Post 596: 'ALLIGATOR HOP' - A GOOD TRADITIONAL JAZZ TUNE

Alligator Hop is a good tune to have in your armoury. It sounds clever and complicated. And yet it could hardly be simpler. By the way, it was also originally called Alligator Flop.

It is one of those tunes composed by King Oliver and Alphonse Picou with a helping hand from Lil Hardin (I suspect) in 1923 for use by their band.

Listen to it by clicking here.

Although it is usually played quite fast (and can therefore sound tricky) it uses very simple melodic, harmonic and rhythmic patterns, with built-in two-bar 'breaks'. It is even normally played in the easiest keys.

The tune begins with a standard four-bar Introduction and then goes into THEME A. This is 32 bars in Bb (16 + 16) using the Sweet Sue Chord Progression and  ending each 16 on II7:V7  |  1.

A 'break' is taken on the tonic chord in bars 13 and 14 (and therefore again on bars 29 and 30). So far so good, and you have needed only the chords of:

I   and  II7    and  V7.

After a couple of times through Theme A, you burst into THEME B, which is 16 bars (8 + 8), but you have now switched to the key of Eb. A 'break' is taken on Bars 7 and 8, based on the chords II7  |  V7.

Again the chord pattern could hardly be simpler: the tonic is the chord for 13 of the 16 bars!

Next: go back and play Theme A once.

Finally play THEME C until you're ready to stop. Theme C is in Eb and it is identical in chord and general structure to Theme B. The only difference is that you may care - like King Oliver - to play a slightly different melody.

So the entire romping tune can be seen as very simple; and the chord players can get away with using only three chords - though in both Bb and Eb.

Incidentally, this is best regarded as an ensemble party piece. Everybody plays throughout: there's no call for 'solos', apart from those little 'breaks'.

Post 586: LET'S LEARN 'WA WA WA'

My friends and I decided to learn Wa Wa Wa. This is the tune famously recorded by King Oliver in 1926. You can hear his recording BY CLICKING HERE.

We soon realized it was a great piece to learn - an archetypal 1920s number with a catchy melody based on a simple, intuitive chord structure, and having a good Verse - played AFTER the first Chorus - to provide some contrast.

The Chorus is one of those consisting of twenty bars (a fashionable length in the 1920s) and allowing 'breaks' over bars 13 - 16. These of course add to the excitement.

We went about learning it direct from the King Oliver recording, with frequent use of the pause button. King Oliver plays it in Bb - the easiest of keys for traditional jazz bands - so it was not too difficult.

I must mention that Wa Wa Wa was not actually composed by King Oliver. The composer was Mort Schaefer, who seems to have been famous for nothing else.

It's a terrific piece to play, and easier than it sounds. For your own satisfaction, though, it's a good idea to include King Oliver's excellent four-bar Introduction  and neat, tricky Coda (ending with a syncopated bar played on percussion only). The Coda begins in Bar 19 the final time you play the Chorus. It lasts for eight bars. It's worth taking the trouble to get it right.

Post 582: COMMUNICATE - BUT DON'T TELL FIBS!

I have often recommended someone in the band should SPEAK to the audience as much as possible. Fans enjoy receiving scraps of information about the band and the music being played, including the titles of tunes.

However, I wish some speakers would take more care to get their facts right.

I often hear band-leaders giving information that is neither credible nor amusing. There's plenty of fake news in the way tunes are introduced. My friend Bob Anderson of San Diego told me the same is true in the USA: he said: 'We have a few bandleaders here who are either misinformed or think the false myths are a good story'.

I can recall occasions when an announcer said something that members of the audience were too polite to tell him was untrue. One told us the New Orleans trumpet-player Jabbo Smith made records in the 1940s and then 'faded away and was heard of no more'. Yet some of us knew Jabbo was still playing in the 1980s: there are YouTube videos of him doing so.

Often I hear a tune introduced as 'written by the great Louis Armstrong' when in fact it was certainly not written by him.

I have heard Ice Cream announced as being by Chris Barber, the British band-leader (no doubt because his band recorded it), with no recognition that it was composed before Chris Barber was born and first made famous as a jazz tune by such musicians as George Lewis.

