POST 464: 'HOW DO THEY DO IT THAT WAY?' - VICTORIA SPIVEY TO TUBA SKINNY

Victoria Spivey composed How Do They Do It That Way? in 1927 and recorded it with Red Allen's Orchestra in 1929. It's a catchy and lively song. You can hear Victoria singing it BY CLICKING HERE.

Interesting points to note are:

1. It has a very good 16-bar Verse that no band should omit.

2. The Chorus (32-bar a-a-b-a) has a very simple chord structure that we also find in other tunes, notably Ice Cream. So improvising on it is very easy.

In Victoria's original recording, Red Allen's musicians played the song right through in the key of Eb. Then - for Victoria's vocal - they switched to Bb. Immediately after this they returned to Eb for an exciting chorus (trumpet against stop chords).

When Tuba Skinny took up this tune, with Erika Lewis as vocalist, they followed precisely this pattern set by the 1929 recording, complete with the key changes. You can hear an example of their performance BY CLICKING HERE.

Post 442: 'ROOT, HOG! OR DIE!'

Times are hard. You can no longer afford to feed your pig. So you turn him loose to fend for himself. You say to the pig: 'Off you go, Piggy. Root around and find some food for yourself. If you don't, you will die.'

Or you may simply say: 'Root, hog! Or die!'

From early colonial times, this became a familiar expression in American English of the Southern States (but never in English English). An American friend in Connecticut tells me it is now considered antiquated, even in the USA. Root, hog! Or die!, meaning Be resourceful and self-reliant, was once proverbial. And John Dixon told me: 'It IS an antiquated term, but you still hear it out in the country. It wasn’t a regular expression but I remember both my paternal grandma and my dad both saying it a few times on occasion'.

The expression made its way into a folk song (a song quite different from the one currently played by The Shotgun Jazz Band), even long before The Harlem Hamfats recorded their Root, hog! Or die! in 1937.

The Harlem Hamfats were founded in Chicago, primarily as a studio band. Not one of the band's eight members was actually from Harlem! Their leaders were Herb Morand (trumpet and vocals) and Kansas Joe McCoy (guitar and vocals). They developed a riff-based style, which is conspicuous in Root, hog! Or die!

This minor-key tune uses virtually the same chord sequence as Blue Drag and Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen. To see what I mean about the riffing and the chord sequence, listen to the Hamfats' recording (apparently in the very unusual key of Gb minor) of the song BY CLICKING HERE.

But why am I telling you all this?

Because on 19 October, during a fleeting visit to New Orleans, I caught The Shotgun Jazz Band playing Root, hog! Or die! at The Spotted Cat Music Club. John Dixon told me they had recently introduced the tune into their repertoire, having picked it up from The Harlem Hamfats.

I made a video of their version. Playing (in the key of C minor) at a slightly faster tempo than the Hamfats, they had that wonderful combination of John Dixon and Tyler Thomson powerfully laying down the rhythm and chords, while Craig and Tomas offered some good solo choruses.

By the way, John also told me: 'It differs from the Blue Drag form by adding a #5 over the words ‘root hog or die’. If you divide those words up in time,  it’s:  -   (#V)root - (V)hog or - (1)die - instead of just V-I.'

Marla lustily provided the vocal and showed in her trumpet solo chorus what can be achieved by using a mute while lingering on the most bluesy notes. I hope you will enjoy watching my video. You may do so BY CLICKING HERE.

Post 410: 'WILLIE THE PEEPER' AND 'WILLIE THE WEEPER'

Willie The Weeper is a very popular traditional jazz standard. I guess there are very few bands that don't have it in their repertoire. For a lively performance of it by one of today's best bands, CLICK HERE.

But there is a bit of a mystery concerning the origin of this tune. Willie The Weeper was published in 1920, with the composers given as Walter Melrose, Grant Rymal and Marty Bloom. That is the version to which our jazz bands stick very closely.

But there was a song published eight years earlier with a similar melody and fairly similar structure and an almost identical title. This was Willie The Peeper, apparently composed by three quite different men: Harry Armstrong, Billy Clark and James Coogan.

However, there does not seem to have been any legal challenge concerning breach of copyright; and nobody seems to have been concerned by the obvious plagiarism. Possibly both songs owe more to an even earlier theme whose composer remains anonymous.

