Post 490: 'DOING A STRETCH' - TUBA SKINNY TURNING WATER INTO WINE

Blind Blake

My regular correspondent Phil Lynch in the USA, who knows a great deal about our music and its history, often sends me interesting and useful bits of information.

In his most recent email, he made a great point and expressed it very well. It was about the way Tuba Skinny can take a very ordinary tune from long ago and somehow recreate it as a great piece of jazz music. He is so right.

Here's what Phil wrote:

As you well know, part of T.S.'s genius is finding average string band songs and creating something unique...turning water into wine.

Doing a Stretch (slang for spending time in prison) is, I think, one of Blind Blake's more mediocre tunes, but T.S. turns it into something special.

CLICK HERE for the Blind Blake original.

And now CLICK HERE for Tuba Skinny's version.

Phil is right, isn't he?

Post 328: EIGHT-BAR BLUES?

Blind Blake (1896 - 1934)

The 12-bar blues is, of course, one of the staple components of traditional jazz. No concert is complete without one. Audiences seem to love them, especially if some (e.g. Squishin' Bees or Shake That Thing) are played at rock-n'roll tempos.

Yet many musicians I have spoken to are not so keen. They find the 12-bar blues too formulaic, too repetitive. They notice they are playing virtually the same solo in several different blues. They want different challenges and more variety. So they prefer to include no more than two 12-bar blues in a concert.

Many tunes called 'blues', of course, do NOT fall into the 12-bar structure, so musicians object less to playing them. Tishimingo Blues is a good example, with a pleasant harmonic progression: its Chorus comprises 32 bars. (It also happens to have a 12-bar Verse - but that is hardly ever played.)

Wild Man Blues is another very appealing number - but it also comprises 32 bars.

Basin Street Blues is very popular but it is not a 12-bar: it uses a 16-bar theme, based on The Georgia Progression.

Atlanta Blues, Michigander Blues, Big House Blues, Jazz Me Blues, Wolverine Blues, Winin' Boy Blues, Wabash Blues and Faraway Blues are all very appealing to play because they have good melodies and (in some cases) challenging structures. But not one of them is a 12-bar blues.

And then there are some famous blues that DO incorporate 12-bar themes but are so interestingly composed, with multi-part structures (possibly including a change of key or a section in a minor key) that everybody enjoys playing them. Examples are Royal Garden Blues, St. Louis Blues, Riverside Blues, Savoy Blues, Yellow Dog Blues and Beale Street Blues.

But here's an idea for adding a bit of interest to a routine performance of a 12-bar blues. Play Too Tight Blues, as performed by 'Blind' Arthur Blake (the great guitarist) in 1929. Too Tight Blues is actually an EIGHT-Bar Blues, the melody and chord progression of which are very easy to pick up. When you play it (with or without vocals), you can do what Blind Blake does: throw in some choruses of improvised 12-bars, using the standard 12-bar chord progression. Then you have some variety. You can pick it up from Blind Blake with the help of YouTube:  CLICK HERE.

Post 222: MUCH 'MESSING AROUND'

Composers and bands in the 1920s and 1930s were obviously keen on tunes with titles about 'messing around'.

There was 'Come on Boys Let's Do That Messin' Around'. This was recorded (in 1926) by Blind Blake, who presumably also wrote it..

You can hear his performance BY CLICKING HERE.

It's no surprise that Tuba Skinny took up this tune, with Greg Sherman taking the vocal. You can enjoy one of their performances of the song BY CLICKING HERE.

Also in 1926, we find 'Messin' Around', composed by Charles 'Doc' Cooke, with lyrics by Johnny St. Cyr. It was recorded that year by Cooke's band Cookie's Gingersnaps. Freddie Keppard and Jimmie Noone were among the players. To hear the recording, CLICK HERE. Several other bands were quick to record it over the following couple of years.

Again, Tuba Skinny gave it a new life almost a century later. They replaced the piano-with-voices Introduction with an eight-bar instrumental Introduction, but they faithfully copied the order of events and the melody from Cooke's original, including playing the Chorus before using the Verse as an interlude. Listen BY CLICKING HERE.

Then there was 'Fourth Street Mess Around', composed by Will Shade for the Memphis Jug Band in 1930. You can enjoy the original recording BY CLICKING HERE.

Once again, eight decades later, we find Tuba Skinny reviving the number and producing their version. Very entertaining it is, even keeping the amusing sung Coda ('Here we come, all drunk again. Ooooo-oooooo.'). Listen BY CLICKING HERE.

We are all deeply indebted to the six generous folk who have made these videos available to us on YouTube:

RagtimeDorianHenry;

RaoulDuke504;

Resurgam1901;

James Sterling;

Orchard Enterprises;

jazzbo43.

There was also in 1926 'That Dance Called Messin' Around' recorded by Sara Martin; and 'Everybody Mess Around' by the Georgia Strutters (and others, including Ethel Waters) in 1926; and in 1927, there was also a 'Messin' Around With The Blues' recorded by Fats Waller and 'Beale Street Mess Around' from The Memphis Jug Band (four years before their 'Fourth Street Mess Around').

And of course Louis Armstrong in 1926 famously recorded 'Don't Forget to Mess Around'.

Post 78: BLIND BLAKE

BLIND BLAKE (correct name Arthur Blake) lived from 1896 to 1934. A singer-guitarist, he made about 80 recordings (probably in Chicago) for Paramount Records between 1926 and 1932. He is thought to have been born in Virginia and to have been blind from birth. He was technically brilliant on the guitar, capable of making it sound like a ragtime piano.

His most popular tunes seem to have been West Coast Blues, Blind Arthur's Breakdown, Diddie Wa Diddie, Police Dog Blues, That'll Never Happen No More, Southern Rag, Seabord Stomp, Too Tight [currently popular in New Orleans], Georgia Bound, and Hastings Street. These and more can be found on YouTube.

If you would like to hear a young traditional jazz band in 2014 playing Too Tight,
CLICK HERE.
And to hear Blind Blake himself (in 1929) perform the song,
CLICK HERE.