Recently I heard a band-leader firmly say: 'This next tune was composed by Benny Goodman. It is called The Glory of Love.' If he had said 'recorded by', I would have given the matter no further thought. But he definitely said 'composed by'. That sounded fishy to me. When I arrived home, I checked and found the composer was in fact William Joseph Hill, who had studied at The New England Conservatory of Music and went on to run a jazz band in Salt Lake City.

I have noticed that an introduction frequently used by one announcer is: We're now going to play the old Fats Waller number.... and he then names, for example, Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans or You Always Hurt The One You Love - tunes that were written after Fats Waller died!

Algiers Strut is often introduced incorrectly as having been 'written by Kid Thomas Valentine' - an announcement that particularly irritates my friend Barrie Marshall. And I know of two band-leaders (one of them, sadly, no longer with us) who loved to play Doctor Jazz and always announced it as 'by Jelly Roll Morton'.

It's true Morton's band made a fine recording of this tune; but it was not 'by' him. The music was written by King Oliver, as you can see:

Doctor Jazz is one of the great classics of our repertoire. It is played so often that we tend to overlook what a fine piece it is. Unlike many, the song has a good and appropriate Verse; and the 32-bar Chorus is brilliantly constructed, with a beautiful chord progression, a vigorous, singable melody, and some built-in opportunities for 'breaks' - on Bars 15-16, 25-26 and 27-28. What a great man Joe 'King' Oliver was, in his own playing, in producing such seminal recordings with his bands and also in his composing! We are all deeply in his debt.

Moral of the story: get your facts right; and don't credit the hard work of a composer to someone else.

Post 503: THE MAKING OF 'SNAG IT'

On 17 September 1926 King Oliver took his Jazz Band into the Chicago Studio to record his composition Snag It. Two takes of the tune survive. Both are available on YouTube.

VERSION ONE: This strikes me as the weaker version, but it has some interesting features (a Chorus led by the tuba; and a 2-bar Coda) that were not on the better version. Also, there is no vocal. My guess is that Oliver would not have been too happy with his own playing (some superfluous notes in the Introduction; and the now-famous four-bar break taken a  shade too hastily) and that he would have considered the final two choruses less tidy than on VERSION TWO.

VERSION TWO: This is better played overall. In structure, the main differences are that it drops the tuba solo chorus and substitutes a vocal chorus. There is also some vocal commenting (which I could have done without) over the final two choruses. Also, Version Two drops the Coda.

Both versions, however, were well crafted, using pretty much the same scheme (the 8-bar Introduction followed by seven 12-bar blues choruses, all in Eb). Oliver had clearly given the piece a lot of thought. It was to have that striking dramatic eight-bar Introduction and then an ensemble first chorus before a second chorus in which the trombone would take the lead against a gentle long-note accompaniment. He would begin the fifth chorus on his cornet with the four-bar break which has since become the one thing in the recording that everybody remembers. The final two choruses would be based on a pleasant riff (played gently by the reeds, with a counter-melody from the cornet and steady soft accompaniment).

But what I have deliberately not mentioned so far is something that strikes me as one of the most interesting features - the rhythmic accompaniment to the third chorus. The clarinet plays the melody, supported by a repeated two-bar rhythmic pattern that goes like this:| 

If that seems hard to follow, listen to it at 1 minute 14 seconds into this YouTube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6fkstiMAbc

This inventive, unusual rhythmic pattern is, for me, one of the best things in 'Snag It'. I think it is something we could all attempt (not only when playing this tune) as it would give badly-needed variety to our rhythmic accompaniments.

It is quite tricky to get the drums, guitar or banjo, bass and piano all hitting this rhythm precisely together. It may need practice. But it is well worth the effort.

Listen again to the full King Oliver recording and see what you think.

Post 474: 'SHAKE IT AND BREAK' - SORTING OUT THE CONFUSION

You may have noticed that our jazz bands play two quite different tunes that are both called Shake It and Break It. This used to cause me confusion and I learn from correspondents that it has puzzled some of you too.

Although I may be wrong on some points, I will try to sort out the confusion by explaining what seems to have happened, as far as I can tell.

SHAKE IT AND BREAK IT  (1)

This tune was composed in 1920 by Lou Chiha (music) and H. Qualli Clark (lyrics). No, I did not make these names up!

It consists, after an Intro, of three strains of 16 bars each.

