Post 595: ELLINGTON'S 'BIG HOUSE BLUES'

For anybody interested in studying traditional jazz, 'Big House Blues', composed by Duke Ellington in 1930, is a good illustration of what makes the music endlessly fascinating and interesting.

For a start, like plenty of other pieces from our standard repertoire, it has two sections of which one is in a major key (in this case Eb) and the other in the related minor key (C minor).

Next, it reminds us that not all tunes in the 1920s and 1930s were structured in 12-bar or 32-bar formats. In fact, the first theme (Section A - see below) consists of 20 bars. Other examples of 20-bar tunes from our early repertoire are After You've Gone, Oh You Beautiful Doll, The Darktown Strutters Ball, I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan, Keeping Out of Mischief Now, You've Got the Right Key but the Wrong Keyhole, You Got Me Crying Again, and Papa De Da Da.

The tune uses riffs – again typical of our music – and they are unusually pretty and rhythmically interesting. Note what happens in bars 17 and 18 of the A section, for example. 

It is possible to go straight from section A into section B , though bands with a piano often get the pianist to play a four-bar link between the two, just as Ellington did.

Now look at the second theme - section B – in the key of C minor. It has a 32-bar AABA structure, again using a pretty, dramatic riff for the A sections. The middle eight has its own striking, defiant melody ending with a powerful use of the G7 chord.

Improvisations are normally played on this B section and they can be very dramatic. The melody and the minor key lend themselves to growling, muted work, for example. Actually, the chord sequence is much simpler than it sounds: it is possible for a musician of average ability to produce something quite impressive from this material. I think that is why it is popular with trumpet and trombone players.

I have heard some bands also introducing a 12-bar blues chorus in Eb, and using this for improvisations. I think that spoils the overall impact of all the minor chord stuff. Ellington himself didn't do it in 1930, so why should we?

A very good way to end the tune is to play Section A again, with those bars 17 to 18 sustaining the drama and bar 20  bringing the piece to a striking sudden halt.

You can hear the tune being played by Ellington himself BY CLICKING HERE. And you may watch a band playing the piece in 2008 BY CLICKING HERE.

Post 593: KEYS USED BY JAZZ BANDS

Here are two astonishing facts:

1. Our jazz bands play 43.5% of the all their tunes in just one key - Bb.

2. Our bands play over 90% of all their tunes in just three keys - Bb, F and Eb.

And yet there are twelve keys available. So why use only three?

Knowing many of my readers are not musicians, I will try to explain things as simply as possible.

When a band is going to play a tune, the musicians have to agree on which key they will use. Twelve keys are available:

G

Ab

A

Bb

B

C

Db

D

Eb

E

F

Gb.

Think of it this way: on a piano, Ab, Bb, Db, Eb, and Gb are the black notes. All the others are white notes.

The key indicates within which scale the tune is played and also which is the 'Home' note. For example, a tune in F will usually end on the note F.

The 'top five' keys are:

43.5% of all tunes: Bb  : (made up of 42% in Bb and 1.5% in the related minor key - G minor)

29.5% of all tunes: F : (made up of 26.5% in F and 3.5% in the related key of D minor)

18.5% of all tunes : Eb

4.5% of all tunes : C 

3.5% of all tunes : Ab : (made up of 2% in Ab and 1.5% in the related key of F minor)

Of course, any tune could be played in any key. To change a tune from one key to another, all you have to do is raise or lower all the notes by the same amount in order to reach the key you want. But most tunes are traditionally played in one agreed key.

Bearing in mind that there are twelve keys available, why on earth do we find that almost half of our tunes are played in Bb? And why are most of the others played in either F or Eb?

Put simply, it is because those are the keys in which the various musicians of the band are most likely to stay well in tune with each other. For example, when a trumpet plays in these keys (especially Bb), the notes require minimal use of the valves and all notes are reasonably well in tune.  Other keys require far greater uses of the valves. Each of the three valves on a trumpet adds an extra bit of tubing through which the column of air has to pass. Notes at six different pitches can easily be achieved by any combination of valves; but the physics of sound would require the length of tubing to be slightly different for each of these six notes to be perfectly in tune. So the manufacturers compromise by making tubes of the 'least worst' lengths.

On most instruments, the lower notes played with the use of valves are a tiny bit sharp. Some manufacturers provide expensive instruments with levers to extend the tubing just a little on these particular notes. You can see such levers in the centre of this picture:

The keys of Bb, F and Eb are used so much that musicians become increasingly comfortable with them and the fingering they require. So there is not much incentive to use other keys - even just for fun or for practice.

