Post 594: DISENTANGLING 'TANGLED BLUES' (SHAYE COHN AND TUBA SKINNY)

An 18-bar vocal from Erika

I first heard Tangled Blues when Tuba Skinny performed it at The Louisiana Music Factory on 14 April 2015. It was a new composition by Shaye Cohn, with words by Erika Lewis.

Tangled Blues is a very pleasant tune, somewhat country-and-western in feel and played in the Key of F.

But something about it struck me as strange. You form the impression  that you are listening to one melody. But listen carefully and you find there are two separate tunes. Let's call them A and B. They have a lot in common. For example there are motifs such as this one that occur in both A and B (giving the piece that feeling of unity).

It occurs twice in A, played (I think) on the chord of F. It also occurs twice in B, but this time (I think) played on the Bb chord. So we begin to see what a clever 'tangle' Shaye has woven for us. Part A has a lyric and comprises 18 bars. How many tunes can you think of that consist of 18 bars (not counting tunes that are really 16 bars with a 2-bar tag, such as Sister Kate)? Can you think of any? Apart from Miss Otis Regrets by the wonderful Cole Porter, I can't. So Shaye has played a very clever trick here.

However, Part B is a conventional 32 bars but with no lyric.

Despite their similarity of 'feel', the two parts sound (to my ear, which may be misleading me) quite different in chord structure. It seems A starts with, and twice uses, the I - IV - V - I chord pattern whereas B starts on the V chord (dominant - C7th, followed of course by the tonic), of which it makes much use later.

The whole performance goes like this:

4-bar Introduction
18-bar A (Ensemble)
32-bar B (Cornet 16 + Ensemble 16)
18-bar A (Todd on Tuba playing the melody)
32-bar B (Clarinet 16 + ensemble 16 - trombone with melody)
18-bar A (the only occurrence of the vocal - sung by Erika)
32-bar B (Ensemble, cornet-led)

Total = 154 bars; performance time about 4 minutes 20 seconds.

What a clever, pretty and intricate tangle indeed! Well done, Shaye!

'Tangled Blues': Todd plays
the  18-bar melody.

You can watch a street performance filmed by RaoulDuke BY CLICKING HERE or digitalalexa's video (the performance at which I first heard the tune) BY CLICKING HERE.    

My friend Peter Petrovič, who lives in Maribor, Slovenia, enjoys the challenge of trying to work out tunes by ear. He sent me his attempt to decipher Tangled Blues; and I think he has done really well.

Post 541: 'SOME KIND'A SHAKE' - A NEW GEM FROM TUBA SKINNY

On 3 March 2018, that generous video-maker James Sterling put up on YouTube a performance by Tuba Skinny of a tune called Some Kind-a-Shake. This tune, which - James informed us - was an 'original' by the band, had never been previously available on YouTube. You may watch it BY CLICKING HERE.

What you will witness is another astonishing composition and performance. Tuba Skinny must have been busy in recent weeks working up some slick arrangements. I guess they have rehearsed together quite a bit.

For what's it's worth, and in case you're interested, here's how I see this new piece.

Essentially it's a 16-bar (8 + 8) tune in the key of F; but it is played with so much variety and quite a few surprises.

After twice through the 16-bar Chorus, we find Shaye offering an obbligato on the third time. Then the fourth time through has a surprise rhythmic pattern (with silent first beats in the third and fifth bars from the whole band ). Craig is the next to play his improvisation on the theme.

Then at 1 min 52 comes the highlight of the piece - an amazing 8-bar 'Bridge' section. You have Todd, Barnabus, Shaye and Craig over a period of four bars playing just one note each in turn through two rising arpeggios (to my ear, Gb diminished and Ab diminished respectively). The band did a similar thing in Blue Chime Stomp - you may remember. Then there's a two-bar banjo tremolo, and next a couple of bars from Todd to lead us back to the 16-bar Chorus (but - unusually - the key has not changed).

Max - a stalwart of Tuba Skinny.

Now we have one Chorus for the strings and one for Barnabus (playing the tune fairly straight) and one in which Todd leads while the whole front line plays very sweet choreographed supporting notes. Finally, there's a stomping ensemble Chorus, followed by a clever and well-rehearsed Coda - it uses the first two bars of that Bridge again! and then one additional bar to put the tune to bed.

Wow! When did you last hear any other band (especially in the U.K.) do anything like that - without printed music in front of them?

