Post 431: 'CHICKEN YOU CAN HIDE BEHIND THE MOON'

In case you haven't already watched it, let me point you to a video that will warm your heart and make you smile. The song is Chicken You Can Hide Behind The Moon. It comes complete with chickens!

To watch this video by The Hokum High Rollers (in this case just Hannah and Jason)

CLICK HERE.

The song could have been circulating even before 1900, but it acquired its established form in the hands of Frank Stokes, a great guitarist who was born in Tennessee in 1888. Words were probably added by his colleague Dan Sane. They worked together in the 1920s as The Beale Street Sheiks. Stokes is said to have founded the Memphis Blues Guitar Style. You can find him easily on YouTube.

'Is this strictly relevant to traditional jazz?' you ask. Of course it is. There was so much overlap between the music of the folk-singers, the jug bands and the jazz bands of the early days.

Also, not only is it a fun number. It has a melody and chord structure (basically a three-chord trick) that are easy to pick up. Any trad band could enjoy playing it, with or without the lyrics. You could even write your own new lyrics for it.

What better way to end this post than with another lovely picture of Hannah?

Post 380: THE HOKUM HIGH ROLLERS

On the streets of New Orleans, there are now several great young 'string bands' to be heard. It is not just standard traditional jazz bands that have flourished there in the last ten years.

The Hokum High Rollers -
busking at night in Frenchmen Street

The string bands are direct descendants of the string and jug bands from the 1930s, such as The Dixieland Jug Blowers, The South Street Trio, The State Street Boys, The Dallas String Band, The Mississippi Sheiks, The Memphis Jug Band, The Grinnell Giggers, The Mississippi Mud Steppers, Bo Carter's Bands, King David's Jug Band and many others, who have inspired them and from whom they derive much of their repertoire. The music of string bands also of course fed directly into the 'country' and 'bluegrass' genres.

One of the best of today's bands is The Hokum High Rollers. There are plenty of good videos of them on YouTube. If you haven't yet watched it, try this one as an example of their brilliance: Click Here.

And have a look at this remarkable video of a tune they added to their repertoire at the end of 2016. It is Toots, a great ragtime number composed by Felix Arndt and recorded in 1914 by Arndt himself on piano with Dr. Clarence Penney on mandolin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cngV1J-LAU0
What vituosos they are! And if you wish to hear how true to the original their recording is, you can listen to the 1914 recording by Arndt and Penney here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90LK6A6nw44

I was delighted to come across The Hokum High Rollers busking in Royal Street during my April 2016 visit to New Orleans. Listening and watching from close quarters showed me they work hard, take their playing very seriously and have attained the highest technical standard of musicianship. They gave a very entertaining performance.

I recorded a video of them. You can watch it BY CLICKING HERE.

'But is this strictly traditional jazz?' you ask. Well, it certainly works in exactly the same way as traditional jazz and much of the repertoire overlaps. The main difference from more conventional traditional jazz lies in the instrumentation. But string bands even occasionally include a clarinet - or a cornet or trombone.

And the musicians are comfortable whether playing in a string band or in a stock traditional jazz band. For example, you will notice that two members of The Hokum High Rollers in my video are also members of Tuba Skinny. And the tune they are playing - Michigander Blues - has also become popular with many jazz bands since Tuba Skinny started playing it a few years ago.

Post 362: 'EVERYBODY LOVES MY BABY'

That spirited song Everybody Loves My Baby is in the repertoire of most traditional jazz bands. It is one that has stood the test of time. Why? Because it has a neat, memorable, repetitive melody, making clever use of a minor chord and its related major. The words are appealing and easy to learn. It even has a far better verse than many of the popular songs of its time.

Everybody Loves My Baby was composed in 1922 by Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams. Looking at a copy of the original piano sheet music, I'm impressed at how faithfully today's bands keep to the original, even many decades later. This is something rarely achieved!

I think it is partly because most musicians know the lyrics; and those lyrics fix in our minds the correct notes of the tune.

We find that Williams and Palmer published it in the key of G (with much use of the related E minor chord). Our jazz bands tend to prefer the key of F (with D minor), because this is easier for tuning and fingering.

The original sheet music offers an eight-bar Introduction and a couple of bars or repeatable 'patter' before the Verse. We now tend to discard these. But we play the 16-bar Verse (I'm as happy as a king, feelin' good 'n' ev'rything) pretty much as written.

The Chorus has a standard  A - A - B - A structure, with the A Sections dominated by that 'Minor' flavour.

The 'Middle Eight' is very effective, with the repeated, stuttering, notes (mainly on the tonic, though with changing chords beneath them.)

And the tune ends well.

'Fine,' you say. 'But is there any chance of hearing a really great band such as Tuba Skinny playing this tune?'

Yes, there is! It's on YouTube and we must be grateful to that excellent video-maker codenamed WildBill for putting it there. It's a storming performance (in the key of F). Shaye sets a cracking pace and is on her very best form, both in playing and in directing the traffic (note the Chorus in which she trades fours with Barnabus). Erika provides the vocal. There's even the bonus of Ben Polcer playing superbly on piano. In this version, they have chosen to omit the Verse, but who cares about that? CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT.

Post 327: 'MEMPHIS SHAKE' - A GREAT JAZZ TUNE

There is a terrific video of Tuba Skinny performing Memphis Shake. It is expertly filmed; and the tune - from 1926 - is brilliantly played. Unfortunately the start of the tune was not caught; but I think it's a video you will enjoy.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW.

Todd on Tuba

There were eight musicians on this occasion