Post 597 : MIDDLE EIGHT JAZZ ANXIETIES

The band-leader announced that we would play I Get The Blues When It Rains.

The clarinet-player leaned across to me and quietly said, 'Just remind me how the Middle Eight goes.'

I hummed the tune and soon had to stop. 'Hey, wait a minute!' I said. 'I Get The Blues When It Rains doesn't have a Middle Eight. It's a 16 plus 16.'

'Ah yes. Got it!' he replied. And away we went, with no problems playing the tune.

But the incident reminded me that Middle Eights can cause problems and anxiety.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, let me tell you most of our standard tunes are written in a 32-bar form. Sometimes (as in I Get The Blues When It Rains) the structure could be described as A1 (16 bars) + A2 (16 bars), in which A1 and A2 are very similar, beginning in identical ways for the first few bars.

But a huge number of the 32-bar tunes are structured in 8-bar segments, of which the first (A1), second (A2) and fourth (A3) are almost identical, while the third (B1) is something quite different. This 'B' section is called the Middle Eight (even though it does not come in the very middle); and it is sometimes called the Bridge or the Release.

(Incidentally I'm reminded of a very old joke. Two jazz musicians walked past a newspaper hoarding on which were the words Indiana Bridge Disaster. 'That's funny,' said one of them. 'I didn't think there was a bridge in Indiana.')

Although there are some stock patterns for Middle Eights (making it easy to improvise), there are also a few tunes that defy conventions. In these cases, you have to learn the Middle Eight the hard way and keep it in your head with regular practice.

All musicians have trouble with Middle Eights occasionally. I have even heard some of the 'big names' being flummoxed at this part of their improvisation.

Examples of tunes needing practice and care with the Middle Eight are I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket, Rosetta, Blue Moon, You Took Advantage of Me, Have You Met Miss Jones?, Polka Dots and Moonbeams, Yearning, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams, Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?, and C'est Si Bon. Although very few bands play them, Body and Soul and When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes need care, too.

In more complex multi-part tunes, you may find several themes, each of which has a challenging Middle Eight. Think of Deep Henderson, which contains three themes with Middle Eights that have to be thoroughly mastered. The Middle Eight of the final theme is a real thriller (arpeggios descending over unlikely chords). But Shaye Cohn, Barnabus Jones and Jonathan Doyle make it sound easy at 1 minute 53 seconds in this video:

CLICK HERE.

Post 582: COMMUNICATE - BUT DON'T TELL FIBS!

I have often recommended someone in the band should SPEAK to the audience as much as possible. Fans enjoy receiving scraps of information about the band and the music being played, including the titles of tunes.

However, I wish some speakers would take more care to get their facts right.

I often hear band-leaders giving information that is neither credible nor amusing. There's plenty of fake news in the way tunes are introduced. My friend Bob Anderson of San Diego told me the same is true in the USA: he said: 'We have a few bandleaders here who are either misinformed or think the false myths are a good story'.

I can recall occasions when an announcer said something that members of the audience were too polite to tell him was untrue. One told us the New Orleans trumpet-player Jabbo Smith made records in the 1940s and then 'faded away and was heard of no more'. Yet some of us knew Jabbo was still playing in the 1980s: there are YouTube videos of him doing so.

Often I hear a tune introduced as 'written by the great Louis Armstrong' when in fact it was certainly not written by him.

I have heard Ice Cream announced as being by Chris Barber, the British band-leader (no doubt because his band recorded it), with no recognition that it was composed before Chris Barber was born and first made famous as a jazz tune by such musicians as George Lewis.

Recently I heard a band-leader firmly say: 'This next tune was composed by Benny Goodman. It is called The Glory of Love.' If he had said 'recorded by', I would have given the matter no further thought. But he definitely said 'composed by'. That sounded fishy to me. When I arrived home, I checked and found the composer was in fact William Joseph Hill, who had studied at The New England Conservatory of Music and went on to run a jazz band in Salt Lake City.

I have noticed that an introduction frequently used by one announcer is: We're now going to play the old Fats Waller number.... and he then names, for example, Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans or You Always Hurt The One You Love - tunes that were written after Fats Waller died!

Algiers Strut is often introduced incorrectly as having been 'written by Kid Thomas Valentine' - an announcement that particularly irritates my friend Barrie Marshall. And I know of two band-leaders (one of them, sadly, no longer with us) who loved to play Doctor Jazz and always announced it as 'by Jelly Roll Morton'.