Audrey VanDyke, the great jazz researcher and collector of memorabilia and early sheet music, is the person we have to thank for drawing attention to Willie The Peeper. I have never had the pleasure of meeting Audrey, who lives somewhere in Michigan, I think. But during the years since I started to take an interest in traditional jazz, I have learned that the world owes her a great debt of gratitude for her scholarship relating to early jazz, for her enthusiasm and especially for building up a large collection of vintage sheet music. It is because she made the sheet music for both songs available on the internet that I am able to write this article.

So, just how similar are the two songs?

Let's take the words first. Willie The Peeper begins like this: 
Now listen and I'll tell you 'bout Willie the Peeper;
His occupation was a chimney sweeper.
Oh, he had a peepin' habit and he had it bad.
If you listen now I'll tell you 'bout some peeps he had.
Peeped into a keyhole just the other night;
Saw a man and his wife in a terrible fight.....etc.

Willie The Weeper begins:
Have you ever heard the story of Willie the Weeper?
Willie's occupation was a chimney sweeper.
He had the dreamin' habit and he had it bad.

Listen and I'll tell you 'bout the dreams he had.
He dreamed he had a barrel of diamond rings and money,
Mamas by the score to call him honey, etc.

Although Willie has changed from a peeper to a dreamer, it's obvious the songs have a common origin.

But now what about the structure? Both songs have an opening theme of 16 bars, which is in a minor key and may be considered as Theme A, or The Verse. These are very similar; in fact the chord sequences are identical.

Then both switch to the related major key for Theme B, The Chorus. This is where considerable differences may be noted. Willie The Weeper has a 16-bar Theme B, or Chorus. But Willie The Peeper has a Theme B of only 8 bars and with a melody and chord sequence unlike those of Willie The Weeper. So it seems that Walter Melrose, Grant Rymal and Marty Bloom introduced that catchy 'Chorus' (based on the V - V - I - I chord sequence) on which we love to improvise to our heart's content to this day. I have tried to make simple leadsheets, putting the two songs into the same key, and enabling you to compare them easily.

For more detail, examine the piano sheet music. There you can find the words too (including several verses for both songs).
Willie The Peeper

Willie The Weeper

Post 286: TUNES WITH SIMILAR CHORD PROGRESSIONS

Puttin' on the Style.
Enjoy Yourself.
It's the Royal Telephone.

Listening to Tuba Skinny performing Vine Street Drag (also known as Lonesome Drag), in this video (click on to watch), I noticed that the chord progression sounds remarkably similar (possibly identical) to that of I'm Looking for the Bully of the Town recorded in 1927 by The Memphis Jug Band. You can hear The Memphis Jug Band performance by clicking here.

Similarly, if you listen to Tuba Skinny performing the eight-bar tune Mississippi River Blues, you may agree with me that it has the same chord structure as the first eight bars of Lonesome Road:
CLICK HERE.
I wonder how many hundreds of cases there are (in addition to the obvious examples of 12-bar blues) where this occurs.

There are dozens of 32-bar tunes based on the same chord progression as Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home. Similarly, there are several using the same chords as When the Saints Go Marching In.

A less known example of a parallel is the 32-bar Please Don't Talk About Me, for which you can use exactly the same chord progression as for Has Anybody Seen My Girl? (also known as Five Foot Two) and Who's That Knockin' At My Door? and also for Aaron Gunn's great song Caffeine. It seems to me that Postage Stomp has an almost similar sequence too.

And I'm fairly sure you can play Livin' in a Great Big Way and Christopher Columbus to the very same chord structure as I Got Rhythm.

Where Am I Gonna Live When I Get Home improbably uses the same chord progression as Just a Closer Walk With Thee!

Bei Mir Bist Du Schön seems to me to use the same chord progression as When I Get Low I Get High and Blue Drag and Root, Hog, or Die and Jubilesta.

And my friend Ralph Hunt, the banjo player, tells me that Pennies from Heaven has exactly the same chord structure as I Can't Give You Anything But Love, apart from just one chord, which is a 7th in one tune and a minor in the other - hardly a significant difference.

My Josephine (first recorded by Papa Oscar Celestin's Tuxedo Band in 1926) is virtually identical to Some of These Days (composed by Shelton Brooks in 1910) - not only in chord structure but even in its melody. My theory is that someone (Celestin himself, perhaps) wrote a lyric dedicated to Josephine - a fan of his band - and set it to the music of Some of These Days, with only the the most negligible of modifications to the tune and chord structure.

I also think that the two spirituals Precious Lord, Take my Hand and When I Move to the Sky, if played in the same key, would be found to have the same chord progression.

