Post 413: I - II7 - V7 - I : THE FOUR-LEAF CHORD PROGRESSION

What do all the following tunes have in common?

Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None Of My Jelly Roll 

Big Butter and Egg Man
Big Chief Battleaxe (Main Theme)

Button Up Your Overcoat 

By the Light of the Silvery Moon
Congratulations 

Darktown Strutters Ball 

Destination Moon 

Do Do Blues (Nothing Can Be Right...)
Don’t Sweetheart Me 

Down In Honky Tonk Town 

Down In Jungle Town 

Eccentric [first theme]
Exactly Like You 

Honey
I Can't Escape 

If You Were The Only Girl In The World 

Jersey Bounce 

I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones 

I Love You So Much It Hurts Me
I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy
I’m Looking Over A Four-Leaf Clover 

I'm Nobody's Baby
Lulu's Back in Town [in half-bars] 

Ma, He's Making Eyes At Me
Mandy, Make Up Your Mind

Me, Myself and I
Memories 

My Cutie's Due at Two to Two
New Orleans Shuffle
Oh, You Beautiful Doll 

On Treasure Island 

Peg o' My Heart 

Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet [the verse - not the refrain]
Red Hot Mamma
Six or Seven Times

Somebody Else Is Taking My Place 

Toot Toot Tootsie

True: You Don't Love Me
Ory’s Creole Trombone  [main theme]

Underneath the Arches
Walking My Baby Back Home
Working Man Blues [2nd theme]
You Made Me Love You

The answer is that they all use one of the most common chord patterns - usually called the 'Four-Leaf' progression.

What happens is that the tune starts on the Tonic Chord and then follows this with the commonest chord progression of all - known to musicians as II - V - I. So a tune beginning on the chord of C major, for example, would progress on to D major (the chord of the second note of the scale), followed by the chord of G7 (the dominant seventh - the fifth note of the scale) before returning to C major. A very satisfying 8-bar musical phrase can be built on two bars each of these four chords.

It is the basis of that iconic song of the music hall era, My Old Man Said Follow The Van. This song, made famous by Marie Lloyd, was written at the end of the Nineteenth Century by Fred Leigh and Charles Collins.

The chord sequence was most common in the early Twentieth Century. Famous tunes using it were Oh, You Beautiful Doll of 1911 (with music by Nat D. Ayer), The Darktown Strutters Ball (written by Shelton Brooks in 1917), and Button Up Your Overcoat (1928, with music by Ray Henderson).

Nat D. Ayer used it again in 1916 to start his lovely song If You Were The Only Girl In The World.

Exactly Like You, Destination Moon, Don’t Sweetheart Me, Con Conrad's 1940 hit Ma, He's Making Eyes At Me, Memories (the Robert Van Alstyne tune), On Treasure Island, and Somebody Else Is Taking My Place, Peg o' My Heart, Jersey Bounce, I Can't Escape, and Congratulations are eleven more tunes you may know: they are all in the Four-Leaf pattern. The Progression is sometimes used in 16-bar tunes, too: an example is Red Hot Mama of 1924.

Lil Hardin and King Oliver used the structure - exactly as in my example on the staves above - for the whole 8-bar (repeated) structure of the main theme in his Working Man Blues (1923).

And another tune in which the entire structure of the first, second and final eights is built on the pattern is that great Chris Yacich classic from 1935 I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones.

Specifically in the field of traditional jazz good examples are Down In Jungle Town, Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None Of My Jelly Roll, the main theme of Ory’s Creole Trombone (written and recorded by the great Kid Ory in 1922) and Down In Honky Tonk Town.

In fact Down In Honky Tonk Town begins with four bars on each of the chords ( 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 etc.); this is a feature it has in common with the ever-popular and eponymous I’m Looking Over A Four-Leaf Clover (with music composed in 1927 by Harry M. Woods).

And another interesting variant is You Made Me Love You (1913, with music by James V. Monaco). After two bars on the tonic, it has just one bar on the second chord followed by just one on the dominant 7th. And Lulu's Back in Town follows the pattern in half-bars.

I am keeping things as simple as I can. I know that if we were to see the original piano sheet music of these songs, we would often find the use of four different chords in one bar, for example. What I am giving is the general sweep of the changing harmonies.

In connection with the FOUR-LEAF pattern, for example, some tunes begin with one bar on the tonic and then have one bar on the VI7th before moving on to the 'II'. My correspondent Allen Robnett has kindly emphasised this point and indicated some of the tunes to which this applies. He writes:

I think the following songs are improved by (and some demand)  the pattern   I  VI7  II7  V7  I:

Button Up Your Overcoat; 

If You Were The Only Girl In The World;

Memories;

Oh, You Beautiful Doll;

Peg O' My Heart;

Somebody Else Is Taking My Place.

It could be argued that the tonic chord can be substituted for the VI7, but then it could also be argued that you can play everything with just I, IV and V (and, unfortunately, some people do just that.)

Allen is right on both counts.

Post 409: 'BIG CHIEF BATTLE-AXE'

Thomas S. Allen (1876 - 1919) of Massachusetts - a prolific composer and violinist - wrote Big Chief Battle-Axe in 1907. It's a good romping number in three parts (four if you count the Bridge). I'm pleased to say it is still played by some bands.

The first time I heard this tune was in 1993, on a recording made that year by Chris Tyle's Silver Leaf Jazz Band; and it made an impression on me. I entered it into my mini-filofax storage system. It is usually played in Ab, but I put it in the key of Bb, to suit my cornet - a transposing instrument.