As played by our jazz bands, the first strain (normally played twice) seems to be in a minor key and involves some arpeggios being prettily run around. The second strain is in the related major key and its main characteristic is that it is a stuttering melody allowing for two two-bar breaks.  This is the strain used by most bands for the improvising of solo choruses.

The original words of the song suggest that it's about a 'new dance' in which the ladies 'shake' their taffeta dresses.

There is a terrific recording of the King Oliver Band playing what I have described so far. They play that first strain and then stick entirely on the second strain. Listen to the recording by clicking here.

Today's top band - Tuba Skinny - uses only the same two strains as King Oliver: CLICK HERE.

Many other bands (like Oliver's and Tuba Skinny) omit the third strain completely - finding quite enough to work on in the first two strains.

However, the tune and lyrics of the third strain dominate in blues singer Charlie Patton's recording entitled Shake It and Break It from 1929. So, although this has the same title, it sounds quite different from the King Oliver version. Charlie plays just this melody - not the two strains heard on the Oliver recording.

When the tune is played today by jazz bands, the third strain is sometimes added to the two previous strains and is played in the same key as the second strain and there is a vocal for this third strain only - a vocal that freely adapts the words of the original.

A reader has kindly sent me a photo-copy of Chiha and Clark's original printed music:

SHAKE IT AND BREAK IT (2)

This tune is often introduced by bands as Shake It and Break It; but it is actually Weary Blues, composed in 1915 by Gates, Matthews and Green. As you probably know, Weary Blues (which sounds anything but weary), has three strains. The first two are both 12-bar blues, usually played in F. The melodies are snappy and memorable.

Then there is a third strain, usually in Bb. This is exciting, with rapid riffs full of quavers, and a chord sequence on which musicians love to improvise. So this is the strain on which solo choruses are played.

Why do some bands announce this tune as Shake It and Break It? I am fairly sure it is because they fit words to that third strain. They are pretty well the same as those of the third strain in the 'official' Shake It and Break It ('Shake it! Break it! Hang it on the wall', etc). That, I think, is what has caused the confusion.

CLICK HERE for a performance of Weary Blues - played brilliantly by one of today's greatest bands and without the vocal - but under the title of Shake It and Break It.

For a performance of Weary Blues (correctly titled) but with the Shake it and Break It lyrics sung by Ben Polcer at  4 minutes 11 secs, click here.

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FOOTNOTE
The books Enjoying Traditional Jazz and Playing Traditional Jazz - both by Pops Coffee - are available from Amazon.

Post 425: 'FAREWELL BLUES' AND 'WEARY BLUES'

King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators

James Sterling of Florida has established himself since 2015 as one of the leading video-historians of the contemporary New Orleans scene. One of his videos, filmed in June 2016, is of Tuba Skinny playing Farewell Blues (CLICK HERE TO ENJOY IT).

This tune was composed in 1922 by Elmer Schoebel, Leon Rappollo and Paul Mares for The New Orleans Rhythm Kings, who recorded it that year; but Tuba Skinny have modelled their version very closely on the 1927 recording by King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators (which you may hear BY CLICKING HERE). Oliver's version, in its turn, fairly closely followed the NORK original.

Watching it, I was reminded of the very simple and yet rewarding chord progression on which Farewell Blues is based. It is essentially a 16-bar A-A-B-A structure that goes like this:

I      | V⁷  |  I      | I
I      | V⁷  |    I    | I

VI⁷ | VI⁷ |  II^m  | I^o

I      | V⁷   |    I   | I

It is pretty well the same as the final theme of Weary Blues. This is not surprising because it is said that The New Orleans Rhythm Kings had the 1915 composition Weary Blues in their repertoire and developed Farewell Blues from that final theme. 

One reason why it is so attractive to play around with and improvise on is that the 'A' part is so simple; and the other reason is that the  chord and melody note in Bar 12 are nerve-tinglers. This is the most striking chord in the sequence. (By the way, some chord books give it as VI^b7 rather than 1^o; but this makes no great difference. Think about it: they are virtually the same.)

Farewell Blues is normally played at a steady and stately pace, whereas Weary Blues tends to be performed a good deal faster. But in all other respects, over these 16 bars, the chords you play and the improvisations you invent could be interchangeable.