I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate seems to me to have the same chord sequence as Red Light Rag, Southern Shout and the Chorus of Heebie Jeebies and of Dallas Rag. But the alternating of dominant and tonic chords is a very familiar ploy in dozens of tunes.

You Can't Escape From Me (aka San Jacinto Stomp) uses the same chord sequence as The Cat's Got Kittens.

The chord sequences for Coquette, Yes, Sir, That's My Baby and I Want to Be Happy all seem pretty much the same to me.

Rip 'Em Up Joe is an example of a 16-bar tune that seems to have a familiar chord sequence: it is similar to that found in Crazy 'Bout You (recorded by The State Street Boys in 1935) and sundry other tunes.

The House of the Rising Sun sounds suspiciously similar to St. James Infirmary. My ear tells me they have the same chord progression and almost the same melody.

Improbably, the religious number Royal Telephone is remarkably similar to Enjoy Yourself, It's Later Than You Think and to the rocking tune Puttin' On The Style.

Listening again on YouTube to the wonderful Tuba Skinny playing How Do They Do It That Way?, I thought the chord sequence sounded identical to that of the 1925 popular song Ice Cream (Ice Cream, You Scream, Everybody Loves Ice Cream). They are both very fine songs. How Do They Do It That Way? is a song about which I know very little, though I believe it dates from 1929, when Victoria Spivey recorded it. It is probable that she also composed it. I can't prove the chord progressions are identical as I do not have copies of the printed music. They are fairly different styles of song (Ice Cream is also usually played more quickly than the other) but it's interesting that to my ear at least the same chord pattern works very well for both. Listen to Tuba Skinny by double-clicking here. Try humming Ice Cream during the vocal and see whether you agree with me.
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Luke Holladay has sent me this email:
I believe the chords for "Do Lord" are identical to "This Little Light of Mine" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic".

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As for 'modern' jazz, there have been many tunes based on the chord sequences of good old songs, I'm told. For example:
Grooving' High is based on the chord sequence of Whispering
Anthropology is based on the chord sequence of I Got Rhythm
Take the A Train is based on the chord sequence of Exactly Like You
Donna Lee is based on the chord sequence of Indiana
In a Mellow Tone is based on the chord sequence of Rose Room
Ornithology is based on the chord sequence of How High The Moon
Hackensack is based on the chord sequence of Lady Be Good
Koko is based on the chord sequence of Cherokee.

Post 268: THE SAME 'IMPROVISATION' TIME AND AGAIN!

A reader from Essex, England, sent me this interesting comment:

I learnt from your blog that many tunes share the same chord progression e.g. the Sweet Sue Progression, which makes life easier for the rhythm section. But then I thought that perhaps this applies to the clarinet and the trombone parts as well. Could it be that a clarinet player has learnt after many hours of practice a standard part for a chord progression that fits many songs or put another way, if you played through all the tunes listed under the Sweet Sue Progression would the clarinet player play the same thing each time (obviously with variations to fit the particular tune)?

..............I know that some very talented musicians could make up something different every time but there must be lesser mortals who learn a set piece and always play that way.

The reader is right.

I'm sure there are great players who do not depend on learning and repeating pet phrases. But it is possible (and tempting) to use the same sequence of notes in several different tunes, if they fit.

I know a clarinettist who plays exactly the same notes in ensembles and exactly the same 'solo' choruses at every performance. Audiences don't notice, but I have heard his fellow musicians complain that what he offers is not really jazz and that playing-by-rote prevents him from contributing to the special excitement generated when instruments feed off each other and respond to what the other is saying.

However, even the very best traditional jazz players have developed a number of pet phrases (known as 'licks') that occur frequently in their playing over familiar chord sequences.

Post 250: THE SISTER KATE CHORD PROGRESSION

Like The Hot Nuts Chord Progression, there is another fairly common 16-bar chord sequence known as THE SISTER KATE PROGRESSION.

Sometimes, as in I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate itself, a two-bar tag is added, making 18 bars in all. But here (in C) is the essential progression - with breaks often taken in bars 7 and 8.

G7 | G7 | C | C | G7 | G7 | C*** | C***

G7 | G7 | C | C | F/Fm | C/A7 | D7/G7 | C

It may be heard in such numbers as:

As You Like It
Gatemouth 

Up Jumped the Devil 

I Wish I Could shimmy Like My Sister Kate 

Red Light Rag
South 

Southern Shout
Bogalusa Strut

Like the Hot Nuts Progression, this one ends with the Sunshine Sequence (described elsewhere in this Blog). So nothing could be more natural or simple to play and improvise on. But the progressions are very effective.