This is why traditional jazz musicians sometimes find it tricky when suddenly asked to play a tune in an unfamiliar key. This happens mostly when they accompany singers. You play a tune for years in F and then come across a singer who wants it in D because that is the key that best suits her voice.

Despite all I have said, the young band Tuba Skinny - in this as in so many respects - has made us re-think our attitudes. They are unafraid of 'tricky' keys and may be heard in a few of their recordings and YouTube videos playing  in such keys as G.

============

How 'scientific' is the survey above?

Sufficiently, I think, to justify my findings.

I chose two hundred different tunes from the standard traditional jazz repertoire and noted the keys in which they were played in YouTube videos and in performances I have attended. I omitted tunes such as early rags which usually comprise two or three sections and use different keys for different parts. I also omitted a very small number of tunes (such as 'Willie the Weeper' and 'At The Jazz Band Ball') which have two parts - one in a minor key and the other in the related major.

In the case of tunes in minor keys, as shown above I counted them within the total for the related major key: for example, G minor uses the same notes as Bb, so I classified it within 'Bb'. 

Post 477: 'CHLOE (SONG OF THE SWAMP)'

Let us have a look at Chlo-e (Song of the Swamp) which is a lovely and unusual tune from the 1920s. Some of our jazz bands still play it and I am very pleased that this is so.
Chloe was composed in 1927 by Charles N. Daniels, under his pseudonym of Neil Moret; and the lyrics were by the great Gus Kahn, who was very important in the history of our music. Working with various composers, Kahn wrote the words for such songs as these:

My Baby Just Cares For Me
That Certain Party
Making Whoopee
Carolina in the Morning
Love Me or Leave Me
I Never Knew That Roses Grew
Yes, Sir, That's My Baby
I Wonder Where My Baby is Tonight
I'll See You in My Dreams
Spain
It Had to be You
Pretty Baby
Memories
On the Road to Home Sweet Home
It Looks Like a Big Time Tonight
Coquette
Crazy Rhythm
Toot Toot Tootsie
Ukulele Lady
Ain't We Got Fun
Chloe
Side by Side
On the Alamo
Nobody's Sweetheart Now
You Stepped Out of a Dream

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Chloe may have been used first in the 1927 musical called 'Africana' but there is no definite evidence for this, even though, on the original sheet music, a picture of the singer Ethel Waters apparently connects it to that show.

Whatever the truth, it must have soon become popular because it was recorded during the late 1920s and during the 1930s by several famous orchestras and singers.

Chloe begins with an interesting but somewhat spooky 16-bar Verse in a minor key (usually A minor). The words of this verse are:

'Chlo-e! Chlo-e!'

Someone calling, no reply.

Night shade's falling, hear him sigh.

'Chlo-e! Chlo-e!'

Empty spaces meet his eyes.

Empty Arms outstretched, he's crying.....

(and so we are led into the 32-bar Chorus in the related major key [C]).

'Through the black of night, I got to go where you are.

If it's wrong or right, I got to go where you are.
I'll roam through the dismal swamp land searching for you,

'Cause if you are lost there, let me be there too.
Through the smoke and flames, I got to go where you are,

For no place could be too far, where you are.

Ain't no chains can bind you,

If If you live, I'll find you,

Love is calling me.

I got to go where you are.'

Searching for a girl at night, through swamp lands, and going through smoke and flames? How on earth did this situation arise? Weird, isn't it? 

The important thing is that the Chorus, which is the only part that most bands play these days (and the only part that is played on many of the classic recordings), has a memorable melody, almost as strange as the words. The way it achieves its effect, I think, is by giving itself a sort of minor flavour while it is actually written in the major key. It does this partly by beginning each 16 with four bars on the dominant seventh rather than the tonic and then following these with some bars on the tonic seventh and, what is more, beginning these bars by using the flattened seventh as the melody note.

I am sorry if I make it sound complicated but it is an easy tune to learn and to improvise upon, so I think bands would be well advised to have it in their repertoire, if only to provide something to contrast with other tunes in their programme.

It is not easy on YouTube to find a simple, straightforward version (featuring both Verse and Chorus). Here's a highly arranged recording by the Duke Ellington Orchestra, but you have to wait till 1 minute 22 seconds to hear the Verse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YKWKIfEN8Y

There was of course a famous irreverent version by Spike Jones, which you may also find on YouTube if you wish. It includes the Verse.

