Andre, Schwandt, Kahn	1930
Dream Blues	Ma Rainey	1924
Dreaming the Hours Away	Will E. Dulmage	1927
Drop Down Papa	Hattie Hart	1934
Drop Me Off in Harlem	Ellington, Kenny	1933
Droppin’ Shucks	Lil Hardin	1926
Duff Campbell's Revenge	Melvin 'Turk' Murphy	1956
Dusty Rag	May Aufderheide	1908
Early Hours	Lonnie Donegan & Monty Sunshine	1953
East Coast Trot	Blythe & Stevens	1926
Easter Parade	Berlin	1933
East St. Louis Toddle Oo	Duke Ellington & Bubber Miley	1927
Easy Street	A R Jones	1941
Eccentric Rag	J. Russell Robinson	1921
Edna	King Oliver and Dave Nelson	1930
Egyptian Ella	Walter Doyle	1931
Eh La Bas	Claimed as Ory or De De Pierce; but probably Joseph Cornbread Thomas	1946
Elephant Stomp	St Cery-Alferay (poss pseudonyms)	1935
Embraceable You	G & I Gershwin	1929
Emmaline	Perkins & Parish	1934
Enjoy Yourself: It's Later Than You Think	Carl Sigman (m) & Herb Magidson (w)	1948
Entertainer, The	Scott Joplin	1902
Every Time We Say Goodbye	Cole Porter	1944
Everybody Loves My Baby	Jack Palmer & Spencer Williams	1922
Everybody Loves Saturday Night	B. Hawes, Bess Lomax, R. Dehr, F. Miller	1956
Everything Stops for Tea	Maurice Sigler, Al Goodhart, Al Hoffman	1935
Everywhere You Go	Shay, Goodwin, Fisher	1927
Exactly Like You	Dorothy Fields & Jimmy McHugh	1930
Eyes of Texas	(old folk tune) John Sinclair (wds)	1903