Post 181: IMPROVISING ON MIDDLE EIGHTS

Many of our tunes (such as 12-bar blues) do not have Middle Eights, of course. And 32-bar tunes frequently consist of two 16-bar blocks, where there is no conventional Middle Eight.

However, hundreds of tunes (especially 32-bar songs built on an a - a - b - a structure) do have a Middle Eight (the 'b' section).

We can easily be flummoxed by Middle Eights. If you're not sure of the melody or the chord sequence in those eight bars, you can find yourself in trouble.

And some tunes are notorious for their unusual and tricky Middle Eights. Think, for example, of Have You Met Miss Jones?, Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans? and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Even I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket needs care (don't break the eggs!).

In many of the good old standards, it is possible to spot familiar chord progressions (with the famous 'circle of fifths' working its magic). But I'm sorry to say I have discovered no simple trick to help me master Middle Eights. You just have to work hard at them and learn them one by one.

Below are twenty Middle Eights (in their most simplified form) of some popular traditional jazz tunes. As you can see, there is much variety even among them. There are a few cases (e.g. the first three songs below) where you find two or more tunes using pretty much the same progression.

In my examples, I use the numerical system. So, in the Key of C:

1    27    4m    5

would mean:

C    D7      Fminor    G.
-------------------------------------------------------

Yes, Sir, That's My Baby

1   1   4   4   27   27   57   57

We'll Meet Again
17   17   4   4   27   27   57   57

On the Sunny Side of the Street

17   17   4   4   27   27   57   57

I Want a Little Girl to Call My Own

17   17   4   4   67   67   27   57

Egyptian Ella

2m   2m  6m  6m  2m   2m  77   37

(a typical minor key tune's Middle Eight)

Has Anybody Seen My Girl?

37   37  67   67   27   27   57   57

Fingering With Your Fingers

37   37  67   67   27   27   57   57

Girl of my Dreams

37   37   6m   6m   27   27   57   57   

Sweet Emmalina
37   37   67   67   27   27   57   57

I Got Rhythm

37   37  67   67   27   27   27   57

Ice Cream

4   4   1   1   27   27   57   57

Carolina Moon

4   4   1   1   27   27   57   57

When You and I Were Young, Maggie

4   4   1   1   5   27   57   57

I'm Sitting on Top of the World
4   77   1   1   6m   6m   27   57

Lady Be Good

4   57   1   1   6m   6m   2m7    57

My Blue Heaven

4   67   2m   2m   57   57   1   1

I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket

4   4  6b7  6b7  3b7  3b7   57   57  

(Note the tricky bit)

Beautiful Dreamer

57   57   1   1   27   27   57   57

Way Down Upon the Swanee River
57   57   1   17   4   4   1   57

When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful

57   1   57   1   67   27   27   57

Post 164: 'ST. JAMES INFIRMARY' AND 'YOU LET ME DOWN'

Sometimes you find that two songs which - on the surface - seem quite different are in fact based a virtually identical chord structure. For example, the many tunes using the Bill Bailey chords are well known to all jazz musicians.

Similarly Please Don't Talk About Me is harmonically identical to Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl?).

But today I was listening to You Let Me Down written originally for Billie Holiday, I think, by Warren and Dubin in 1935. What struck me is that  this song - in a minor key - sounds harmonically very similar (almost identical) to St. James' Infirmary.

Post 79: THE HOT NUTS CHORD PROGRESSION

THE HOT NUTS PROGRESSION 

has a long history, as it dates back at least to 1906 with Percy Cahill's Don't Go Away, Nobody. In the Key of C it is:

C | A7 | D7/G7 | C | C | A7 | D7 | G7
C*** | C7*** | F*** | Fm*** | C | A7 | D7/G7 | C 

As you can see, it is a very simple 16-bar structure. In some songs, a two-bar tag is added, making 18 bars in all. Where I have placed askerisks, the band sometimes chooses to include solo instrument (or vocal) breaks.

Like the 12-bar blues, this is one of the most common progressions in traditional jazz.

