Post 286: TUNES WITH SIMILAR CHORD PROGRESSIONS

Puttin' on the Style.
Enjoy Yourself.
It's the Royal Telephone.

Listening to Tuba Skinny performing Vine Street Drag (also known as Lonesome Drag), in this video (click on to watch), I noticed that the chord progression sounds remarkably similar (possibly identical) to that of I'm Looking for the Bully of the Town recorded in 1927 by The Memphis Jug Band. You can hear The Memphis Jug Band performance by clicking here.

Similarly, if you listen to Tuba Skinny performing the eight-bar tune Mississippi River Blues, you may agree with me that it has the same chord structure as the first eight bars of Lonesome Road:
CLICK HERE.
I wonder how many hundreds of cases there are (in addition to the obvious examples of 12-bar blues) where this occurs.

There are dozens of 32-bar tunes based on the same chord progression as Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home. Similarly, there are several using the same chords as When the Saints Go Marching In.

A less known example of a parallel is the 32-bar Please Don't Talk About Me, for which you can use exactly the same chord progression as for Has Anybody Seen My Girl? (also known as Five Foot Two) and Who's That Knockin' At My Door? and also for Aaron Gunn's great song Caffeine. It seems to me that Postage Stomp has an almost similar sequence too.

And I'm fairly sure you can play Livin' in a Great Big Way and Christopher Columbus to the very same chord structure as I Got Rhythm.

Where Am I Gonna Live When I Get Home improbably uses the same chord progression as Just a Closer Walk With Thee!

Bei Mir Bist Du Schön seems to me to use the same chord progression as When I Get Low I Get High and Blue Drag and Root, Hog, or Die and Jubilesta.

And my friend Ralph Hunt, the banjo player, tells me that Pennies from Heaven has exactly the same chord structure as I Can't Give You Anything But Love, apart from just one chord, which is a 7th in one tune and a minor in the other - hardly a significant difference.

My Josephine (first recorded by Papa Oscar Celestin's Tuxedo Band in 1926) is virtually identical to Some of These Days (composed by Shelton Brooks in 1910) - not only in chord structure but even in its melody. My theory is that someone (Celestin himself, perhaps) wrote a lyric dedicated to Josephine - a fan of his band - and set it to the music of Some of These Days, with only the the most negligible of modifications to the tune and chord structure.

I also think that the two spirituals Precious Lord, Take my Hand and When I Move to the Sky, if played in the same key, would be found to have the same chord progression.

I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate seems to me to have the same chord sequence as Red Light Rag, Southern Shout and the Chorus of Heebie Jeebies and of Dallas Rag. But the alternating of dominant and tonic chords is a very familiar ploy in dozens of tunes.

You Can't Escape From Me (aka San Jacinto Stomp) uses the same chord sequence as The Cat's Got Kittens.

The chord sequences for Coquette, Yes, Sir, That's My Baby and I Want to Be Happy all seem pretty much the same to me.

Rip 'Em Up Joe is an example of a 16-bar tune that seems to have a familiar chord sequence: it is similar to that found in Crazy 'Bout You (recorded by The State Street Boys in 1935) and sundry other tunes.

The House of the Rising Sun sounds suspiciously similar to St. James Infirmary. My ear tells me they have the same chord progression and almost the same melody.

Improbably, the religious number Royal Telephone is remarkably similar to Enjoy Yourself, It's Later Than You Think and to the rocking tune Puttin' On The Style.

Listening again on YouTube to the wonderful Tuba Skinny playing How Do They Do It That Way?, I thought the chord sequence sounded identical to that of the 1925 popular song Ice Cream (Ice Cream, You Scream, Everybody Loves Ice Cream). They are both very fine songs. How Do They Do It That Way? is a song about which I know very little, though I believe it dates from 1929, when Victoria Spivey recorded it. It is probable that she also composed it. I can't prove the chord progressions are identical as I do not have copies of the printed music. They are fairly different styles of song (Ice Cream is also usually played more quickly than the other) but it's interesting that to my ear at least the same chord pattern works very well for both. Listen to Tuba Skinny by double-clicking here. Try humming Ice Cream during the vocal and see whether you agree with me.
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Luke Holladay has sent me this email:
I believe the chords for "Do Lord" are identical to "This Little Light of Mine" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic".

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As for 'modern' jazz, there have been many tunes based on the chord sequences of good old songs, I'm told. For example:
Grooving' High is based on the chord sequence of Whispering
Anthropology is based on the chord sequence of I Got Rhythm
Take the A Train is based on the chord sequence of Exactly Like You
Donna Lee is based on the chord sequence of Indiana
In a Mellow Tone is based on the chord sequence of Rose Room
Ornithology is based on the chord sequence of How High The Moon
Hackensack is based on the chord sequence of Lady Be Good
Koko is based on the chord sequence of Cherokee.

Post 197: LYRICS - TASTE AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

If you are reading this, the chances are that you enjoy the jazz band music from the 1920s and 1930s, and you are happy when you hear a band of today playing it just as it might have sounded then.

But the words of the songs are a different matter. Not only have tastes changed; we also have to be careful these days about 'political correctness'.

A century ago, it was commonplace for certain words which are now considered racist to appear in the lyrics and even in the titles of popular songs that were adopted by jazz bands. But in the Twenty-First Century, singers have to beware before using such words. Almost invariably, if they want to sing the song, they have to edit the lyrics and tone things down.

Then there were dozens of songs that entertained and amused by including sexual innuendoes. My guess is that about a quarter of the blues recorded by such singers as Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, Lucille Bogan, Barrel House Annie, Victoria Spivey, Ma Rainey, and Hattie Hart contain double entendres - sexually symbolic metaphors - so that a song ostensibly about an everyday event can be interpreted by the audience as a commentary on sexual activities. Perhaps the most famous of them is Kitchen Man; but there are dozens like it.

I think tastes in humour have become a little more sophisticated since then. Yes, audiences do still listen to and enjoy such songs, and they may smile or laugh; but they no longer think this kind of humour is really all that funny. It's a sniggering schoolboy kind of humour. In a few cases, some of the lines are fairly crude; and I have noticed that today's singers often omit these or replace them with some that are relatively innocuous.

In addition to the 'sexual innuendo' songs, there's another group of songs that raise the question 'Should they be censored?'. Songs about drugs - marijuana in particular - were commonplace at one time. They have such good tunes that we still want to play them. So what can we do? We adapt them. Marijuana - with its words toned down - became Lotus Blossom. Viper Mad - again with slightly different words - became Pleasure Mad. Willie the Weeper and When I Get Low I Get High are such romping numbers that nobody minds the words.

There are also songs that tell about life as it really was for the downtrodden and impoverished, especially during the Great Depression.

What about a song in which a prostitute tells you how she has fallen on hard times: in a whole day of searching, she can't find any customers and so can't make any money. Would you want to censor such a song today? Would it be 'politically correct' to sing it?

I think the answer is that if it's a good song and well performed, we still want to hear it. I'm thinking, of course, of Tricks Ain't Walkin' No More - a song many of us have met for the first time in the last few years - performed by one of our favourite singers with one of our favourite bands.

For a look at the music of  Tricks Ain't Walkin' No More, CLICK HERE.

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?