The only other band I can think of that does similar tricky things (i.e. while working without printed music) is The Smoking Time Jazz Club, also based in New Orleans.
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Post 508: AMAR PELOS DOIS

I haven't watched television for decades; and it was many years ago that I last witnessed a 'Eurovision Song Contest'. So I missed the 2017 Finals on Saturday 13 May.

However, I heard later that the Portuguese entry had won and it received high praise as a song of real musical quality, unlike so much of the rap, pop and disco offerings of today. The song is called AMAR PELOS DOIS.

So I found it on YouTube and had an agreeable surprise. Introduced by some lush sounds from the orchestral strings, it proves to have two themes, each of 16 bars (8 + 8).

It is a gentle tune in 3/4 tempo. It is in the key of F, though richly endowed with G minor and D minor chords. Its simple, appealing, swooping phrases - much repeated - quickly imprint themselves on the listener's mind.

The beginning of Theme A, as it sounded to me.

And Theme B.

But what specially interested me was that it had so much in common with the songs composed in the Golden Era of the 1920s and 1930s. It was the kind of song Gershwin, Vernon Duke, Hoagy Carmichael, Richard Rodgers, Harry Warren, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter or Oscar Hammerstein might have written. It has a good melody; and the deceptively-simple music is comfortably served up in the eight-bar phrases so beloved by all jazzmen.

The structure is identical to that of most of the 'spirituals' in the traditional jazz repertoire. Like Lily of the Valley, Down By The Riverside, Precious Lord, Take My Hand, and In The Sweet By and By it has a 16-bar Theme A (equivalent to a VERSE) and then a 16-bar Theme B (equivalent to a Chorus).

So I think it's a tune of considerable interest to traditional jazz fans and musicians. And I'm glad it won.

POST 491: BELLAMINA - THE CARIBBEAN INFLUENCE ON TRADITIONAL JAZZ

A long time ago (in the 1920s) there was a white ship named Bellamina, based at Nassau in the Bahamas. It was used for smuggling spirits 200 miles across the sea to Florida. But the American Coast Guards intercepted it.

After the boat's release, it was taken to dry dock in Nassau - this time to be painted BLACK!

The Bahamians loved inventing songs about anything in the news; and so a great 16-bar simple rhythmic song soon appeared.

Bellamina, Bellamina!

Bellamina's in the harbour.

Bellamina, Bellamina!

Bellamina's in the harbour.

So put the Bellamina on the dock

And paint the Bellamina black, black!

Oh put the Bellamina on the dock

And paint the Bellamina black!

In fact, there were at least three more ships that had to be repainted in this way. They are all mentioned in the version of the song that you can listen to BY CLICKING HERE. At 2 minutes 47 seconds, Blind Blake (who was recording this in 1952) sings several verses, mentioning other ships too; and you can pick out the words very clearly.

That great benefactor of all jazz musicians - Lasse Collin - has provided us with the music. See:

http://cjam.lassecollin.se/

Put simply, the chord sequence is:

  I   |   I   |   I    |  V⁷

 V⁷ | V⁷ |  V⁷  |  I

  I   |  IV |  V⁷  |  I

  I   |  IV |  V⁷  |  I

Lasse was doubtless inspired to do this by Tuba Skinny, who in 2017 revived this fine old song, with Greg Sherman singing the vocal and the whole band showing what great jazz musicians can do with a simple theme: their performance of Bellamina lasts five and a half minutes.

As you can see, Lasse has put it in the key of Eb (as played by Tuba Skinny) and he has provided a lead-sheet in F for the benefit of Bb instrument players.

James Sterling kindly videoed the Tuba Skinny performance for us:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW.

James has pointed out to me that there is also a recording of this song by The Nassau String Band made on a field trip by John Lomax as long ago as 1935: CLICK TO HEAR IT.

There! With so much to help us we have no excuse for leaving this number out of our repertoire. It's a good one to play. It's catchy, extremely easy to improvise on; and it offers some rhythmic variety to our programme.

This is one of the many excellent 16-bar tunes available to traditional jazz bands. We should always have two or three of them in our programmes. Others include Up Jumped the Devil, Winin' Boy Blues, Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down and Rip 'Em Up Joe.

Let's hear more bands playing Bellamina!

Post 485: 'DROPPIN' SHUCKS' BY LIL HARDIN ARMSTRONG

Good friend and regular correspondent Jim Sterling of Florida told me he had been very pleased to discover the YouTube video of Tuba Skinny playing Droppin' Shucks in Royal Street as long ago as 2012, when the band still had Ryan Baer on banjo and when there was no reed player. I'm talking of this video - click on here to view.