It's true Morton's band made a fine recording of this tune; but it was not 'by' him. The music was written by King Oliver, as you can see:

Doctor Jazz is one of the great classics of our repertoire. It is played so often that we tend to overlook what a fine piece it is. Unlike many, the song has a good and appropriate Verse; and the 32-bar Chorus is brilliantly constructed, with a beautiful chord progression, a vigorous, singable melody, and some built-in opportunities for 'breaks' - on Bars 15-16, 25-26 and 27-28. What a great man Joe 'King' Oliver was, in his own playing, in producing such seminal recordings with his bands and also in his composing! We are all deeply in his debt.

Moral of the story: get your facts right; and don't credit the hard work of a composer to someone else.

Post 534: 'COME BACK SWEET PAPA' - PAUL BARBARIN, LUIS RUSSELL AND LOUIS ARMSTRONG

'Come Back Sweet Papa', composed by Paul Barbarin and Luis Russell, was recorded by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five in Chicago on 22 February, 1926. You can hear that two-and-a-half-minute recording by clicking here.

Paul Barbarin

'Come Back Sweet Papa' has a good melody and is fairly easy to play, especially as its chord progression is simple. The 16-bar Verse makes good use of the 'Nowhere Chord'; and the Chorus is a straightforward 32-bar (16 + 16, with a 'break' on Bars 15 and 16, as in dozens of other traditional jazz classics).

I used to play this tune ten years ago but, when I needed it recently, I had to re-learn it and was reminded what a good tune it is. I keep it in one of my mini-filofaxes (see below), where I had written it out in the transposed key of C (correct for the trumpet and other Bb instruments) but of course that means Concert Bb to the band as a whole.

Armstrong chose to use six bars from the final eight of the Chorus as the basis for an Introduction; and his band played the Verse only in the middle of the recording, as a sort of Interlude. The Hot Five also added a neat little four-bar Coda of stop chords. But of course it is up to any band today to treat the total 16 bars of Verse and 32 bars of Chorus in any way and order that they like.

Isn't it amazing, by the way, that you can get all the information you need to play a great jazz classic on just 20 square inches of notepaper?

But you can find a much tidier - and probably more accurate - lead-sheet on the site of the great Lasse Collin, at:
http://cjam.lassecollin.se/songs3/comebacksweetpapa160122.html

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 384: 'THAT'S A PLENTY'

When we are fortunate enough to come across the original piano sheet music for one of our tunes from many decades ago, it is interesting to compare the composer's intentions with the way in which our bands now perform the work.

Usually, we find tricky musical phrases (easy enough for a pianist's fingers) have been modified and 'simplified' to make them playable on a trumpet. Sometimes we find that whole sections of the piece have been dropped.

That's A Plenty was composed by Lew Pollack as a 'Rag or One-Step' way back in 1914. It was stirring as a piano piece. Looking at the original sheet music, we notice it was composed in 2/4 time. Our jazz bands of course play it as 4/4, with all of Lew's quavers treated a crotchets. But the bands stick with his keys: F for the bulk of the piece, going into Bb for the Trio.

As you can see, he opened with a four-bar Introduction. Today, pretty well all bands have dropped this, starting straight away with the Section I have labelled as A. We keep fairly close to his original melody in Section A, though we tend to put in some more rhythmic alternatives and a few more notes, rather than his steady succession of quavers. As in the original, we play the repeat (making 32 bars on A in total).

We then move on to Section B (involving those triplets). Again, we follow Lew Pollack in playing this Section with the repeat (so 32 bars in all). But I think none of us can claim that we actually play more than 60% of the notes Mr. Pollack wrote for Section B. Particularly in Bars 5 - 8, we have devised our own simplification. (Some bands, by the way, leave out Section B [and what I have called Section C] altogether.)

After Section B, most bands go back to Section A, playing it through again (but without the repeat) in much the same way as they did the first time. As you can see above, however, Mr. Pollack made it much more decorative this time round (the part I have marked as Section C) with those leaping triplets in the pianist's right-hand that no trumpet player could possibly play.

We then come to the change of key and the part originally called the 'Trio'. I am labelling it as D.

This is a 16-bar Theme and it also happens to be the part of the composition which our traditional jazz bands use for their improvised solos, of which several are usually offered. It is an easy chord sequence on which to improvise - The Jada Progression, about which I have written in this article - click on to read.  Maybe this explains why bands like to play That's A Plenty: it sounds impressively clever and complicated but in fact the 'soloing' is easy!

