Post 603: PLAYING THE ODJB'S 'OSTRICH WALK'

'Ostrich Walk' was first devised and recorded in 1917 by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, so it was credited to their players Edwin B. Edwards, Nick LaRocca, Henry Ragas, Tony Sbarbaro and Larry Shields.

You can hear them over a hundred years ago playing the tune - at a good pace - BY CLICKING HERE.

This is a simplified lead sheet.

Post 589: THE DEW DROP HALL - THE OLDEST SURVIVING VENUE

I have written about the Dew Drop Hall before. But it is such an important building in the history of traditional jazz that - for the benefit of newcomers - I think it is worth writing about again.

The Dew Drop Hall
April 2015

For me the ambition to see The Dew Drop Hall started when I read that Marla Dixon's Shotgun Jazz Band played there on 7th November, 2014. That was what prompted me to find out more about this important jazz venue. It must have been a great thrill for Marla and her team to play in this very spot, among the spirits of so many of the Greats who performed there one hundred years earlier.

So let me tell you about this truly legendary old building that is one of the most important venues in the history of traditional jazz. It's the oldest surviving building in the world in which jazz was played in the earliest years of its development; and traditional jazz is again being played there today. I'm referring to the The Dew Drop Dance and Social Hall, which is situated at 430 Lamarque Street in Old Mandeville, Louisiana.

A great thrill for me was finally setting foot in The Dew Drop Hall in April 2015, when I was in New Orleans for the French Quarter Festival.

The story of the Hall begins on 5 May 1885, when local African Americans created The Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Association - aiming to provide help to the sick and the needy.

The Association built the hall from cypress timber nine years later - and opened it in 1895. Its foundations were simple brick piers (a wise choice for flood protection at the time). The pier at the front on the left still bears the original inscription (now barely legible).

It commemorates the founding of the Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Society No. 2 of Mandeville on May 5th, 1885, and the construction of the building in 1895, along with the names of the building committee.

The walls were covered with weather-boards at the front, and batten on the sides and rear; and they were originally painted green. The carpenters created the large wooden double-door at the front gable end, and a smaller door on the right at the back. There was an open beam ceiling. It was essentially a one-room structure, available for meetings, celebrations, vaudeville, dances and so on. It became the centre of social life.

The dais (mainly used as a bandstand) at the far end was typical of the time - with a wooden banister front opening in two places for the steps. The original dais was small (the part behind the banister on the left) but it was later extended to what we see in the picture above. The hall was built without electricity - or plumbing - or even glass: the 'windows' were simply openings measuring 6 feet high by 4 feet wide. They were normally covered by wooden shutters. These windows must have helped keep the band and audience cool on humid evenings.

Lamarque Street is to this day a quiet sparsely-populated, leafy, narrow road.

But where exactly is it? Answer: about 35 miles north of The French Quarter in New Orleans. It's where I've put the red dot at the centre top of this Google Map, very close to the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

From the earliest days, musicians started to cross the lake by steamboat to play for Saturday night dances in the Hall.

There were three landing-places for the boats on the shoreline - from east to west the Camellia Landing (destroyed by fire in 1912), the St. Tammany Pier (destroyed by fire in 1926), and the Lewisburg Landing (at the Lewis Plantation). The bands brought plenty of fans with them: Mandeville was considered a fashionable resort. It had several bands playing in various venues, including pavilions, the hotels and local park.

Pretty well all the famous early jazz musicians played at The Dew Drop Hall. Buddy Petit, Bunk Johnson, Kid Ory, Tommy Ladnier, Louis Armstrong, Papa Celestin, Sam Morgan, Chester Zardis and George Lewis were among them. Local man Isidore Fritz - according to such witnesses as George Lewis one of the best jazz clarinet players of all time - was a regular there, leading The Independence Band, which was hugely popular. He had Tommy Ladnier on trumpet and Edmond Hall on clarinet. Isidore's two brothers also played. What a pity the band was never recorded (or even photographed, it seems). Fritz was unwilling to cross the Lake to play in New Orleans. Why? Because he was doing very nicely in Mandeville and also had a family building business there. Fritz died in 1940.

Lillian, the wife of banjo-player Buddy Manaday (of Buddy Petit's Band) later recalled that white people as well as black attended and they all got along well together. Petit's Band, by the way, played at many venues in the  region - including at Bogalusa, Pensacola and Moss Point.

