Post 584: 'RED MAN BLUES'; AND TRADITIONAL JAZZ TUNE STRUCTURES

Start with a standard 12-bar (12-measure) blues structure in Eb:

Eb | Eb | Eb | Eb7 | Ab | Ab | Eb | Eb | Bb7 | Bb7 | Eb | Eb

Now, just for fun, let us extend it to 16 bars by playing the two Bb7 bars three times:

Eb | Eb | Eb | Eb7 | Ab | Ab | Eb | Eb | Bb7 | Bb7 | Bb7  |  Bb7 | Bb7 | Bb7 | Eb | Eb

Now let's think about the melody. Over bars 7 and 8 (both Eb bars), let's have the band playing this motif in unison:

Next, over the six Bb7 bars, let's have the clarinet playing this pretty two-bar pattern three times:

The reason why I'm saying all this is that I have been listening to Armand Piron's Red Man Blues (composed in 1925); and the devices I have mentioned are exactly what he uses in the first theme of the piece.

Listen to Piron's Orchestra playing this tune: CLICK HERE; and note in particular the part from 15 seconds until 28 seconds. You will hear what I have been describing. (You can hear it again when it is repeated at 42 seconds and again at 2 minutes 06 seconds and 2 minutes 31 seconds.)

You will note that Red Man Blues has a second theme that actually uses a standard 12-bar blues structure. And the piece then has a kind of 'Interlude' 16-bar third theme featuring the clarinet. It provides contrast by being minor-key in mood (using plenty of Eb minor chords). After this it returns to Theme A in which those tricks I described occur again, leading up to the Coda.

I remember hearing bands in England occasionally playing Red Man Blues in the 1980s and 1990s but I don't recall hearing it played in recent years. I hope it has not dropped out of fashion. It is a very pleasant and pretty number. And it is an important and interesting part of our heritage.

Post 570: TRADITIONAL JAZZ? LET'S PLAY 'NEW ORLEANS WIGGLE'

Today I would like to bring to your attention another early classic from our heritage - one I haven't heard played much in the last couple of years. I think it deserves a revival.

I am speaking about New Orleans Wiggle. This was one of the tunes given to us by the violinist, composer and bandleader Armand J. Piron. 

Between 1923 and 1925, his orchestra made about fifteen influential recordings. The tunes included Bouncing Around, Red Man Blues, Kiss Me Sweet, Bright Star Blues and Mama's Gone, Goodbye - all of which were originals that Piron himself helped to compose.

But there was also New Orleans Wiggle, jointly written by Piron and his trumpet player Peter Bocage.

You can hear the recording they made of this tune BY CLICKING HERE.

What makes it such a good tune for our bands to master?

First, it provides a contrast with the many war-horses that most bands play. It offers the musicians more of a challenge and more interest than many tunes in our repertoire, because it has a structure that you need to study, and includes a key change. It offers plenty of syncopation and plenty of breaks - both of them essential elements in classic New Orleans jazz.

Despite what I have just said, the tune is easy to learn, without being too easy. This is because all three of its themes are underpinned by pleasant, straightforward chord progressions.

There is a four-bar introduction. Then comes Theme A, 16 bars in length. The melody takes us up through a series of syncopated arpeggios. This is great fun. The Piron Orchestra plays it twice.

Then Theme B begins with a sequence reminiscent of I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate (which Piron also wrote, a few years earlier). But at the second round of this chord priogression, it is extended beyond the 'Sister Kate' structure to 20 bars, with a series of breaks that occupy six bars. The Piron Orchestra also plays this theme twice, with the clarinet taking the breaks both times.

We then go straight into Theme C, with the key change. (Usually it means going from Bb into Eb.) This final theme consists of 32 bars and lends itself to breaks at several points. The melody is merry enough. And you will find the chord familiar from dozens of other tunes. It even ends with that simplest of progressions - The Sunshine Chord Sequence. Piron plays Theme C twice, doing some clever things with the breaks.

Finally, there is a neat 4-bar Coda, well worth learning and playing.