Mr. Pollack then has a Section I have labelled E. Again, it is unplayable on the trumpet. But we have kept the spirit of it, turning it into what we call the Bridge (and playing in a kind of Fanfare format, on Pollack's chords) before going back to D for the soloing.

We also follow the composer in the way we end the piece. Essentially, we repeat the melody of D. I have labelled it F (=D2) above. Pollack's markings show he wants it to be played in a slow, stately fashion (marked Grandioso); and he prepares for this with a crescendo and a slowing of tempo in the preceding two bars. There's no reason why our jazz bands should not also give it this slow, special treatment in a final chorus. That would be quite effective. But I have not heard a band do this.

However, on the whole, I think it is remarkable how well our bands have treated Mr. Pollack's music. We still frequently play That's A Plenty; and we adhere to the spirit and structure of the original piece. In fact we even play most of the notes as intended!

Unfortunately, there do not seem to be many good videos on YouTube of 21st-Century musicians playing this tune. You could try one I filmed of The Shotgun Jazz Band (as a quintet in this case) playing it very well at The Spotted Cat in New Orleans in April 2016: click on here to view it.

Many bands play it too fast; and in some videos the sound quality is poor. However, you might also like this one - click on to view. One of the players is Gordon Au (trumpet). I have admired his playing for a long time.

Post 383: 'PUT ON YOUR OLD GREY BONNET'

Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet was composed as long ago as 1909 by Percy Weinrich and Stanley Murphy. It's one of those 'Good Ol' Good Ones' that has truly stood the test of time. It is still popular with the traditional jazz bands of today.

However, versions of this tune by jazz bands on YouTube are mostly disappointing and they nearly all omit the excellent trotting verse. When I was in New Orleans in April 2016, I heard one of the best bands giving an exhilarating performance that included the Verse. Sadly, I was not videoing at the time.

But there is a historic (non-jazz) recording that is interesting to study: you get the full works, plus the lyrics: Click here to listen. In this version, the Verse is in G; the Chorus in C.

It's a super number for any band but I would specially recommend it to learners because - if you play the Verse as well as the Chorus - you have two good tunes for the price of one. Also, it is fairly easy to play and improvise on.

The Verse (32-bars structured AABA) uses the simple I-II-V-I chord progression (known as The Four Leaf Clover Progression) for the three 'A' sections. And the Middle Eight is basic too: II7-V-II7-V-VI7-II7-V7-V7.

The song changes to the related key (in effect, dominant to tonic) for the Chorus. This is the part on which musicians improvise. There are only sixteen bars and the Progression is straightforward (Think The Apple Tree Progression [I-IV-I] and The Four Leaf Clover Progression again).

Here is the tune. This is shown with the Chorus in Concert Bb - the key generally used in traditional jazz because it is the most comfortable for players.

Post 364: TUBA SKINNY AND 'BEER GARDEN BLUES'

Be honest. Had you ever heard of Beer Garden Blues before Tuba Skinny unearthed it and started performing it in 2015? I certainly had not.

Robin Rapuzzi told me it is a tune the band now particularly enjoys.

The music was written in 1933 by Lewis Raymond and Clarence Williams; and lyrics were contributed by Walter Bishop.

It is normally played in the key of F, but making great use of the related key of D minor. In fact, a distinctive characteristic of the song is its strong minor flavour - in both Verse and Chorus.

The Verse comprises 16 bars. The Chorus has a 32-bar A-A-B-A structure.

You can hear the original Clarence Williams recording by clicking here. Surprisingly, the band omits the Verse but works its way through the Chorus five times (thus playing 5 x 32 = 160 bars in total). Much use is made of breaks, especially on Bars 23 and 24 of every Chorus; and the third Chorus is led by the washboard, with the others providing punctuation.

Clearly, Williams treated his own music very freely when he came to perform it. And Tuba Skinny do the same, making great use of the rhythms and the harmonies, but with slightly less than scrupulous respect for the original melody. Click here for a performance by them: they play through the Chorus six times [no Verse] on lines very similar to those of the Williams recording. Beer Garden Blues as originally written (with acknowledgement for the help provided by my American correspondent Larry Smith) is believed to have gone like this:

Post 355: MAYNARD BAIRD AND 'POSTAGE STOMP'

Does your band play Postage Stomp? If not, how about giving it a try? It's a bright, chirpy, conventional 32-bar number, easy to pick up and improvise on. It has a familiar chord pattern - very similar to that of Has Anybody Seen My Girl?