By the 1920s and 1930s, the Hall was a major centre for jazz concerts. Wooden benches provided limited and basic seating for about 100 people.

But - how sad! - as fashions and customs changed, the young were no longer interested, the Dew Drop Association ceased to exist and the Hall was virtually abandoned in the mid-1940s. This state of affairs continued for about half a century.

What amazing luck that nobody knocked the building down! All the other similar dance halls of its era were demolished or changed hands and acquired new uses or (like The Sons and Daughters Hall - also in Mandeville, on Lake Shore Drive) burned down.

The overgrown plot was bought at auction in 1993 by Jacqueline 'Jinx' Vidrine. She might have been expected to demolish the building and erect a modern house there; but she was a jazz enthusiast and knew what she was doing. She cleared the plot and investigated the building. She even found an old upright piano inside.

Jacqueline dreamed of re-opening the Hall as a jazz venue or museum. After some years, she managed to get the local Parks Service interested. By 1999, a first concert was possible! Mayor Eddie Price and the Mandeville Council recognised the importance of the property and bought the plot of land from Jacqueline. She herself donated the Hall to the community. Funds had been raised, including donations from the English. 

There had been a plan to transport the Hall to a site in Louis Armstrong Park, New Orleans. But the Mayor of Mandeville was easily convinced that the Hall should stay where it was. In 2001 the Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 'official' re-opening was on 5 May, 2002. In 2006, two members of the Mandeville City Council led a campaign to create The Friends of Dew Drop - a non-profit organisation. There had to be a little refurbishment (at a cost of about 25,000 dollars), but they ensured it was entirely sympathetic with the original design of the Hall. Here is how the Hall looked in Lamarque Street when I visited. Note the (inevitably moss-covered) tree in front of it.

Concerts featuring the best of local musicians are now put on fortnightly in the Spring and Autumn. There are string bands, jug bands and various similar groups as well as traditional jazz bands.

The band performing when I was there included the great Gregg Stafford and Michael White and the outstanding young bass player Tyler Thomson.

There was even a brolly parade.

Just inside the entrance door

I'm thrilled to say that 'Jinx' is still very much involved in helping with activities at the Hall. She was there and I had the honour of being introduced to her.

Jacqueline Vidrine -
the driving force in preserving the Hall

If you go to The Dew Drop, you have a choice between standing, or arriving early to secure one of those wooden seats, or (bringing your picnic chairs) listening from outside to the wonderful music drifting through the large open windows (three on each side). Good Louisiana food is usually on sale outside the Hall, as it was in the earliest days.

The Shotgun Jazz Band
performing there in 2014

By the way, you may care to watch a video I made about The Dew Drop:
CLICK HERE.
Three days after the Gregg Stafford concert, the great Tuba Skinny played at The Dew Drop Hall. A video showing one of the tunes they played can be seen by clicking on here.

And for a much more recent video of Tuba Skinny playing at the Hall, CLICK HERE. The tune is the wonderful Deep Bayou Moan, composed by Shaye Cohn.

You can sample an entire album (19 tunes) recorded in The Dew Drop Hall during a live concert on 18 March 2017 BY CLICKING HERE. 

========================
Just in case you may be interested to know which tunes were played when I was there for the Gregg Stafford concert in April 2015, the programme was:
SET ONE
Hindustan
We Shall Walk Through The Streets of the City
Bye Bye Blackbird
Redwing
Fidgety Feet
Careless Love
Golden Leaf Strut (final strain of 'Milneberg Joys')
SET TWO
Panama Rag
When You're Smiling
Burgundy Street Blues (Michael White feature)
You Always Hurt The One You Love
Blueberry Hill
SET THREE
Baby Won't You Please Come Home
Creole Love Call
Just a Little While To Stay Here
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
When The Saints Go Marching In

Long may The Dew Drop continue!

Post 574: WONDERFUL VINTAGE RECORDINGS

Reader and tuba player Roger Menning wrote to tell me he has recently formed The Wild Rumpus Jazz Band in Chicago. I look forward to the band's development and hope there will soon be some YouTube videos.

Roger also wondered whether I had come across the YouTube channel of a videomaker codenamed BassetHoundTrio. Roger thought I might find it interesting.

Well, interesting it certainly is. May I pass on the recommendation to all of you? BassetHoundTrio has put up a collection of nearly 300 videos, in which precious 78s from the 1920s are played on beautiful and great-sounding antique gramophones. Many of the recordings feature early dance bands playing tunes that have become part of the traditional jazz repertoire. The videos also provide information about the songs, the bands and the gramophones used. What a wonderful resource BassetHoundTrio has provided for us. If by any chance he reads my blog, I send him sincere thanks.