At least four video-makers have filmed Tuba Skinny playing this tune (Chorus only) and you may find the resulting videos easily enough on YouTube.

The lead-sheet for this tune is readily available: it has been provided in The Firehouse Jazz Band Fake Book, with which all jazz musicians are familiar. 

It is also available on the famous site run by Lasse Collin, though he does not include the Verse and his suggestions for chords are slightly different from those of the Firehouse Jazz Band. Here's the Firehouse version:

Post 441: MINOR KEY VERSE; MAJOR KEY CHORUS

With thousands of tunes available in the traditional jazz repertoire, there are bound to be many that musicians never learn or get to play. However, I am sure we all keep striving to learn new ones - especially those we have been intending to pick up for months.

That's why I set about learning I'm Coming, Virginia today. It was a tune composed in 1927 by Donald Heywood and Will Marion Cook. I first enjoyed it on a Jack Teagarden recording decades ago. And of course the Bix Beiderbecke version is a classic.

I wanted the full song - Verse included. So I found the 'dots' on Lasse Collin's wonderful site (many thanks, Lasse!) and I entered them into my mini filofax system.

But what was this? The verse was in a minor key but the Chorus was in the major.

This made me wonder how often this switch from minor to major occurs in the popular old songs.

I guess there must be many whose verses in minor keys have been long forgotten and only the Chorus is now played. An example is the very popular Hindustan. It has a minor-key 16-bar verse, but I do not recall hearing any band play it in recent years. Similarly, Japanese Sandman has a 20-bar Verse in a minor key (usually Eb minor), followed by a 32-bar Chorus in the major key (Eb major, usually).

I think I'm right in saying that At The Jazz Band Ball, That Da Da Strain, She's Crying For Me, Shim-Me-Sha-Wobble, Willie The Weeper and Lil Hardin's Droppin' Shucks all start with a minor theme and then have a second theme in the related major key. And the 1929 song The Ghost of the St. Louis Blues by J. Russel Robinson, with words by Billy Curtis, certainly has a 'spooky' minor Verse with a major Chorus. Exactly the same is true of Chloe.

Another is a nearly-forgotten song called I Don't Know Nobody Here and Nobody Knows Me, composed in 1924 by Jo Trent and Will Donaldson. The piano music shows a 16-bar Verse in D minor leading into an 18-bar Chorus in the key of D major.

And Lil Hardin uses the minor very heavily in the early stages of Perdido Street Blues before inviting the musicians to play 12-bar choruses in the related major key.

Cole Porter worked wonders with the minor-major effect in I Love Paris, where the first sixteen bars offer a lovely melody in a minor key and the second sixteen - like a flower suddenly blossoming - use virtually the same melody an octave higher but now in the major key.

Cole Porter plays a similar trick in My Heart Belongs to Daddy, which is essentially in a minor key, though there is a 'blossoming out' into the major in the second half of the Chorus, before the tune settles back on the minor in its final bar. And if you look closely at Cole Porter's You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To, you discover that he very skilfully contrasts minor with major chords.

There are tunes such as I'm The King of the Swingers, where we begin in the minor (I'm the King of the Swingers, the Jungle VIP.....) and then switch to the related major key (Oh oobee do, I wanna be like you.....) for the second half of the Chorus. And I think Mama's Gone, Goodbye may be said to have a minor verse leading into a major chorus.

But I am stumped in trying to think of other interesting examples.

Maybe you can help me?

=============
Reader responses

It seems that readers are just as stumped as I am. Only two responses have arrived so far. Robert Duis in the Netherlands offers Chega De Saudade, which has a verse of 32 bars in the minor, followed by a 36-bar chorus in the major. It is a 1958 bossa nova by Antonio Carlos Jobim. I have not personally heard a traditional jazz band play it. And Richard Bogen in Phoenix, Arizona, has told me that Shine On Harvest Moon (music composed in 1908 most probably by Nora Bayes-Norworth) has a 16-bar Verse in the relative minor. I did not know the Verse, but I have found it on the internet and yes: Richard is right.
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Post 398: MARLA DIXON AND 'OVER IN THE GLORYLAND'

One of the most exciting bands playing traditional jazz anywhere in the world at the moment is The Shotgun Jazz Band, led in New Orleans by Marla Dixon, who moved to New Orleans from Toronto in Canada. Examples of their work on YouTube have been truly thrilling. The band has been in existence and evolving for about six years but I think with the house style and personnel it arrived at by 2015, it achieved new heights. As their own website says:
With an emphasis on ensemble playing, a stomping rhythm section, and a genuine love of the hot, bluesy, no-frills melodies that once poured forth from New Orleans’ dance halls, Shotgun Jazz Band makes music that is both immediate in its influences and timeless in its appeal.