C is the section on which to 'stick' for the purpose of solos. Improvising on it is easy because the chord sequence follows the Four-Leaf Clover chord progression.

It is interesting that when I went to New Orleans for The French Quarter Festival in April 2016, among the performers I heard were Tom Saunders, Lars Edegran, Steve Pistorius and Tom Fischer - all of whom played on that Silver Leaf Jazz Band CD 23 years earlier.

I like to play along with Tuba Skinny performing this tune on YouTube, though in this performance they use only the Bridge and Section C. They also play it in Bb, not Ab. Click here to watch and hear them.

Big Chief Battleaxe is a firm favourite in the traditional jazz repertoire.

For example, the influential Bunk Johnson recording may be heard BY CLICKING HERE.

Listen to the minor-key opening, and what do you think of? Possibly a scene from one of those black-and-white Cowboys-and-Indians movies of the 1940s. You picture a Big Chief, with feathered head-dress, long hair, and painted face, looking down from his horse at some settlers who pose a threat to his territory. In a curious pared-down version of English, he says firmly and with dignity to his tribesmen: 'White man need water. Give white man water.'

And then comes a brighter, jaunty melody in the major key. It perhaps makes you think of a happier moment when his tribespeople are enjoying a dance round the fire as the sun goes down.

Thomas S. Allen wrote the words for it as well as the melodies. Maybe you will be as surprised as I was to discover that it actually had words. And when I looked recently at the original sheet music, I was astonished to read those words and also discover what the composer had in mind. The 'Big Chief' was in fact just a painted wooden advertising sign outside a tobacconist's shop. Allen had the fanciful idea of this 'Big Chief' falling in love with an advertising sign across the road (a princess advertising stogies [cigars]). Eventually they went away together. Allen actually described the song as 'A Comic Indian Novelty'.

Listen to the bit of music Tuba Skinny plays between 51 seconds and 1 minute 9 seconds (the major-key theme) in the video indicated above. The words that go with it are:

‘Big Chief Battleaxe loves yer true;
all day long I gaze at you.
I don't care for this job any more.
If you’ll say you’ll be my bride,
then we’ll take a good long ride
far away from this tobacco store.’

The words of the song in full are:

Upon a stand, with a tomahawk in his hand,
stood an Indian chief of the bold Comanche band.
Ten years or more he’d been standing at the door
as an advertising sign for an old tobacco store
He longed to meet the princess so sweet
who held a bunch of stogies out on the opposite side of the street.
When she inquired if his tomahawk arm was tired,
then he shook his little head and he answered back so sweet:
'Big Chief Battleaxe loves yer true;
all day long I gaze at you.

I don't care for this job any more.

If you’ll say you’ll be my bride,

then we’ll take a good long ride

far away from this tobacco store.’

Sad to relate was this Indian warrior’s fate,

for they threw him in the dump.

But the Big Chief said ‘You wait!’

One dreary night, when the moon was out of sight,

then he stole a hobby horse and he rode with all his might.

He looked around and the princess he found

Then they both jumped on the hobby horse

and they started off with a bound.

And now today they are hundreds of miles away

But they don’t forget the time when the Big Chief used to say:

‘Big Chief Battleaxe loves yer true;

all day long I gaze at you.

I don't care for this job any more.

If you’ll say you’ll be my bride,

then we’ll take a good long ride

far away from this tobacco store.’

On the front cover of the sheet music, you can see the advertising figure Allen imagined, for years looking across the street at the princess!

I also happened to spot such a 'Big Chief' on a box outside a shop, used for advertising purposes, in the Buster Keaton film 'The Goat' (from 1921). So presumably this was a common practice at the time:

Musicians may be interested to note that Allen composed his piece in 2/4 time and in the key of Ab. I think most bands today play it in Bb.

Here is an extract:

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

8 February 2016

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.

13 June 2015

Post 224: 'DODO BLUES' ('NOTHING! NOTHING CAN BE RIGHT....)

An unusual song in the Tuba Skinny repertoire is Dodo Blues. For a performance,

CLICK HERE.

However, for the existence of this song we must thank not some obscure hill-billy of the 1920s but rather the Australian blues singer and composer C. W. Stoneking. Born in Katherine, Australia, in 1974, this gentleman, of American parentage, became addicted to the raw blues as played in the 1920s and 1930s by such performers as Leroy Carr. Now, in the 21st Century, he writes, performs and sings in just that 1920s manner, together with his unusual backing group, The Primitive Horn Orchestra (who have more than a passing resemblance to Tuba Skinny).

C. W. Stoneking wrote Dodo Blues in about 2005 and you can hear him performing it on YouTube:

CLICK HERE.

You will note that he performs it in the key of Ab. Tuba Skinny go for Eb, to suit Erika's voice.

If you want to add the tune to your repertoire or play along with it, you will find it easy to pick up. The main eight bars use the Four-Leaf Clover Chord Progression; and the Middle Eight chords are the same as those of dozens of other tunes (Yes, Sir, That's My Baby, We'll Meet Again, On the Sunny Side of the Street, for example).
-----------------------------------------
Correspondent Tom Corcoran has sent me this comment:

I've been listening to and watching a lot of jazz tenor banjo recently and your post today reminded me about CW Stoneking. I saw him perform  in Dublin and he puts on a fantastic show. His performance is a series of crazy stories interspersed with songs. and his banjo playing is an absolute delight.

Eddy Davis has a great series of posts on BanjoHangout that highlight his banjo style and skill and there are lead sheets and videos available for some of the tunes. His version of the Louis Armstong tune, "Wild Man Blues" is worth a listen (with "Memories of You" tagged on for good measure).