Try these for starters, and then explore others:

(1) 'Positively - Absolutely' played by Jan Garber and His Orchestra: CLICK HERE.

(2) 'You're the Cream in My Coffee' played by Ted Weems and His Orchestra: CLICK HERE.

Wonderful stuff! Thanks very much, Roger, for leading me to these performances.

Post 551: THE NEW ORLEANS OWLS 1922 - 1929

The best-known picture of The New Orleans Owls.

In addition to the bands of Sam Morgan and Armand Piron, and The Halfway House Orchestra, another band that made recordings in New Orleans during the 1920s was The New Orleans Owls.

Apparently a group called The Invincibles String Band had been formed in New Orleans in 1912 and it included seven musicians (Johnny Wiggs, Eblen Rau, Benjy White, Rene Gelpi, Monk Smith, Earl Crumb and Mose Ferrar) who went on to form The New Orleans Owls.

Their music was elaborately arranged and sweet rather than raw. But it was very dance-able and impeccable-sounding. Tampeekoe is a good example. You may sample it by clicking here.

The band made about twenty recordings between 1925 and 1927, 13 of them in New Orleans. Several of the tunes were original compositions by members of the band and – while usually having more than one theme – these tunes essentially use 16-bar and 32-bar harmonic structures that have become familiar in so many of the tunes from the 1920s that have always been loved by traditional jazz bands.

The New Orleans Owls flourished between 1922 and 1929, performing for dancers in the hotel ballrooms of New Orleans - notably the Hotel Roosevelt. Though they normally performed as a seven-piece, twenty-two different musicians were members of the band over those years. The most distinguished were perhaps Benjamin White (reeds and leader), Bill Padron (cornet), Frank Netto (trombone), Nappy Lamare (banjo), Dan LeBlanc (tuba), Pinky Vidacovitch (clarinet and sax) and Moses Farrar (piano).

You will find their style fairly sedate - even in such numbers as Blowing Off Steam and Dynamite. Everything is tidy and controlled, just right for elegant ballroom dancing.

Even in Meat on the Table (essentially a Bill Bailey variant), where there is a fair amount of room for improvisation, the emphasis is on charm and neatness rather than adventure. Click here to sample it.

Their music is energetic and lively within a tight, disciplined framework. The tunes are carefully structured, with introductions, modulations and breaks.

This is a band to divide opinions among traditional jazz fans. Some will say their music shows just how traditional jazz should sound; others will say it is not exactly gutsy: it lacks 'rawness' and risk-taking. But we have to remember The New Orleans Owls did not include the word 'Jazz' in their name. Their task was to accompany and please people who, in the 1920s, were elegantly dancing fox-trots. And they did that job supremely well.

Post 466: SAM MORGAN - AND HIS NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND IN 1927

Some very important recordings were made in 1927 by Sam Morgan. His Band played not only in New Orleans, but also in other towns, such as Galveston, along the Gulf Coast.

While Armand Piron's Orchestra was at the same time playing sophisticated, genteel jazz, Morgan's style was just a little more gutzy, pulsating and robust, though still melodic. The band took great care with establishing and maintaining the right tempos - notably for dancing.

That's Sam seated behind the cymbal; with big Jim Robinson and his trombone.

Sam Morgan, born in 1895, was the trumpeter/leader; and his brothers Isaiah (also on trumpet) and Andrew (tenor sax and clarinet) played in his band. On trombone he had the great Jim Robinson, whose fame spread further when he played in bands well after Sam Morgan had died at the age of only 41 (poor Sam suffered a stroke in 1925 and another in 1932). Earle Fouché played clarinet and alto sax. Robinson's cousin Sidney Brown was on bass. Tinke Baptiste and Walter Decou were at various times on piano. Johnny Dave was on banjo. The drummers over the years were Roy Evans and Nolan Williams.

Today Sam Morgan is best remembered for the eight tunes his band recorded in New Orleans over two sessions in 1927. Three of these were spirituals (Over in the Gloryland, Down By The Riverside and Sing On); but the credited composer for all the other five was Sam himself:

Bogalusa Strut

Everybody's Talking About Sammy

Mobile Stomp

Short Dress Gal

Steppin' On The Gas

Have a listen to Morgan's band playing Mobile Stomp:

CLICK HERE.