One of the videos on YouTube shows them playing Over In The Gloryland, the 1920 song by Acuff and Dean.

You can watch it by clicking on here. Some musicians are not keen on this tune because they say it has a 'dreary' chord structure, with an over-dependence on the home chord of Ab. But Marla and her team show how thrilling it can be. In Marla's playing we experience 'raw' New Orleans jazz at its best.

One of the devices that helps create this 'rawness' is the use of flattened thirds above the chords. (By the way, a banjo-playing friend tells me it might be better to think of these flattened thirds as 'flattened 10ths', as this conveys the fact that they are played above the chord.)

Notice the wonderful effect these notes have at precisely 4 mins 49 seconds and at 6 minutes 56 seconds. In both cases, during an Eb7 chord, Marla plays (and bends) a high Gb. I guess she does this instinctively and does not have think 'I'll put in a flattened third here and see how it sounds.'

There's a 2016 video (of The Girls Go Crazy) in which Marla may be seen using the flattened third to thrilling effect. She plays Db dozens of times on top of a Bb chord. Note the moment at 1 minute 14 seconds where she lingers on it, and see how many times you can count it thereafter. Click on here to watch it.

And Marla uses many flattened thirds in this video - click on to view of Canal Street Blues (a special thrill, this one, because when she introduces the tune she dedicates it to ME!).

And, by the way, if you would like to see another exhilarating video of The Shotgun Jazz Band - one I personally filmed when I was in New Orleans in April, 2015, CLICK ON HERE.

Post 326: THE FIRST CHORD

I wanted to find out on what chord most of the popular old songs start, and what effect this chord has.

I selected 60 songs that have stood the test of time - tunes such as Tea for Two and I Can't Give You Anything But Love and It Had To Be You. I then noted the chord with which they start. I am referring to the first chord of the first bar of the Chorus (i.e., omitting any anacrusis).

Five of the tunes turned out to be in minor keys. That's just 8% of the total. These tunes certainly had a 'minor' feel but this did not necessarily make them sad.

I am going to give my attention to the other 92% - those in major keys.

Of these, no fewer than 50 tunes (that's a whopping 83% of all the tunes I looked at) started on the major chord of the tune's key. A tune in the key of F, for example, would start on the chord of F major.

I found the effect of this is to establish firmly and clearly where we are: there's no attempt at subtlety.

Of these 50 tunes, I categorised 38 as bright and cheerful in character, which means about 63% of all popular tunes are likely to be bright, cheerful, un-challenging and starting on the major chord of the home key.

The figure is about what I would have expected.

But this leaves twelve tunes (20% of all I studied) that begin on the major chord of the home key but are more subtle and complex, perhaps with elements of sadness, nostalgia or melancholy. These include such tunes as I'm In The Mood For Love, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and I'm Getting Sentimental Over You. If you look at the inner workings of these tunes you find minor chords, diminished chords and other surprises (such as a 7th based on the flattened third note of the scale in I'm In The Mood For Love). These chords make the tunes harder to learn but they also give the songs their distinctive colours and make them linger in our minds, it seems to me.

The only tunes from my original 60 not yet considered are five in major keys that do not start on the chord of the major key, so that's just 8% of the total. Four of these are 'bright' tunes, the other one less so. These tunes do not seem to lose any impact as a result of not starting on the key chord. Usually they begin on the Dominant 7th, and very quickly inform our ear of the key we are in. An example is (The Bells Are Ringing) For Me And My Girl.
=====================

To sum up some findings:

83% of popular songs are in major keys and begin on the major chord of the home key.

8% of popular songs are in minor keys.

(Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. This was an unscientific survey. But I wouldn't be surprised if my general conclusions are about right.)

Post 298: MAJOR 6th AND MINOR 9th

Think of a chord containing the notes C - E - G - A. Which chord is it?

C6th, of course. But it is also the chord of A minor 7th (in its first inversion).

Knowing this can be very helpful if you are trying to keep your playing as simple as possible or if you are improvising over a chord progression at high speed.