Although Farewell Blues is little more than a simple 16-bar theme, the melody can be given some interesting treatments. For example, King Oliver (and Shaye in Tuba Skinny) both play the tune through first starting on the dominant (F in the key of Bb). It is as if they are harmonising a third above the melody. In later choruses, they do indeed start the chorus on the D. Later still, Shaye (just like  King Oliver) plays flattened 7ths at the start of all the 'A' Sections (another device that many bands employ effectively with Weary Blues).

So it's amazing what can be done (and what fun a band can have), even when starting out with a very simple blueprint.

Here's the 16 bars of Farewell Blues twice through - first starting on the F, and then in the D.

And here is the comparable theme from Weary Blues:

Post 423: 'WORKING MAN BLUES'

In 1923 the 37-year-old cornet-playing band-leader Joe 'King' Oliver and his 25-year-old pianist Lil Hardin (who had a music diploma from Fisk University, Nashville, and who later became Mrs. Louis Armstrong) composed Working Man Blues - sometimes written as Workingman's Blues.

At the time, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band had a residency at Lincoln Gardens, 459, East 31st Street, Chicago - not far from the Lake. (As far as I can tell, there is today a glass office block on the site.) The band made a recording of Working Man Blues for the Gennett label in Richmond, Indiana, on 3 October 1923. You may listen to it BY CLICKING HERE.

It's a really good piece for the repertoire of our bands and easy to master. 

As you see, there are just three short and simple sections. The first (A) is only a 12-bar blues, using a pretty riff. The second (B) is a 16-bar theme using The Four-Leaf Clover chord progression. (You can read about that progression BY CLICKING HERE.)

Section (B) is structured to include three opportunities for 2-bar breaks. Johnny Dodds makes the most of those in that 1923 recording.

The third 'theme' (C) involves free-style improvising over another 12-bar blues structure, but this time allowing a 'break' in bars 7 and 8. Oliver's band had the clarinet, cornet and trombone (Honoré Dutrey) respectively taking these breaks.

The tune is rounded off by a neat 2-bar CODA.

Some bands today, unlike Oliver himself, make more of Themes (A) and (B), staying on them for longer, or even dropping Theme (C) altogether.

Oliver chooses to devote the whole of the second half of the performance to three choruses of Theme (C).

He was constrained by the limited amount of time for which a 78 rpm record could play. Bands today are freed from such constraint and - with more choruses - tend to make the tune last much longer. However, as I have said elsewhere, a short performance can often be more effective than a longer one (especially if the musicians have nothing special to 'say'). For me, Oliver's original recorded version feels just right.

On the choice of key, some bands today play the piece in F. It sounds fine in that key and is perhaps for some musicians a little easier than Lil Hardin and Oliver's choice of Ab.

To watch a clear and reverential performance of Working Man Blues by a much later band (The Peruna Jazzmen) CLICK HERE.

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The book Playing Traditional Jazz by Pops Coffee is available from Amazon.

Post 417: KING OLIVER'S CREOLE JAZZ BAND: THE GENNETT RECORDINGS

Some of the most important recordings in the history of our music were made in 1923. I am referring to the 14 tunes King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band recorded in April and October that year for Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana.

You can enjoy all of the tunes on YouTube and I hope you will have great pleasure discovering them - or exploring them again - for yourselves. You could start by clicking here.

The Gennett Company had been set up only six years earlier and was still using fairly primitive pre-electric recording methods.

The tunes were:
Alligator Hop
Canal Street Blues
Dippermouth Blues (King Oliver was nick-named 'Dippermouth' because he used to keep on the bandstand a bucket of water with a dipper in it)
Chimes Blues
Just Gone
Snake Rag
Sugarfoot Stomp
Working Man Blues
Zulu's Ball
(all the above were composed or co-written by Oliver himself)
AND
Froggie More
I'm Going Away to Wear You Off My Mind
Krooked Blues
Mandy Lee Blues
Weatherbird Rag.

We have only to read that list to appreciate what a contribution Oliver made to the history and repertoire of traditional jazz. (It is often forgotten that he also wrote Doctor Jazz. I have sometimes heard band-leaders, announcing this tune, wrongly say that it was composed by Jelly Roll Morton. We must also remember that it was Oliver who later composed those classics Snag It and West End Blues.)