And now hear it played by one of today's best jazz bands:

CLICK HERE.

Bogalusa Strut, by the way, is said to be a re-interpretation of the first two themes of Scott Joplin's Rose Leaf Rag. If you listen to that rag, you will hear at once that the harmonic progressions are indeed the same.

Mobile Stomp, though in 4/4 time, is said to use the melody of  The Waltz You Saved For Me; and indeed the two melodies are almost identical. But according to my researches so far, it seems The Waltz You Saved for Me was composed in 1930 - after Mobile Stomp, so it is probably unfair to suggest that Morgan 'lifted' his tune from the song.

Most traditional jazz bands in the 21st Century not only show influences of the Sam Morgan Band in their playing and musical arrangements but also still have at least a couple of Morgan's tunes in their repertoire.

And the fact that the Morgan Band recorded the three spirituals seems to have set the precedent that traditional jazz bands must now include spirituals in their programmes. (It is believed the band would never have played spirituals for dances but recorded some only because the recording engineer requested them.) Similarly, the band demonstrated (as in Mobile Stomp) - I think for one of the first times on record - the excitement generated when you play stop-time choruses.

So we all owe a great deal to Sam Morgan. And we are also indebted to Jim Robinson who, in later years, revived and perpetuated his music, and also made us aware of other tunes Morgan's band liked to play. (See the comments from John Dixon below). 

Sam Morgan's House in New Orleans

---------------

John Dixon (of The Shotgun Jazz Band in New Orleans) has kindly sent me the following information:

It’s worth noting that more can be learned from the interview with Andrew Morgan from the book ‘The End of the Beginning’ (by Barry Martyn [Jazzology Books, 1998]). Morgan speaks at length about the recording of those cuts (most of the tunes were not in their regular repertoire prior to the recording).

Also, Jim Robinson’s Riverside Living Legends LP ‘Jim Robinson’s New Orleans Band’ is an important record because it was the re-recording of Mobile Stomp and Bogalusa Strut that brought those tunes out of retirement and made them traditional New Orleans jazz standards. When they recorded that album, Jim didn’t even remember how they went. The producers went to Tulane to the archives, got the old SMJB records and played them for the band. The takes you hear recorded on Jim’s record were done just moments after they learned the songs. That record is also chock full of other Sam Morgan band tunes that they regularly played but didn’t record; Apple Tree, Yearning, Whenever You’re Lonely. Also featured on that Riverside LP are George Guesnon and Alfred Williams - both Sam Morgan Jazz Band alumni (though not in the lineup that was recorded). Guesnon is especially well-recorded on Jim’s record. It’s one of my favorite records. 

I’ve attached an image of the backside of the LP I took with my phone, perhaps you can read the album notes.

Thanks!

John

It is possible to read the liner notes. Click on and enlarge.
================

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 304: 'MY SWEET LOVIN' MAN'

Lil Hardin

While roaming around YouTube videos of jazz bands in New Orleans, I chanced upon one put up by Thomas Balzac. It showed Sarah Peterson singing My Sweet Lovin' Man with the famous Smoking Time Jazz Club Band at The Spotted Cat Music Club in Frenchmen Street:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCTXmjXIleA

I remembered that I have the tune on one of my King Oliver CDs. It turned out that it was written by Lil Hardin in 1923.

I also noticed that - after its 12-bar Verse - it has a Chorus based on The Hot Nuts Chord Progression - popular in the 1920s. This is basically a 16-bar progression, with breaks possible on Bars 9 to 12 inclusive. The final two bars of the sixteen are in many songs repeated as a tag. That is what happens in My Sweet Lovin' Man, making 18 bars in all.

I like it; so I decided to add this tune to my mini-filofax collection. I wrote it out, and it sounds quite good on my keyboard.

Post 294: LOUIS DUMAINE'S JAZZOLA EIGHT GIVE US SOME LESSONS

What a great historical document the Victor Recording Company provided for us in March, 1927, when they took equipment down to New Orleans and recorded four tunes (one of them twice) played by Louis Dumaine's Jazzola Eight.

These recordings give us the genuine article – authentic New Orleans jazz of the 1920s and of the kind so many of us are still trying to reproduce.

Louis Dumaine

Louis Dumaine lived from 1890 until 1949 and was a leader of brass bands and marching bands in New Orleans, as well as running his 'Jazzola Eight'. From this only known photo, he appears to have been a tall, thin man, taking care to dress smartly.