You can make things even simpler if you omit the 'A' in the chord above. Your audience will not notice. It means you can play the chord of C major when the music asks for A minor 7th. And you will get away with it!

Obviously this applies right through the scale. Examples:

For B minor 7th you can substitute D major.

For C minor 7th you can substitute Eb major.

For D minor 7th you can substitute F major.

For E minor 7th you can substitute G major.

For F minor 7th you can substitute Ab major.

And so on.

In traditional jazz, you come across the progression:

VIm7 / I  |

This is exactly what I'm discussing. It's good to know you get away with playing it simply as:

  I  |

But please keep this secret just between you and me. I don't want to be accused of encouraging laziness!

And we don't want to get into Big Trouble with the British government's Jazz Band Regulator - OFFSTOMP.
============================
P.S. Since writing the above, I have received this helpful message from Tom Corcoran:

This is an interesting post about chords that are technically different but sound the same. One of the first things uke players learn is Am7=C6, which is the four open strings in standard uke tuning.

This website has some good information on synonym chords (that's a new term I just learned). I now see why Am7=C6; both chords contain the same notes, but in a different sequence. The diminished chords on the uke are also a good example of synonyms where the same chord shape and position can apply to four different keys.

=============================

Thanks, Tom. I like that notion of 'synonym chords' - it's new to me too. And that is a website we can certainly recommend.

And from Edward Desenne I have received this contribution:

I play both alto and soprano sax and clarinet, both transposing instruments. That means that if I play a minor third below concert pitch on my alto sax pitched in Eb I will play the same note as in concert pitch.

To play a C Major chord in concert pitch I need to finger an A minor 7th chord as notated in music on my alto sax, which is a tricky chord to finger on alto saxes, which is played more easily in second inversion. However if I wish to play an Eb minor 7th concert pitch chord I just play up a minor third a Major C chord on my alto sax, it's easiest natural scale.

That is why the easiest, natural scales for the alto sax are concert Eb, Ab Bb, E, F but the clarinet, trumpet, tenor sax and all instruments pitched in Bb only need to rise one whole tone in order to play the same note as in concert key. The fingering for playing most scales on tenor sax is much easier on alto sax and with a larger tonal range over the octaves, but sometimes the pitch of the alto corresponds better to accompany the female voice. End of my lecture!!!!!!

Post 190: TUNES WITH SIMILAR CONTENT

Shake It and Break It (the 1920 tune of that title by Qualli Clark and Chiha), That Da Da Strain (1922, Dowell and Medina) and Willie the Weeper (1920 Melrose, Bloom and Rymal, but probably taken from an earlier song) are examples of tunes that have a surprising amount in common, if you analyze their opening strains. There are plenty such groupings, I think, in the canon of traditional jazz tunes.

Here's Shake It and Break It.

And now consider That Da Da Strain.

Finally, here's Willie the Weeper.

All three tunes have a first theme that comprises sixteen bars in a minor key (the Verse, if you like) followed by 16 bars in the related major key (the Chorus).

Look at those first themes. All three tunes begin by tumbling down the arpeggio of the minor chord in a very similar way.

All three tunes make considerable use of the related 7th in those sixteen bars.

All three tunes use an 8 + 8 structure in those first 16 bars, with each 8 very similar to the other.

Even in the major key second strain, two of the three tunes open with the same V7 - V7 - I  -  I structure.

Footnote: I am very grateful to the correspondents who supplied me with these copies of the music.

Post 146: THE HARMONIC IMPACT OFTHE FIRST NOTE

I wanted to find out on what chord most popular songs start, and what effect this chord has.

I carried out an unscientific survey. But I believe my general conclusions are about right.

I selected at random 60 songs that have stood the test of time - tunes such as Tea for Two and I Can't Give You Anything But Love and It Had To Be You. I then noted the chord with which they start. I am referring to the first chord of the first bar of the Chorus (i.e., omitting any anacrusis).

Five of the tunes turned out to be in minor keys. That's just 8% of the total. These tunes certainly had a 'minor' feel but this did not necessarily make them sad.

I am going to give my attention to the other 92% - those in major keys.

Of these, no fewer than 50 tunes (that's a whopping 83% of all the tunes I looked at) started on the major chord of the tune's key. A tune in the key of F, for example, would start on the chord of F major.

I found the effect of this is to establish firmly and clearly where we are: there's no attempt at subtlety.