The message from Jim reminded me that I enjoyed the video when I first saw it in 2012. At the time, I remember listening also (for comparison) to the original 1926 version composed by Lil Hardin Armstrong and recorded by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five (also available on YouTube).

But on that occasion, apart from feeling that it was a very good but quite complicated piece of music, I thought no more about it.

Jim enjoyed the performance and particularly praised Shaye's muted cornet work. Throughout the three minutes, Shaye uses her Humes and Berg 102 stonelined cup mute and has it fully wedged inside the bell of her cornet. We know that on other occasions, she prefers to hold it half in and half out of the bell. Barnabus also, using his Humes and Berg stonelined straight mute, plays some lovely stuff complementing Shaye's melodic lines. Jim also specially liked the final Chorus, in which Shaye and Barnabus play so well together, alternating the 'breaks'.

We must all be grateful to the video-maker codenamed jazzbo43 for recording this fine performance.

It's interesting to observe how Ryan (at 2 mins 08 secs) warns Max that the band is about to go to the 12-bar 'breaks interlude' rather than the start of the Chorus; and then (at 2 mins 24 secs) that this time they are returning to the start of the Chorus. (The 'Breaks Interlude' is copied from the original Armstrong recording.)

Perhaps Max hadn't played this number with the band before. (In fact it is a song they seem to have played very rarely over the years.)

After Jim encouraged me to listen more carefully to it again, I realised Droppin' Shucks is not really as complicated as I had thought. Basically it has a simple and pretty 16-bar minor-key Verse played once (Tuba Skinny play it in C minor); and then the Chorus - played several times (in the key of Ab) - is simply one of those 16-bar standards (with 'breaks' on Bars 9 - 12), very similar to How Come You Do Me Like You Do Do Do? or If It Don't Fit, Don't Force It or Don't Care Blues or Don't Go Away, Nobody, or Forget Me Not Blues.

The only little extra ingredient is that 12-bar 'Breaks Interlude' I mentioned - which may be regarded as optional.

But what makes Droppin' Shucks special - perhaps unique among sixteen-bar tunes - is that the whole of Bar 12 is based on a diminished chord. That certainly adds a bit of excitement.

So it's easy to pick up. Let's have more bands playing it!

As for what the title Droppin' Shucks means, I think you may be able to find out. But I shall say nothing on the subject. Regular readers will know that I limit the contents of my pages to the decorous, the refined, and the tasteful.

Post 423: 'WORKING MAN BLUES'

In 1923 the 37-year-old cornet-playing band-leader Joe 'King' Oliver and his 25-year-old pianist Lil Hardin (who had a music diploma from Fisk University, Nashville, and who later became Mrs. Louis Armstrong) composed Working Man Blues - sometimes written as Workingman's Blues.

At the time, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band had a residency at Lincoln Gardens, 459, East 31st Street, Chicago - not far from the Lake. (As far as I can tell, there is today a glass office block on the site.) The band made a recording of Working Man Blues for the Gennett label in Richmond, Indiana, on 3 October 1923. You may listen to it BY CLICKING HERE.

It's a really good piece for the repertoire of our bands and easy to master. 

As you see, there are just three short and simple sections. The first (A) is only a 12-bar blues, using a pretty riff. The second (B) is a 16-bar theme using The Four-Leaf Clover chord progression. (You can read about that progression BY CLICKING HERE.)

Section (B) is structured to include three opportunities for 2-bar breaks. Johnny Dodds makes the most of those in that 1923 recording.

The third 'theme' (C) involves free-style improvising over another 12-bar blues structure, but this time allowing a 'break' in bars 7 and 8. Oliver's band had the clarinet, cornet and trombone (Honoré Dutrey) respectively taking these breaks.

The tune is rounded off by a neat 2-bar CODA.

Some bands today, unlike Oliver himself, make more of Themes (A) and (B), staying on them for longer, or even dropping Theme (C) altogether.

Oliver chooses to devote the whole of the second half of the performance to three choruses of Theme (C).

He was constrained by the limited amount of time for which a 78 rpm record could play. Bands today are freed from such constraint and - with more choruses - tend to make the tune last much longer. However, as I have said elsewhere, a short performance can often be more effective than a longer one (especially if the musicians have nothing special to 'say'). For me, Oliver's original recorded version feels just right.