The Jazzola Eight were:

Louis Dumaine (leader and cornet and trumpet)

Morris Rouse (piano and composer)

Louis James (clarinet and tenor sax; born 1890, he played with such big names as Frankie Duson, Dumaine and even Percy Humphrey at Preservation Hall in his final years)

Earl Humphrey (trombone; one of the famous Humphrey brothers, he was still playing in New Orleans in the 1960s; and died in 1971)

Willie Joseph (clarinet)

Leonard Mitchell (banjo and vocals)

Joe Howard (tuba; born in 1870, he worked with many of the famous early bands, such as Celestin's, and went on playing well into his seventies)

James Willigan (drums; he had a short life but played in some famous early bands).

There were other musicians, such as Yank Johnson (trombone) who worked in this band, but not on the recordings.The tunes the company recorded (with the composers as named on the 78s) were:

Franklin Street Blues (Louis Dumaine and Eddie Jackson)

Red Onion Drag (Louis Dumaine and Eddie Jackson)

Pretty Audrey (Louis Dumaine and Morris Rouse)

To-Wa-Bac-A-Wa (Louis Dumaine and Eddie Jackson)

The Good News is that you can still hear all these performances on YouTube.

Franklin Street Blues is an example to us all – with excellent teamwork, clear driving leadership by Dumaine, unpretentious pleasant solos from clarinet and cornet; and a good blues vocal.

Red Onion Drag is in F. What an interesting and curious piece this is! Incidentally, it's very easy to pick up. It has a 16-bar introduction and then goes into a 16-bar chorus which to me sounds very similar to the tune known later as Rip 'Em Up Joe. And there's a third theme slightly different and even a fourth that sounds like (and may have been the source of) Lily of the Valley. The whole piece is another great example of teamwork, with some fine but unpretentious ensemble playing. Note Rouse's piano solo.

Pretty Audrey is a spirited up-tempo piece in Bb. After an 8-bar introduction and spikey 16-bar 'Verse', it goes into a 32-bar Chorus on the good old 'Bill Bailey / Golden Leaf Strut' type of chord structure. There is exciting, energetic ensemble work; and Dumaine chooses to play a chorus against offbeat stop chords. Willie Joseph shows great fluidity on clarinet.

To-Wa-Bac-A-Wa is a piece we have come to know better as The Bucket's Got a Hole in It. The tune is well arranged, played in F, with varied ensemble choruses. There's a clarinet solo chorus against offbeats; and even a neat little front-line ensemble one-bar 'break' (King Oliver style) in the final chorus.

Give them a listen! Start by by clicking HERE.

By the way, we should all be deeply grateful to Andy Wolfenden, who has made this and many other recordings of past greats available on YouTube. Check out his Channel.

Post 231: TOM MORRIS - BAND-LEADER, COMPOSER, CORNET-PLAYER

Tom Morris - band-leader, composer and cornet-player - was born in New York in 1897.

The earlier Tom Morris, born in 1897

He was a fine traditional jazz musician and even ran his own bands, the principal one being The Seven Hot Babies. They are known to have made 18 recordings in the 1920s. Other Tom Morris bands included The New Orleans Blue Five and The Thomas Morris Past Jazz Masters. He worked prolifically with some of the famous names of jazz, such as Clarence Williams, Fats Waller, Sidney Bechet and Mamie Smith. In fact, it is believed that he appeared - often in minor 'backing' rôles - on about 150 recordings.

Tom's performances reveal what traditional jazz cornet playing was like just before Louis Armstrong dominated the scene; and it is possible that his improvisations - a single 12-bar chorus on Charleston Stampede and several 12-bar choruses on Lonesome Journey Blues (both tunes composed by Morris himself) influenced Armstrong.

As with many important musicians of the 1920s, he later faded into obscurity, but is known to have been towards the end of his relatively short life a porter at Grand Central Station and also a member of a strict, abstemious religious movement led by a curious and colourful character known as 'Father Divine'. Tom died at the age of 47.

I have seen Tom Morris's style of playing described as 'basic and primitive', but I think that is misleading. Listen to his recordings and you find he has a good technique and plays in a simple but accurate manner. He could cope with tempos fast and slow and he could 'bend' notes in a most bluesy fashion. The musical arrangements played by his bands are thoughtfully constructed.