You can hear it for example in:

If It Don't Fit, Don't Force It 

Droppin' Shucks
Everybody's Talking About Sammy

Forget Me Not Blues
Hot Nuts, Get 'Em from the Peanut Man 

How Come You Do Me Like You Do Do Do? 
Maybe Not At All

Meat on the Table (one theme)
My Sweet Lovin' Man
Prove It On Me Blues
Take Your Fingers Off It
Walk Right In
Watchin' The Clock
Don't Go Away, Nobody

Like the Sister Kate Progression, this one ends with the Sunshine Sequence (described elsewhere in this Blog). So nothing could be more natural or simple to play. But the progressions are extremely effective.

Post 19: 'WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN'

When the Saints Go Marching In (often referred to as The Saints) is one of the best-known and best-loved of all tunes played by the traditional jazz bands. It is even known and sung in many languages throughout the world. Jazz musicians themselves generally don’t care for it. The reason is partly that it is constantly requested, so they are bored by it. But audiences love singing and clapping along to this tune.

When The Saints has a Verse as well as the familiar Chorus. The two are similar; but I shall concentrate on the Chorus.

There are three reasons why it is easy for the audience and lends itself to audience participation. (1) It has a simple 16-bar structure; (2) it offers a singer and echoing chorus possibility (Oh when the saints [Oh when the saints…]); and (3) it is repetitive: there’s nothing much to learn.

But they are also three reasons why the musicians do not much care for it: the tune poses no great challenge.

That is its simple chord structure (without any sophistication).

Note how you can get away with using just three chords: it is what musicians call a three-chord trick. The chords are the most common: the tonic, the dominant and the sub-dominant.

It is believed that this tune is a traditional gospel number dating back to the earliest days of jazz (and jazz funerals) in New Orleans. I am surprised, though, that not one of the early jazz bands - all through the great New Orleans and Chicago eras - ever seems to have recorded it. The only early recordings of When The Saints (dating from the 1920s), are by gospel singers and by singer-guitarist Blind Willie Davis (about whom almost nothing is known). You can listen to his performance by clicking here. But the very first recorded performance seems to have been by The Paramount Jubilee Singers in 1923. You can find this easily on YouTube.

Some scholarly types claim the song was written in 1896 by James M. Black (1856-1938) and Katherine E. Purvis, who died in 1909. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania. But the song they wrote was actually When The Saints Are Marching In and it has a different melody. I have examined the sheet music.

When The Saints Go Marching In was used in the 1936 film Green Pastures, for which it was claimed that Virgil Stamps wrote the music. It was even copyrighted in 1937 by Virgil Stamps, with words by Luther G. Presley. Stamps was born in Texas in 1892. He got a job with The Tennessee Music Company and started composing songs by 1915. He was also a singer and a keen student and proponent of gospel music. So it is conceivable that he really did compose it in his younger days. Later he had his own music company. He and his singing quartet became early stars of the radio age. Luther Presley, whose name also appeared on the copyright and who may or may not have written the words, died in 1974, having lived to the good old age of 87; so he at least knew what world-wide fame the song went on to achieve.

Incidentally, I received an email in May 2015 from the great-niece of Virgil Stamps. She said her mother had assured her that Virgil composed the tune. 

In 1938, the great Louis Armstrong took it up and recorded it. It was not until then that it caught on and its fame was assured.

The tune has been adopted as a rallying song for sports teams and institutions throughout the world. In my country, it is used by Southampton Football Club (The Saints). Most famously, the tune was taken to its heart by New Orleans and is the probable reason why The New Orleans Saints Football Team was so named.

Its simple chord structure is copied in other tunes. I think you will find I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, Jump for Joy, Peruna, Reefer Man, The Sloop John B, You Rascal You and Red River Valley are pretty much identical; and the tune We Shall Walk Through The Streets Of The City (played these days by most traditional jazz bands) certainly is. The Chorus of Livin' High uses this structure, too. And so do The Coming Tide,  This Train and the Chorus of Who Threw the Whisky in the Well and There Ain't Gonna Be No Doggone Afterwhile.

And a final observation: when I was in New Orleans as a tourist a few years ago, I came across a couple of jazz buskers (trumpet and banjo) in Jackson Square and they were playing When The Saints in the unusual key of E! The trumpeter was producing some amazing improvisations. As he was using a Bb trumpet, it meant he was improvising at high speed in what was for him a key of 6 sharps! It was a brilliant improvisation. I suppose these two gentlemen were playing the tune because they knew it was a crowd-pleaser; but at the same time they were choosing to make it a much greater challenge for themselves.