Of these 50 tunes, I categorised 38 as bright and cheerful in character, which means about 63% of all popular tunes are likely to be bright, cheerful, un-challenging and starting on the major chord of the home key.

The figure is about what I would have expected; and probably you would too.

But this leaves twelve tunes (20% of all I studied) that begin on the major chord of the home key but are more subtle and complex, perhaps with elements of sadness, nostalgia or melancholy. These include such tunes as I'm In The Mood For Love, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and I'm Getting Sentimental Over You. If you look at the inner workings of these tunes you find minor chords, diminished chords and other surprises (such as a 7th based on the flattened third note of the scale in I'm In The Mood For Love). These chords make the tunes harder to learn but they also give the songs their distinctive colours and make them linger in our minds, it seems to me.

The only tunes from my original 60 not yet mentioned are five in major keys that do not start on the chord of the major key, so that's just 8% of the total. Four of these are 'bright' tunes, the other one less so. These tunes do not seem to lose any impact as a result of not starting on the key chord. Usually they begin on the Dominant 7th, and very quickly inform our ear of the key we are in. An example is (The Bells Are Ringing) For Me And My Girl.

To sum up my main findings:

83% of popular songs are in major keys and begin on the major chord of the home key.

8% of popular songs are in minor keys.

(Note: all percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.)

Post 141: 'MOONGLOW' - A TEASINGLY BEAUTIFUL TUNE

At the request of a member of a little band in which I sometimes play, I added Moonglow to my repertoire.

This catchy tune was written in 1934 by Hudson, Delange and Mills.

As ever, I used a Mini Filofax page. I wrote it out in the Key of G. I kept the chord structure simple, though I am aware that more subtle changes would have been possible.

What strikes me about this tune is the way it cleverly teases the listener and thus achieves its striking effects. For example, the first bar of melody sounds like an anacrusis but in fact it really is the first bar proper. Also, the first two bars are based on the chords of C major and C minor respectively, even though the tune is actually in G.

In its principal 8-bar melody, Moonglow uses a simple two-bar theme three times. You could hardly devise anything less complex. But look at the changing harmonies and you find the first B natural is harmonised against C minor, the next one against A major (making in effect A9th) and the third B natural is played against a D major (making in effect a D6th). The final two bars of the eight (all on the melody note of G - again seemingly very simple) are played over the beautifully shifting harmonies of G, G diminished, A minor 7th and G again. What a super effect that achieves.

And what about the Middle Eight? They start with a G7. Fair enough. Surely that will lead smoothly into C major?

Oh no it doesn't. We descend exquisitely through F#7th and F7th to E7th! And the next four bars go (as we might expect) from A7th to D7th - but there is yet another surprise: we slide through C major 7th on the way!

Mastering this tune with the band should not be difficult. There are only 16 bars essentially to learn, even though you have to play 32. I'm already thinking of the pleasure those teasingly beautiful harmonic games will give.

Post 133: 'WILLIE THE WEEPER' - THE 1920 JAZZ TUNE

On Tuba Skinny's CD called Owl Call Blues (released in August 2014), there is a recording of Willie the Weeper.

Willie the Weeper is a tune from 1920, attributed to Walter Melrose, Grant Rymal and Marty Bloom. However, it was remarkably similar to Willie the Peeper, composed in 1912 by Harry Armstrong, Billy Clark and James Coogan, so we may consider it as largely plagiarised. This point was established by the great music researcher and sheet music collector Audrey VanDyke. (For a comparison of the two tunes, CLICK HERE.)

It's a tune every band should be able to play because it always goes well and because it has a number of interesting ingredients.

It consists of two themes of 16 bars each. The first is in a minor key. The second is in the related major. As for structures, the first theme may be considered as an 8 + 8, whereas the second is an AABA  (four bars of each).  On top of these features that give it the variety to make it interesting, Willie The Weeper is simply a jolly good tune. Below it is in D minor and F, but it goes well in other keys too, especially G minor and Bb. You may choose - as many bands do - to add a 4-bar Introduction and to play Theme B first. Most bands treat Theme B as the 'Chorus' and improvise on this part, which uses the simple Sweet Sue Progression (Dominant 7th to Tonic) three times, with an interesting 'Middle Four'.

The tune was recorded very long ago by such bands as King Oliver's. But for a YouTube performance of the tune by a modern band with Theme B in Bb:

CLICK HERE.

And for a special treat (a Tuba Skinny version):

CLICK HERE
or CLICK HERE.