Tom was clearly a well-taught, thorough musician and composed several of his band's tunes, including Original Charleston Strut, Beaucoup de Jazz, Lazy Drag and Ham Gravy. His compositions sometimes included two or three themes, often in 12-bars and 16 bars and based on the conventional chord sequences of the time. (Tom seems to have been very fond of the 12-bar blues format.) They allowed for two-bar 'breaks' and also sometimes involved a key change. The band's tempos were always nicely maintained and the emphasis was on good ensemble playing. Tom was no selfish exhibitionist but enjoyed giving plenty of opportunities to his pianist, trombonist and reed men. Among the musicians he used were Joe Nanton or Greechie Fields on trombone, Wellman Braud on bass, Happy Caldwell on reeds and Buddy Christian on banjo.

I'm pleased to note that the Tom Morris style of playing has become fashionable again in the last few years, when many of the fine young musicians (most of them developing their art in New Orleans) are trying to play their jazz in a manner very similar to his.

But enough! Why not try some Tom Morris for yourself. An appropriate tune to begin with is When The Jazz Band Starts To Play. Tom himself composed this merry number and it's hard to believe this was as long ago as 1923. In this one, he seems to have been joined by Charlie Irvis on trombone and Bubber Miley on cornet. There are plenty of breaks, and much use of stop chords and off-beats. In addition to a neat Introduction and Coda, the tune comprises a 16-bar theme in Bb on a familiar chord structure, with an Interlude provided by a 12-bar blues theme in Eb - so it's a typical Tom Morris construction. CLICK HERE to enjoy it.

And then CLICK HERE for Charleston Stampede (1926), composed by Tom, again with a clever up-tempo treatment of 12-bar and 16-bar themes. There are some Armstong-like cornet choruses. Don't miss the one that starts at 2 minutes 9 seconds.

CLICK HERE for the unusual combination of Tom's Band with Fats Waller playing a church organ. It was 1927 and the tune was Won't You Take Me Home? (composed by Tom and his pianist Phil Worde).

CLICK HERE  for Blues From the Everglades - a well-structured piece of music from 1926 (note the temporary doubling-up of tempo at 1 minute 57 seconds and again later).

So Tom Morris is primitive and basic? Well, I wish some of the bands playing in our English pubs and clubs today were at least half as good.

I agree with the commentator on YouTube who wrote:

Not sure I would refer to his playing as primitive. His playing was unadorned and just flat out playing from the heart.

Post 213: THE ORIGINS OF TRADITIONAL JAZZ

John McCusker

A most interesting experience while I was in New Orleans in April 2015 was being taken on a conducted tour of the immediate neighbourhood, with John McCusker as guide.

A graduate of Loyola University, New Orleans, John was for thirty years a regional photo-journalist with the Times-Picayune newspaper. He achieved distinction in that work - especially through his coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

John is a knowledgeable, lively and well-prepared speaker. He has spent years researching the origins of jazz in New Orleans. The fruits of much of John's research are to be found in his book Creole Trombone: Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz (University of Mississippi Press, 2012).

His findings are convincing because he supports them so well with evidence - such as reports from contemporary newspapers. He is also very proud of being a New Orleans citizen and he loves the early jazz music.

John reminded us of the usual 'myths' and said there may be grains of truth in them, but that essentially they were misleading and should be dispelled.

For example, he had found that all these myths were only partially true:

1. Musicians acquired instruments 'left over' by bands after the Civil War and somehow taught themselves to play. McCusker asks: Why should they do that? There were plenty of new and second-hand musical instruments available cheaply in shops; and there was a strong tradition of young people - black and white - having music lessons in those days. Music shops were a Big Thing in the days when people made their own entertainment, long before television and computers and iPhones. Here's an example, from Canal Street, New Orleans.

2. Lots of the early jazz players used to play in the bordellos of Storyville until it was closed down in 1917. (McCusker asks: Why would you want to waste time with musicians in a bordello? Only a few of the more fancy establishments booked musicians. There were plenty of other places - such as Lakeside - for musicians to find employment.)

3. After the closure of Storyville, the musicians went 'up the river' to Chicago. (McCusker says: Only a tiny proportion of the New Orleans musicians moved north. Most stayed in New Orleans and continued to work there. In any case, if you go 'up river', it doesn't lead to Chicago!)

What Mr. McCusker wanted to impress upon us was that there was a very strong musical tradition in New Orleans. We have to remember there was no TV, no radio and no cinema. At the time, a musical instrument was a 'must have' in most households, just as a computer is today. It was very common to find a mandolin or violin in the home (an interview with the early New Orleans musician Johnny Wiggs confirmed this). And there could well be a concertina, a piano or a harmonium.