On the choice of key, some bands today play the piece in F. It sounds fine in that key and is perhaps for some musicians a little easier than Lil Hardin and Oliver's choice of Ab.

To watch a clear and reverential performance of Working Man Blues by a much later band (The Peruna Jazzmen) CLICK HERE.

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The book Playing Traditional Jazz by Pops Coffee is available from Amazon.

Post 387: 'WHO WOULDN'T LOVE YOU?'

My friend Chris the pianist suggested that we should learn a tune called Who Wouldn't Love You?

I had never heard of it, but I was able to find several examples of the tune on YouTube and I then discovered that it was a pop song of 1942, written by Carl Fischer (music) and Bill Carey (words).

It's a very pleasant tune, apparently in 16 bars (8 + 8), but with the possibility of extending to 18 bars, for example with a tag in a final Chorus. Who Wouldn't Love You? has some appealing harmonies. The melody note seems occasionally to be on the 6th or 9th of the chord.

I wrote it out in G (for trumpet use): this means I will be playing it in Concert F, which seems right for it, though it also goes well in Bb, as in some performances on YouTube, such as this one (click on to listen).

I store all my tunes in mini-filofaxes and here's the result. It's a bit messy: I struggled with some of the chords and changed my mind in a couple of places.

Post 356: 'ELEPHANT STOMP'

Who composed Elephant Stomp? This has long been one of those intriguing mysteries in the history of traditional jazz.

The composer's name is sometimes given as St. Gery Alferay. More often it appears as St. Gery and Alferay. These names were long assumed to be pseudonyms.

The tune (two themes of 16 bars each) became popular after Humphrey Lyttelton began featuring it in 1954. At one time, some suspected that Lyttelton himself had composed it.

Adding to the confusion, there seems to have been at least one other Elephant Stomp (in three themes, and from the 1930s) but this was not the tune Lyttelton played.

Dick Baker (I have written before about his great website), with the help of his colleague Erwin Elvers, not long ago published a solution to the mystery. Elvers says that 'Alferay' was a French tenor sax player called Albert Ferreri and that 'St. Gery' was his French colleague, a pianist called Yannick Singery. Apparently, Singery was on piano when Albert Nicholas recorded the tune in Paris in 1953. Maybe that's how Lyttelton picked it up.

Well, all that makes sense; and it's good enough for me.

I think it's a useful tune in the repertoire because it's bouncy, simple to learn and easy to improvise on. My ear tells me it goes as below. There are two sets of 16 bars, both repetitively made up of 8 + 8. And the chord progressions are simple. A band can play it through a couple of times and then stick on B for solos.

Post 348: DO-IT-YOURSELF 16-BAR TUNES

Today, in case your band does not already have this type of tune in its repertoire, I am going to recommend a simple 16-bar theme. I have put it in my example in the key of D; but C or Bb would work just as well.

Take a look at this:

As you can see, it has an easy chord progression and an A  -  A   -   B  -  A  structure. The 'B' section (bars 9 - 12) lend themselves effectively to being played as breaks (though I would not recommend doing this in every chorus). The tune should be played at just above medium tempo, at which you could get the whole band swinging and the audience dancing. If you want to include a vocal, you have a choice between devising one yourself (easy enough) or using one from the past (see examples below).

As an added refinement, you could append a tag, turning it into an 18-bar chorus, like this:

You would have to decide whether to use the tag on every chorus or perhaps just on some - notably the final chorus.

This pattern of tune, with pretty well this chord sequence and with a melody very similar to what I have used above, was popular between 1900 and the 1930s, when many famous bands had at least one tune of this kind in its repertoire.

Think of  Hot Nuts! Get 'Em From the Peanut Man, Droppin' Shucks, If It Don't Fit, Don't Force It, Everyone's Talking About Sammy, Low Down Papa, The Alligator Pond Went Dry, My Sweet Lovin' Man, If You Don't Like It Like I Like It, It's So Nice and Warm, Keeps on a-Rainin', I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Doumas, Don't Care Blues, Don't Go Away, Nobody, How Come You Do Me Like You Do Do Do?, Prove It On Me Blues, Gimme Some of that Yum Yum Yum, Walk Right In, Forget Me Not Blues.

[NOTE: There is another group of good 16-bar tunes (18 including tag) that use the Sweet Sue Chord Progression and have the 'breaks' on bars 7 and 8. These include most famously I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate, South (Theme B), and Up Jumped the Devil. But they will be a subject for another day.]