But these Gennett recordings are also important because they are regarded as the first to document well an authentic black traditional New Orleans jazz band. (In fact, Kid Ory's band had made half a dozen recordings just  a few months earlier - for the Nordskog company.)

So who was Oliver?

Cornet player Joe Nathan 'King' Oliver was born on 11 May 1885. Unfortunately, he lost the sight of one eye in his childhood. But by 1908 he was playing in several bands in New Orleans, including the famous marching bands. He worked with Kid Ory and the two of them moved to Chicago in 1918. They joined Bill Johnson's Original Creole Jazz Band. Bill Johnson at the time was 47 years old. He played bass and banjo and was an elder statesman and entrepreneur in the music business. He had toured and made New Orleans jazz known outside the South. His band currently played at The Dreamland Ballroom in West Van Buren Street, close to the centre of the City of Chicago. (The building has long since disappeared.)

We have to remember that, in those days, the movies and radio were in their infancy; television and computers were things of the future. Most people went out for entertainment. So this was a boom time for dancing, for dance bands and for jazz bands. In Chicago there were plenty of cafés, bars, ballrooms and clubs where you could hear such bands.

As well as The Dreamland Ballroom, think of The Royal Gardens Ballroom, The De Luxe Café, The Sunset Café, Kelly's Stables, The Nest (later The Apex Club - of 'Apex Blues' fame), The Plantation and Friar's Inn. The Royal Gardens Ballroom (which regularly accommodated 1000 people) burned down and was replaced by The Lincoln Gardens; and that is where Oliver's Creole Jazz Band had its residency.

This was some way south from The Dreamland Ballroom - at 459 East 31st Street. As far as I can tell, the Lincoln Gardens Ballroom was bulldozed years ago and - with the help of Mr. Google - I find a glass office block on the site today. 

It seems that Bill Johnson was quite happy to hand on his own band to the younger man - King Oliver - to develop in his own way and then to evolve it into King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.

Who played in Oliver's Creole Jazz Band?

Everyone thinks first of Louis Armstrong, because he went on to become a big star in the entertainment world and in the movies. He was to develop a phenomenal technique, a great tone, and virtuoso skill in improvising solo choruses. But in 1923, he was a junior member of Oliver's band - and we should not forget that. However, there's a clear and very enjoyable hint of future glories in the famous solo that Armstrong takes in Chimes Blues. Oliver had invited him to move to Chicago from New Orleans and this was the launching pad for Armstrong's stellar career. When you think of the energy and stamina needed for the band's performances (playing for dances long into the night), it is easy to understand why Oliver invited Armstrong to join and help him: it must have been a huge strain on Oliver's lip to sustain such long, hard gigs, with few breaks from playing.

But more important than Armstrong at the time, in my opinion, was the clarinet player Johnny Dodds (1892 - 1940). He had also worked with Kid Ory in New Orleans from 1912. Dodds made a huge contribution to the ensemble style and sound of Oliver's band: his fluency and his soulful, bluesy playing and tone have been an inspiration to generations of clarinet players. In a tune such as Canal Street Blues, his decorative runs around the melody and his memorable solo are outstanding. But listen for him even on lesser-known numbers such as Just Gone and Mandy Lee Blues and you will be impressed. I suppose it was Johnny's good fortune that the clarinet could be heard so clearly, despite the primitive recording process of the time.

Then there was Bill Johnson himself (1872 - 1972), the bass player and former leader who had achieved much even before King Oliver (at Johnson's invitation) became established in Chicago. It is said that he had to switch to banjo in the Gennett studio because the bass would record badly and spoil the sound.

Of enormous importance (and much under-rated by jazz history in my opinion) was the band's pianist Lil Hardin. She had been born in Memphis on 3 Feb 1898 and had worked for some time on the Chicago music scene: she had studied music at Fisk University, obtaining a diploma there (she also obtained a qualification later from the New York College of Music), and had played with various bands, including one of her own, even before her partnership with Oliver.