Piron's recording lasts only two and a half minutes, partly, no doubt, because of the restraints of recording processes at the time. But of course today's bands could extend it by playing Theme C more than twice.

However, as I have mentioned in earlier articles, there is much to be said for brevity.

I noticed that when Michael McQuaid's Piron's New Orleans Orchestra played the piece at the Whitley Bay Festival in 2015 (CLICK HERE to view), they paid due homage to Piron, strictly retained his structure, and finished the piece in an even shorter time.

Post 67: ARMAND J. PIRON, PETER BOCAGE, AND PIRON'S ORCHESTRA

Armand John Piron made an immense contribution to the history of traditional jazz.

Armand Piron (far right) with his famous colleague Peter Bocage (far left)

Piron was born in in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans in 1888. His father was a music teacher and Armand became a fine child violinist. A childhood injury to his hip meant that Armand could not walk easily. Unable to participate in sports, he devoted himself to music. In his teenage years, he established himself as a major musician in several of the early orchestras in the New Orleans area. These included The Silver Leaf Band, The Peerless Orchestra and The Olympia Orchestra. So he played alongside most of the famous names of those early days.

At the age of only 26, he became a partner in a music publishing business with the pianist Clarence Williams. They also performed as a duo.

By the age of 30, Piron had a band (he called it an 'Orchestra') of his own and it flourished in New Orleans between 1918 and 1928. Coming from a Creole background, Piron established a style for his Orchestra that was softer, and more melodic, sophisticated, 'classical' and genteel than that of some other local bands. He used musicians who were good readers. All this was typical of the Creole musicians: they learned to play well and accurately from printed music before turning to jazz.

The Piron Orchestra also played in New York in 1923 and again in 1924, making some of their famous recordings in that city.

Piron died in 1943. But his close colleague and collaborator Peter Bocage (who may be considered his lieutenant in the Orchestra) lived on to play in the early days at Preservation Hall (which was set up as a music venue in 1961). In fact, after Piron gave up leading his orchestra, Bocage had kept it going in re-shaped form for a long time as The Creole Serenaders. Peter lived until 1967. Born in 1887, Peter Bocage, from a well-to-do Creole background (he came from the suburb of Algiers, on the south side of the Mississippi), had mastered the violin and trumpet before he joined Piron, and he had played in various early New Orleans jazz bands alongside such figures as Buddy Bolden, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Frankie Dusen, Bunk Johnson, Fate Marable and Freddie Keppard. What a pedigree!

You can hear examples of the fine, elegant playing of Piron's  orchestra on YouTube. Try, for example, New Orleans Wiggle, one of the tunes he composed, together with Peter Bocage: CLICK HERE.

But Armand Piron (usually in collaboration with one or two members of his band) also gave us several other interesting pieces of music that have become part of the traditional jazz heritage. Think of:

Bouncing Around

I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

Mamma's Gone, Goodbye

Kiss Me Sweet

Bright Star Blues
Louisiana Swing
Red Man Blues
Sud Bustin' Blues

Among the musicians who are known to have played in the Piron orchestra over the years were:

Armand J. Piron (violin, leader)
Peter Bocage (cornet, trumpet, violin and other instruments)

Willie Edwards (cornet, trumpet)
John Lindsay (trombone, string bass, tuba)
Lorenzo Tio Jr. (clarinet, tenor saxophone. His family were emigrants from Mexico; and Lorenzo is thought to have been a tutor to many of the great later reed-players, such as Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Albert Nicholas and Omer Simeon)
Louis Warnecke (clarinet, alto saxophone)
Charles Bocage  (banjo, guitar. Brother of Peter Bocage)
John Marrero (banjo, guitar)
Johnny St. Cyr (banjo, guitar)
Steve Lewis (piano. Very versatile, he was considered one of the finest New Orleans pianists of the time)
Arthur  Campbell (piano)
Bob Ysaguirre (string bass, tuba)
Henry Bocage (string bass, tuba. Cousin of Peter Bocage)
Louis Cottrell Sr. (drums - a percussionist who was a skilful reader of music)
Paul Barbarin (drums)
Cie Frazier (drums)
Bill Matthews (drums)