Post 265: SIXTEEN-BAR TUNES

Just as it is a good idea to include an occasional 12-bar blues in a jazz programme and just as it is a good idea to include a tune or two in minor keys, so it adds variety to include a 16-bar tune (in some cases 16 + two-bar tag). Many 16-bar tunes also offer the advantage that they can be played using little more than three-chord tricks.

Unfortunately, we certainly can't lump 16-bar tunes together as one type, however. Just like 32-bar tunes, they come in a variety of structures.

My own favourite is the type that allows for 'breaks' in bars 9 to 12. This is how the chord progression often goes:

  I     |    I      |    II7:V7     |   I

  I     |   I       |    II7           |   V7

  I     |    I7    |    IV           |   IVm    

  I     |   I       |   II7:V7      |   I

(Examples: Don't Go Away, Nobody and If It Don't Fit, Don't Force It)

Or it can go like this:

 I:IV7 |  I:VI7  |  II7:V7  | I:V7

 I:IV7 |  I:VI7  |  II7:V7  | IIm:V7

   I      |    I7     |    IV       |  IVm

 I:IV7 |  I:VI7  |  II7:V7  |   I

(Examples: How Come You Do Me Like You Do Do Do? and If You've Got a Friend, You'd Better Treat Him Right)

In more detail, here's another example of such a tune:

That one is called You Gotta See Mamma Every Night. Similar tunes (using 'breaks') are Keep Your Fingers Off It, Droppin' Shucks, She Drives an Oldsmobile, Rolls-Royce Papa, Put it Right Here, Drop it on You, Wang Wang Blues [first theme], Get 'Em from the Peanut Man and It's So Nice and Warm.

This structural pattern was very common in the 1920s. Four more examples from that era are Oh Miss Hannah (1924) and Black Eye Blues (1928) and Red Hot Mama (1924), It's Right Here For You (1925) and I'm Watchin' The Clock (1928).

For a very good example of what I am trying to describe, watch this YouTube video of If It Don't Fit, Don't Force It. This has it all: clear structure, tag (on most choruses), and fine uses of the all the breaks in bars 9 - 12 (note the lovely one taken by the tuba at the end!):

Click here to watch it.

It's also possible to put a break in Bars 7 and 8, rather than 9 to 12. You need three lots of the Sweet Sue Progression (dominant to tonic) ending with a break on the tonic in those two bars - 7 and 8:

V7         |   V7      |      I        |     I

 V7         |   V7      |      I        |     I

 V7         |  V7       |     I         |    I

  IV:IVm  |  I:VI7  |  II7:V7   |  I

(Examples: Gatemouth - first theme; Do What Ory Say, South - main theme, Mamma's Baby Boy, Get It Right, Pearl River Stomp - second theme, Up Jumped the Devil, I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate)

But now let us look at some of the many other 16 bar progressions. Here's a very common and simple one:

  I      |    I       |    I      |   I

  I      |    I       |   V7   |  V7  

  I      |    I7     |    IV   |  IVm

  I       |   V7   |     I     |    I

(Examples: We Shall Walk Through the Gates of the City & When The Saints)


Even more simple (only two chords needed):

  I    |     I   |     I   |     I

  V7 |  V7   |    I    |     I

  I    |     I   |     I   |     I

  V7 |  V7   |    I    |     I

(Example: Walking With The King)

   I          |    I         |     I      |    V7

  V7      |   V7       |    V7    |     I

  I          |   I          |    I       |    V7

  V7      |   V7       |    V7    |    I
(Example: Rum and Coca Cola)

Now the    I  -  IV -  I - V - I  pattern:

  I    |     I   |     I   |     I7

  IV |  IV   |    I    |     I

  I    |    I    |    I    |    I

 V7 |   V7 |   I     |    I

(Example: Lord Lord Lord)

Somewhat similar:

   I    |     I    |    I    |    I7

  IV  |   IV   |    I    |    I7

  IV  |    IV  |    I    |   IVm

  I     |   V7  |    I    |    I

(Example: You Are My Sunshine)

Then there are some that do something striking with the 12th bar (for example, an unexpected diminished chord):

  I      |    I      |    I    |   V7
  V7  |    V7  |  V7   |  I  

  I     |    I7    |   IV   |  Io

  I     |   V7   |     I    |   I

(Example: Faraway Blues)