Lil Hardin's Band playing at The Dreamland Ballroom

I think hers must have been one of the principal 'brains' shaping the band's music-making. Lil was also the co-composer (with Oliver) of Alligator Hop, Just Gone and Working Man Blues. The label on 'Just Gone' gives the composers as 'Oliver and Johnson' but it seems that the 'Johnson' was in fact Lil (not the band member Bill Johnson), because at that time she was very briefly married to a singer called Jimmie Johnson. My guess is that she had a big say in the arrangements of the band's tunes and possibly even in organizing the many two-bar breaks that occur in several of them and which listeners have often thought to be magically spontaneous (such as the famous breaks involving Joe and Louis together in Snake Rag). Lil's playing throughout these recordings is a model for all later pianists in New Orleans-style bands - solidly providing the chords on the beat and yet capable of a pretty solo chorus if required, as in I'm Going Away to Wear You Off My Mind. And how moving it is to hear those piano chimes of hers coming to us across more than nine decades in Chimes Blues!

Within the next three years, after marrying Louis Armstrong, Lil composed (originally for Louis' Hot Five) such core tunes in our repertoire as Knee Drops, I'm Not Rough, Lonesome Blues, Skid-Dat-De-Dat, Two Deuces, Hotter Than That, Jazz Lips, Droppin' Shucks and Struttin' With Some Barbecue. Her other compositions include Perdido Street Blues, Papa Dip, Tears, and Gatemouth. What an achievement!

Lil died on 27 August 1971.

The trombonist in Oliver's band was Honoré Dutrey (1894 - 1935). He had played in bands in New Orleans. He joined the Navy in 1917 and had an accident that damaged his lungs and eventually caused his premature death. Dutrey strikes me as just right for this band - keeping things simple but always accurate. A good clear illustration of his style is to be heard on Working Man Blues.

Warren 'Baby' Dodds, 24-years-old at the time of the recordings, is one of the all-time best drummers. He too had started in New Orleans and had played with Ory there, before working on the riverboats. He was of course the younger brother of Johnny Dodds. In these Gennett recordings, you do not hear the full range of his kit but his presence is strongly felt throughout. Enjoy his breaks on the wood blocks in Weather Bird Rag.

Other occasional band members (only on the October Gennett recordings) were Johnny St. Cyr (banjo) and the less-known Paul Anderson 'Stump' Evans (C melody sax).

The recordings were made without the benefit of electricity or microphones. The sound had to be picked up through a large megaphone-funnel. Certain musical instruments had to be omitted or restricted in use because their effect would spoil or unbalance the recording (Baby Dodds could use only part of his drum kit, and Johnson could not use his string bass). The players had to be positioned at various distances from the funnel, to achieve some kind of balance. This photo of a Gennett recording studio (alas, not of King Oliver's Band) gives some idea of the conditions. Note the funnel picking up the sounds.

Clearly, what we hear on the records is not exactly how the band normally sounded at Lincoln Gardens. But the wonderful polyphony and energy are captured really well.

The tunes are all multi-part, with tricky head arrangements, including introductions and codas. There's none of the simple repetition of one 32-bar theme, such as we are offered these days in most performances by traditional jazz bands. 

Oliver was proud and professional in his attitude to work and expected the  highest standards from his musicians. He was strongly self-disciplined. He drove his band hard. Baby Dodds in an interview years later  stated how strenuously all the band members worked at gigs: they would really exhaust themselves. Sure enough, all members of the band sound constantly so busy. Listen again to Dippermouth Blues and judge for yourself.

Oliver's personal interest in tone (he produced a throaty vocal sound on his cornet) and the use of mutes have had a massive influence on brass players ever since. You can sample his tone and his mutes throughout but of course they are specially conspicuous in Dippermouth Blues.

On top of all this, also in 1923, calling his band simply King Oliver's Jazz Band (drawn from a pool of players that included Barney Birgard, Paul Barbarin, Kid Ory, Luis Russell and others as well as those of the Creole Jazz Band), Oliver also recorded in Chicago for the Okeh, Paramount and Columbia labels a total of 23 numbers, such as Riverside Blues, Mabel's Dream, Southern Stomps, Tears, Buddy's Habit, Sweet Lovin' Man, High Society, Sobbin' Blues, and Camp Meeting Blues  - and others.

But Oliver's Creole Jazz Band of 1923 was short-lived. It disintegrated the following year. Oliver went on to play in various combinations and bands (sometimes run by himself). His struggles and decline have been well documented. And it is sad to think he died in poverty on 10 April 1938.