Maynard Baird's 'Orchestra' - an obscure but very slick outfit - was based in Knoxville, Tennessee; and in April 1930 Postage Stomp was one of two tunes they recorded for the Vocalion label. I have been unable to discover beyond doubt who composed Postage Stomp. One source gives 'Goebel and Johnston'. So it seems a very reasonable inference that they were Sam Goble and Vic Johnston - trumpet player and pianist respectively in Baird's band. You can enjoy the recording (complete with some visual entertainment) by clicking on here. Impressive performances are given by Buddy Thayer on banjo, Harold Taft on baritone saxophone, Horace Ogle on trombone and Ebb Grubb on sousaphone. But the whole performance is polished, using a well-crafted written arrangement that treats the 32-bar theme in a variety of ways. Maynard Baird (who appears to have been the conductor and leader) chose to pitch the tune rather high - in the key of F.

From a newsreel (with no sound track):
A tantalising glimpse of Maynard and some members of his Orchestra

My attention was drawn to this tune because Tuba Skinny seem to have added it recently to their repertoire. But they have opted for the key of Bb, which strikes me as more comfortable. Listen to their delightfully brisk performance by clicking here.

(With thanks to my friend Carsten Pigott for supplying some of the historical information. In his turn, Carsten asks me to give the 'real credit to the majestic work of the great Brian Rust, without whose meticulous research we would all still be flailing around in the dark in these matters'. Thanks also to RaoulDuke504 - maker of the Tuba Skinny video.)

Post 318: 'AMONG MY SOUVENIRS' CHALLENGES CONVENTIONS

Among My Souvenirs

Hundreds of popular songs written in the period 1910 - 1960 comprised four blocks of eight bars (total 32 bars), usually in the structure:

    a -    a -  b (the 'Middle Eight') -   a

or sometimes two blocks of 16 bars, such as:

   a(i) = 16 bars + a(ii) = 16 bars.

So I was surprised to notice that Among My Souvenirs, with music written in 1927 by Lawrence Wright (under the nom de plume Horatio Nichols), though sounding exactly like a 32-bar tune, in fact comprises 34 bars. What is more, the two 'extra' bars are not a conventional tag. They are arrived add by adding a bar to the second and fourth 8s. So the structure is:

a(i)  :   8 bars

a(ii) : 9 bars - repeat of the first 8 but with an added bar

b      : middle 8

a(ii)  :  9 bars

Unusual!

The tune can, however, be played in 32 bars, without many people noticing the difference. Probably traditional jazz bands would be more comfortable with 32.

The way to achieve this is simply to omit the 17th bar and the 34th bar.

Try it and you will see what I mean.

Post 244: 'IN THE UPPER GARDEN'

It's confusing but there are two lovely gospel numbers entitled In the Garden (1912) and In the Upper Garden (1900) and they are both played by traditional jazz bands. As far as I can tell - and by a strange coincidence - they were both composed by Charles Austin Miles. He was born New Jersey in 1868; he died in 1946. After a short career as a pharmacist, Charles became a full-time composer and music-publisher, specialising in gospel songs, of which he wrote several dozens.

My friends and I decided to add one of them to our repertoire. It is the one composed in 1900, known as In The Upper Garden. 

The Verse begins with the words Just beyond the River Jordan and the Chorus with We shall meet them some bright morning.

Having listened to it on YouTube, I decided it went like this. I put it in F:

For Bb instruments such as mine, it transposes into G:

And (better still) I'm very grateful to Ron Flack in Australia who, since reading the above, has sent me his transcription (for Bb instrument, but with concert chords) of the George Lewis version:

And more recently still, Brian Hutchinson - also in Australia - kindly sent me photocopies of the sheet music.

In The Upper Garden has to be played at a slow tempo, with much caressing of the simple harmonies.

As for the other In The Garden hymn, it is beautiful too and is written in 3/4 time. This is indeed the time signature in which even jazz bands usually play it. But that may be a subject for another day. It begins with the words:
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
(Chorus)
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

Post 220: 'MISS HANNAH'

Here's a tune to which I have been introduced. It is Miss Hannah, composed in about 1929 by Don Redman and John Nesbit. I have put it in my mini filofax collection.