  I          |   V7    |      I      |     I

  I          |   V7    |      I      |     I

  VI7     |  VI7   |     II7     |    Io

  I          |  V7    |     I        |    I

(Example: Farewell Blues)

 IV   |   IV   |      I     |     I

 IV   |   IV   |      I     |     I

  I     |  III7  |     IV   |    Io

  I     |  V7   |    I:IV  |    I

(Example: Make Me a Pallet on the Floor)

  I        |   V7    |      I       |     V7:I

  I        |   V7    |      I       |     V7:I
 VI7    |  VI7    |    IV7    |     IVo

   I       |  V7     |     I        |    I

(Example: Weary Blues - final theme)

Or the 12th bar surprise can be a III7th:

       I       |    I        |    IV7   |   I

       I       |    I        |    II7     |   V

       I       |    I       |    IV7     |  III7

 IV:IVm  |  I:VI7  |  II7:V7  |  I

(Example: Rip 'Em Up, Joe)

Three-chorders can be not only easy to play but also make very pleasant listening:

  I        |    I    |     IV    |     I

  I        |    I    |    V7    |   V7

  I        |   I     |    IV     |    I

  I        |  V7  |     I       |    I

(Example: When I Move to the Sky)

  I          |    IV       |     I   |    I

  V7      |   V7        |    I    |    I

  I          |   IV        |    I    |    I

  V7       |   V7       |   I     |   I

(Example: Sometimes My Burden)

  I          |   V7    |      I      |     I

  V7      |   V7    |      I      |     I

  IV       |  IV      |    I        |    I

  V7      |  V7     |     I        |    I

(Example: Mary Wore a Golden Chain)

  I           |     I7    |      IV    |     I

  I           |     I      |     V7    |     I

  I           |    I7     |     IV     |     I
  I           |    V7   |      I       |     I
(Example: Precious Lord Lead Me On) 

 IV     |   IV    |    I     |    I

 V7    |   V7   |    I     |    I7

  IV    |  IV    |    I     |    I

  V7   |  V7   |    I     |    I

(Example: Redwing - chorus. Down By the Riverside, 2nd part, is the same))

  I          |    I      |     V7    |    V7

  V7      |   V7    |      I      |     I

  I          |   I       |    I 7     |    IV

  IV       |   I       |    V7     |    I

(Example: Royal Telephone)

But the permutations are endless. Here are a few more.

  I     |     I     |   VI7   |   VI7

  II7  |   V7   |     I      |    V7

  I     |     I     |   VI7   |    VI7

  II7  |   V7   |     I      |     I
(Example: That's a Plenty - final theme)

  I    |    I7    |    IV:IVm   |   I

  I    |   VI7  |    II7           |   V7

  I    |    I7    |    IV:IVm   |  I

  I    |   V7   |       I           |   I

(Example: By and By)

   I    |    II7   |     I      |    I

   I    |   II7    |   V7    |    V7

   I    |    I7    |   IV     |   IVm

   I    |   V7   |     I      |    I

(Example: Saturday Night Function)

  I          |   V7    |      I       |     I

  I          |   VI7   |      II7    |    V7

  I          |  I7       |    IV      |    IVm

  I          |  V7     |     I        |    I

(Example: Careless Love)

  I      |    I       |    V7        |   I

  I      |    I       |  VII7       |  V7  

  I      |    I       |    V7       |  I7

  IV   |   I:VI7 | II7:V7    |   I

(Example: Climax Rag - final theme) 

  I        |   V7    |      I       |     V7

   I        |   VIm |      II7    |     V7
   I        |  V7    |    II7    |     V7

   IV:IVm  |  I:VI7  |  II7:V7  |  I

(Example: Shimme Sha Wobble - final theme - note Sunshine Progression in final four bars)

  I       |    VI7    |    II7:V7    |   I

  I       |   VI7     |    II7          |   V7

  I:Io   |    V7     |    I:Io         |  V7

  I       |   VI7     |  II7:V7      |   I

(Example: Ja Da)

  I           |     I7    |      IV    |     I

  V7       |     I      |      II7    |    V7

  I           |    I7     |     IV     |    III7
  IV:IVo |  I:VI7  | II7:V7   |     I

(Example: Ol' Miss Rag - theme - Sunshine Progression again)

16-bar tunes can be very effective. Consider, for example, this one on YouTube, which is no more than the the 8-bar Four-Leaf Clover Progression played twice:

CLICK HERE.