Listening to all these Gennett recordings again has made me realise what an example to us all King Oliver's band of 1923 was. That's the way to do it. Many others have set out to emulate  his music. But there's nothing quite like the originals.
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FOOTNOTE
Reader Barrie Marshall sent me this email:
Hi Ivan,

King Oliver was the mute master. Considering Louis' massive respect for his playing, I have never heard Louis use a mute.

Regards

Barrie 

Post 358: 'BUDDY'S HABIT(S)'

'Buddy's Habits' (aka 'Buddy's Habit') was written in 1923, by Arnett Nelson and Charley Straight. Thanks to the generosity of the videomaker codenamed RagtimeDorianHenry, you can see the sheet music and hear the piece played on the piano by clicking here. And you can hear the original recording by Charley Straight's own Orchestra by clicking here.

The joint composer, Arnett 'King Mutt' Nelson, was a clarinet and saxophone player. He was born in Gulfport on 8th March, 1890 and died on 14th March, 1959. His first job was with the band of John Collins, Lee Collins' father, around 1907. Arnett moved to Chicago in 1914 and is not known to have returned. He was a member of Jimmy Wade's band in Chicago and New York, 1922-27, and was in pickup bands with Punch Miller in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He later worked with Chicago blues bands.

The other joint-composer, Charley Straight, was born in Chicago, Illinois in January 1891. He apparently had Bix Beiderbecke in his band for four months in 1925, but fired him! Charley Straight started his musical career in the early 1910s as a solo piano player and by circa 1917 led his first band. Charley's important contribution to the piano roll industry should also be noted. His early career was on the vaudeville circuit; during that period, from 1912 to 1914, while they worked in England, he issued with his partner Gene Greene several double-faced records. Shortly thereafter he became Musical Director of the Imperial Piano Roll Company (later to become QRS, the most prolific piano roll manufacturer in the world), where he made numerous rolls, collaborating with Roy Bargy on quite a few. According to The Music Trade Review, he left Imperial shortly before January 1922 and his piano roll activities appear to have ceased around 1926. Although his was basically a hotel dance band, Straight appreciated jazz and some of his recordings for Paramount are considered to be among the best jazz records made by a white band in the early 1920's. Straight didn't record after August 1928 but remained active as a bandleader until his death on September 2, 1940 when he was hit by a speeding car in Chicago.

The recording of 'Buddy's Habits' by Charley Straight's Orchestra was made in June 1923 and then - as 'Buddy's Habit' - it was recorded by King Oliver's Jazz Band (25 Oct 1923). Other early recordings were by The Midway Dance Orchestra (5 Dec 1923), The Bucktown Five [with Muggsy Spanier] (25 Feb 1925), Red Nichols & His Five Pennies (20 Dec 1926).

The 'Buddy' of the title was not Buddy Bolden. It was a tuba-player, Louis 'Buddy' Gross, whose habit was retiring to the rest room at the end of each set because of the vast quantity of beer he had consumed. Another 'habit' was that he got so drunk that he fell offstage backwards, with his tuba. It seems he was a member of Charley Straight's Orchestra.

When clarinetist Arnett Nelson (the other co-composer) played in Jimmy Wade's Orchestra at the Moulin Rouge Café (Wabash Ave, Chicago), the tuba/bass sax player was also Louis 'Buddy' Gross. He recorded with Wade's Moulin Rouge Orchestra in Dec 1923 and Feb 1924.

This leaves me guessing that Arnett Nelson and Louis 'Buddy' Gross played in both Jimmy Wade's Orchestra AND Charley Straight's Orchestra in 1923. This is surely probable. Clarification on this point would be welcome, if anyone knows.

There is also a party-piece for banjo players (you can find it on YouTube) called 'Take Your Pick', with the composer credited as Pete Mandell, the banjoist with the Savoy Orpheans in London, England. This was copyrighted in 1925. 'Take Your Pick' was recorded by the Savoy Havana Band, with Pete Mandell on banjo. 'Take Your Pick' - apparently considered something of a tour-de-force in the banjo-playing fraternity - seems to be a plagiarised 'Buddy's Habits'. If there was plagiarism, the dates suggest it was from west to east.

'Buddy's Habits', which has three themes, is interesting, 'catchy' and not too challenging to play, so it is hardly surprising it quickly went the rounds and is still very popular among the bands of today.