It's another one I can recommend on the grounds that it has a pleasant melody (especially the Chorus - no need to play the Verse if it doesn't appeal) and a very simple chord structure. It's a standard 32-bar song, with an A - A - B - A structure.

All in all, it could hardly be simpler.

There were various 'Hannah' songs at about that time - Hard-Hearted Hannah, Miss Hannah From Savannah and Oh Miss Hannah. They are all different and all worth playing.

Post 177: 'CHICKEN AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A BIRD'

Chicken Ain't Nothin' But a Bird? It's a simple, romping 32-bar a - a - b - a tune.

You can find some enjoyable examples of this song on YouTube.

At first a source who is normally reliable gave me the (incorrect) information that this song was composed in 1899 by Bob Cole and J. R. Johnson. (They wrote the famous jazz number Under The Bamboo Tree.) However, I was unable to find any evidence to substantiate the theory that they wrote Chicken Ain't Nothin' But a Bird. Then reader Stan Cummins discovered that there was a 'chicken' song that Bob Cole performed at about that time, but it was a different song, so that must have caused the confusion.

A more convincing source said the song was composed by Emmett 'Babe' Wallace (born in Brooklyn, 1909; died 2006). He was a singer, a composer, an actor and a writer. I think he must have written the song in about 1939, in time for such performers as Cab Calloway (1940) to make a feature of it.

This information has since been confirmed for me by an email from Jimy Bleu (see below) who tells me he is Mr. Wallace's grandson.

The song appears to go something like this.

My name is Jimy Bleu & I'm writing to give you some information about my grandfather Emett 'Babe' Wallace who is indeed the writer of "Chicken Ain't Nothing But A Bird" (I still receive royalties on his composition) as well as standards he wrote for Benny Goodman, Kenny Durham, Django Reinhard & many others. He actually wrote "Chicken" for Ella Fitzerald whom he was dating at the time, but she was under contract to record other material, so Cab Calloway picked it up from him. In the mid '90's Burger King licensed the Cab Calloway version for their chicken sandwich campaign in which Babe received a very large amount for the use of the tune........Ella did record a few of his tunes eventually, one of them "Old Mother Hubbard" becoming a relative hit, especially when it was picked up to be used in a 'Betty Boop' cartoon.

I am actually in post-production on a documentary about him. He was a gifted singer, pianist, guitarist, composer/arranger & actor who just happened to be sort of like the character "Forrest Gump", a person who can be seen in various photographs or movies with major stars. Below are the links. However, what the writer of the blog leaves out about Babe fronting Ella's band was that they were dating. Ella was only around 18 (?) & didn't know anything about fronting & maintaining a band, so Babe took the band over for a time when Chick Webb died & left her the band in his will. I attached a photo of him with Ella as well as stills from the classic movie "Stormy Weather" he starred in. I also attached a picture of him & I about a year before he died at the age of 96.

What happened with "Stormy Weather" is that Babe was the leading man to Lena Horne. A few months before the film's wrap, the studio heads decided to cast Bill "Bojangles" Robinson as the leading man to have another top name (Lena wasn't yet well-known) & they put Babe as the 2nd lead. Bill was then in his mid '60's & they dyed his grey hair black. Babe was 34, Lena 26. The positive note about the whole incident is that Babe renewed his friendship with Harold Nicholas ('The Nicholas Brothers') & they would often go double-dating with the Dandridge sisters (Dorothy whom Harold eventually married & Vivian whom Babe has a son with)..................7 years before "Stormy Weather", Babe was given the lead with Nina Mae McKinney in a Black film classic called "Sugar Hill" (also known as "The Black Network") with Harold. I attached a pic collage of him in that film. They remained close friends until Harold's death. I took Babe to Harold's memorial here in NYC & before the memorial when Harold's wife saw Babe standing in the back, they stood up & made the usher go get him to sit up front with them.

http://illkeepyouposted.typepad.com/ill_keep_you_posted/2008/05/fine-and-mellow.html 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0908627/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Post 168: 'MAGIC IS THE MOONLIGHT' - A GOOD ONE FOR BEGINNERS

I was having a look at Magic is the Moonlight (with music composed in 1930 by Maria Grever) and it occurred to me that this tune has all the ingredients to make it useful for anyone learning to play traditional jazz.

Why?