Plenty of people made a living teaching youngsters to play musical instruments - piano, string, brass, reeds and so on. Music-making in the home and in public places was commonplace. In some homes, a family band would develop.

John especially impressed upon us the importance of opera in the lives of the citizens. People loved it. There were three well-attended opera houses, so everyone knew the tunes from Verdi, Offenbach, Bizet, Reyer, Von Flotow, Massenet, Meyerbeer and Gounod.  What an inspiration to early jazz musicians and composers they must have been!

Here is the Eagle Saloon, where Buddy Bolden and the other early jazz pioneers played. It has languished for years in a state of disrepair, though there is now strong local pressure to have it restored and used again as a venue for music.

John McCusker told us the Minstrel Shows and Vaudeville - both well attended in the theatres of New Orleans - were of huge importance (usually underestimated) in the early development of jazz. Likewise the 'society orchestras' (made up of trained sight-reading musicians) influenced the approach of such early New Orleans jazz musicians as Kid Ory.

A sad sight: the tumbledown building
behind the scaffolding used to be a theatre
in which at one time you could watch a vaudeville show
or hear Buddy Bolden play.

Of special significance was the craze for syncopated piano music (ragtime), brass band marches and especially the Blues with its genesis in the depths of African culture. The early jazz musicians also worked at a golden time in popular music, when so many of the hit songs were easy to adapt to a 'jazzy' presentation. 

Of course, he told us about Buddy Bolden and took us to some of the places where he used to play. We saw his house and the houses (or sites) where other early jazz stars lived - Nick La Rocca's house, for example. He told us about the early life of Louis Armstrong and he impressed upon us the importance of Edward 'Kid' Ory both as a developer of jazz in the early days and as the man who first recognised the talent of the teenager Louis and then set him on his way by booking him for gigs. Ory - who ran his own band in New Orleans from 1907 - also employed such musicians as Johhny Dodds, King Oliver and Sidney Bechet.

John McCusker also emphasised the importance of brass bands. Such bands became possible only in the mid-Nineteenth Century, after the invention of valved brass instruments (which made all notes of the scales obtainable). In the USA, as in England, there was a massive development of the brass band movement from about 1850 onwards. In England, it eventually became formalised, with national contests, and rules about the numbers of each type of instrument. But in Louisiana matters were more free-style. There were some small and medium-sized bands (undoubtedly forerunners of later jazz bands.

In such small, informal groupings, it would be easy for a player or two to set a fashion for 'jazzing up' a tune.) 

Statues on the edge of 'Congo Square',
in Louis Armstrong Park.

Right from the early days, when the famous benevolent societies operated around New Orleans (they provided mutual help at times of hardship), these social clubs had their own bands; and the bands played at members' funerals.

We tend to think of 'jazz funerals' as a twentieth-century invention. But they are really just a continuation of brass band funerals from long before. John McCusker quoted from a newspaper report of 1857 in which mention was made of the brass band accompanying the coffin.

John took us to various sites including 'Congo Square'. This area had been allocated to the black slaves as a place where on Sundays they were allowed to congregate, play their music and dance. The exciting African dances and the rhythms of their music appealed to all kinds of visitors and onlookers. In these, too, we find a huge influence in the early development of jazz. These Sunday events died out but the Square was used for brass band concerts at the end of the Nineteenth Century.

Congo Square in 2015 -
preserved as a historic landmark.

Frieze in Congo Square:
An attempt to imagine the scene about 180 years ago.

My regular blog-reading friend Phil in the USA told me there is a super video made by John McCusker which enables YOU too to go on his conducted tour. May I strongly recommend that you have a look? Watch it by clicking here.

John McCusker still feels deeply hurt about the lack of support New Orleans received during Hurricane Katrina and the floods, which killed 1000 people in the immediate vicinity. I could sense that his emotions were still raw on this subject ten years after it happened. He took us to a point from which we could see over many square miles of parishes north-east of the City, all of which (he told us) had been flooded to a depth of 15 feet.

With better engineering, it need never have happened. With quicker response from administrators and politicians, the consequent suffering could have been alleviated.

But please may I also recommend that you listen to a talk by John McCusker? If you're interested in the earliest days of New Orleans jazz, I think you will find this truly informative:
CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT.