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 115: 'STORYVILLE BLUES' AND 'GOOD TIME FLAT BLUES'

I have spent years trying to learn some of the good century-old New Orleans jazz tunes. Sometimes I do this by listening to tunes on the internet (mainly YouTube) and using the pause button to pick them out by ear.

One such was Storyville Blues. But I quickly ran into trouble. The tune offered as Storyville Blues (for example in a clear recording by the Chris Barber Band of more than 50 years ago) was not the tune I was expecting. After more research, I found I had been confusing TWO tunes. So let me sort them out and offer you my findings.

Storyville Blues was composed (both words and music) by Maceo Pinkard in 1918. But he named it Those Draftin' Blues. It acquired its usual name when recorded by Bunk Johnson (who probably couldn't remember the correct title) in the 1940s. But, adding still further to the confusion, it was also recorded in the 1940s by another band as Bienville Blues.

Well, whatever it is called, here's how it sounds to me.

The other tune is Good Time Flat Blues. This was composed by Spencer Williams in 1924. But it became known in the 1940s as Farewell to Storyville. That was what confused me. Both titles have been used in past recordings.

What I like about Good Time Flat Blues is that the Chorus uses The Salty Dog Chord Progression (beginning on the chord of the 6th note of the scale, e.g. E7th in the key of G)  and then following the Circle of Fifths. So improvising on it is easy. And it's a pleasant tune.