Well, it has a simple 32-bar a-a-b-a structure, like hundreds of our tunes. The (a) part comprises eight bars taken at only moderate speed and they are virtually the same each time they are played, so the melody is easy to learn. The Middle Eight - the (b) part - is easy too, and is based on a progression of chords with which you need to become familiar and totally at ease as you progress in your playing. On top of all this, the tune is a pleasant one - much enjoyed by audiences.

The wonderful Lasse Collin, whose website I have often praised, has kindly supplied a lead-sheet for this tune. If you look at it carefully, you will see how simple the tune is. Improvising is helped by the fact that you need work only with the major tonic chord in the first four bars of each Section (a). The Middle 8 is essentially a IV - I - II7 - V7 sequence of chords, such as you will encounter in hundreds of tunes.

If you would like to hear a jazz band having a go at this tune, CLICK HERE.

Post 156: 'SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES' - A LOVELY SONG BY CARMEN LOMBARDO

Browsing jazz bands on YouTube, I came across something specially delightful: Loose Marbles playing Seems Like Old Times.

If you don't know the tune - and whether you play in a band or not - may I recommend it to you?

The great cornet-player Shaye Cohn (though barely visible in the video) was this time playing piano, with Barnabus Jones on trombone. Michael Magro was on clarinet and Ben Polcer on trumpet.

I did not previously know this tune. It is relaxed, very melodic, easy to pick up and a good one on which to improvise. To watch the video: CLICK HERE.

I found that the tune was written by Carmen Lombardo in 1945.

I also found from other performances by singers on YouTube that it has touching words - about a couple who have been in love for many years and whose love is just as strong as ever.

So, all in all, a great song and one I am very pleased to have come across.

I spent time on my keyboard, trying to play along with the video. I soon noticed that - in terms of chord progression - it comes in the 'Salty Dog' category. That is to say it begins with four bars based on the chord of the sixth note of the scale and these are followed by four bars based on the chord of the second note of the scale.

There is no middle eight: it has one of those 16 + 16 structures, easy to memorise.

Finally, as I usually do, I wrote up my attempt at Seems Like Old Times in my mini filofax, so that I can have this as a future aide-mémoire. Although Loose Marbles was playing it in the Key of F, I put it in G as that is more convenient to me as a Bb cornet player.

Post 154: 'DELTA BOUND' - ALEX HILL AND TUBA SKINNY

Delta Bound is a great haunting song: it descends through semitones, with a fair sprinkling of minor and diminished chords. It is a 32-bar tune, with the familiar  a - a  -  b  -  a   structure.

Those of us who are fans of Tuba Skinny (i.e. almost the entire population of the world) have been introduced to it through the singing of Erika Lewis. It was on Tuba Skinny's CD entitled Rag Band - released in 2012.

However, it seems the song dates from as long ago as 1934. It was composed by Alex Hill, who was a jazz pianist in Chicago during the 1920s. Although he worked with many of the 'big names', it is not surprising if you have never heard of Alex Hill. The poor chap lived only to the age of 30. 

Alex Hill

On YouTube there is a video of Erika singing this song with Tuba Skinny in its early days. View it by clicking here.

Erika sings Delta Bound in the key of Bb and it goes something like this:

However (typical of Tuba Skinny) the band usually plays a first chorus in the key of F before Erika takes over. The Band also reverts to F to round off the performance.

Erika Lewis

Post 99: 'GATEMOUTH'

Here's another easy but effective tune for your band to play - if you don't already have it.

Gatemouth was written in about 1926 by the pianist Lil Hardin (possibly in collaboration with her husband Louis Armstrong). It has two catchy themes. The first is a 16-bar, using the Sweet Sue Chord Progression, and allowing for breaks - if desired - on Bars 7 - 8. You can even have breaks right through a chorus of this theme, as The New Orleans Wanderers did in 1926 when they recorded it. You can hear their performance if you

CLICK HERE.

That first theme - by the way - is virtually identical to other good old standards, such as Do What Ory Say, Mamma's Baby Boy, Get It Right and the main theme of South.

The second theme is also 16 bars. Normally, bands play both themes a couple of times and use the first for solo improvisations.

You can hear Gatemouth played more recently by The Peruna Jazzmen.

CLICK HERE.

The tune certainly lends itself to a variety of New Orleans treatments, taking advantage of the opportunities to incorporate breaks and stop chords.

It is generally played in Eb: