Post 563: 'OVER IN THE GLORYLAND' - FROM SAM MORGAN TO MARLA DIXON

Over in the Gloryland is one of the most famous tunes in our repertoire. It is a spiritual and is said to have been written by James Acuff and Emmett Dean in 1905. The reason why we all play it today is that we have been influenced by the recording of it made by the great Sam Morgan Band in 1927.

You can hear that recording:

BY CLICKING HERE.

The song has a Verse of 16 Bars (often sung with words beginning 'If you get to heaven before I do,...') and then a Chorus of 24 bars (usually beginning 'Over in the Gloryland,....').

I used to play this song with a band that went through Verse and Chorus every time. This felt right to me because the Verse is like a declamation by one person and then the Chorus is a chance for other people to join in.

However, guesting with another band, I found their tactic was to play the Verse only once and then stick on the Chorus - over and over. I was not very happy with this, as the effect is so limited and repetitive, harmonically as well as melodically.

So I checked the original Sam Morgan recording. He plays: Verse → Chorus → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus. In other words, the Chorus four times and the Verse three times. This works well and provides variety.

I decided also to check out the storming version from March 2015, when The Shotgun Jazz Band got together with Tuba Skinny. You can enjoy this memorable and historic performance

BY CLICKING HERE.

This runs for almost seven and a half minutes, and yet it is always exciting, even though it is a tune some musicians don't enjoy playing. They complain that its melody is so repetitive and that it uses essentially only the three most common chords.

But these two great bands show what can be fashioned from such simple material.

You will find they play Verse → Chorus every time.

That's good enough for me. So that's how I think we should all play it.

Specifically, here's what they do:

Verse (ensemble) → Chorus (ensemble) → Verse (vocal) → Chorus (vocal) →Verse (trombones) → Chorus (trombones) → Verse (reeds) → Chorus (reeds) → Verse (percussion) → Chorus (percussion) → Verse (piano) → Chorus (piano) → Verse (basses) → Chorus (basses) → Verse (vocal) → Chorus (vocal) → Verse (ensemble) → Chorus (ensemble).

By the way, if you need a lead-sheet for this song, you may find one on the site of the great and generous Lasse Collin:

http://cjam.lassecollin.se/songs2/overinthegloryland.html

Post 508: AMAR PELOS DOIS

I haven't watched television for decades; and it was many years ago that I last witnessed a 'Eurovision Song Contest'. So I missed the 2017 Finals on Saturday 13 May.

However, I heard later that the Portuguese entry had won and it received high praise as a song of real musical quality, unlike so much of the rap, pop and disco offerings of today. The song is called AMAR PELOS DOIS.

So I found it on YouTube and had an agreeable surprise. Introduced by some lush sounds from the orchestral strings, it proves to have two themes, each of 16 bars (8 + 8).

It is a gentle tune in 3/4 tempo. It is in the key of F, though richly endowed with G minor and D minor chords. Its simple, appealing, swooping phrases - much repeated - quickly imprint themselves on the listener's mind.

The beginning of Theme A, as it sounded to me.

And Theme B.

But what specially interested me was that it had so much in common with the songs composed in the Golden Era of the 1920s and 1930s. It was the kind of song Gershwin, Vernon Duke, Hoagy Carmichael, Richard Rodgers, Harry Warren, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter or Oscar Hammerstein might have written. It has a good melody; and the deceptively-simple music is comfortably served up in the eight-bar phrases so beloved by all jazzmen.

The structure is identical to that of most of the 'spirituals' in the traditional jazz repertoire. Like Lily of the Valley, Down By The Riverside, Precious Lord, Take My Hand, and In The Sweet By and By it has a 16-bar Theme A (equivalent to a VERSE) and then a 16-bar Theme B (equivalent to a Chorus).

So I think it's a tune of considerable interest to traditional jazz fans and musicians. And I'm glad it won.

Post 466: SAM MORGAN - AND HIS NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND IN 1927

Some very important recordings were made in 1927 by Sam Morgan. His Band played not only in New Orleans, but also in other towns, such as Galveston, along the Gulf Coast.

While Armand Piron's Orchestra was at the same time playing sophisticated, genteel jazz, Morgan's style was just a little more gutzy, pulsating and robust, though still melodic. The band took great care with establishing and maintaining the right tempos - notably for dancing.

That's Sam seated behind the cymbal; with big Jim Robinson and his trombone.

Sam Morgan, born in 1895, was the trumpeter/leader; and his brothers Isaiah (also on trumpet) and Andrew (tenor sax and clarinet) played in his band. On trombone he had the great Jim Robinson, whose fame spread further when he played in bands well after Sam Morgan had died at the age of only 41 (poor Sam suffered a stroke in 1925 and another in 1932). Earle Fouché played clarinet and alto sax. Robinson's cousin Sidney Brown was on bass. Tinke Baptiste and Walter Decou were at various times on piano. Johnny Dave was on banjo. The drummers over the years were Roy Evans and Nolan Williams.

Today Sam Morgan is best remembered for the eight tunes his band recorded in New Orleans over two sessions in 1927. Three of these were spirituals (Over in the Gloryland, Down By The Riverside and Sing On); but the credited composer for all the other five was Sam himself:

Bogalusa Strut

Everybody's Talking About Sammy

Mobile Stomp

Short Dress Gal

Steppin' On The Gas

Have a listen to Morgan's band playing Mobile Stomp:

CLICK HERE.

And now hear it played by one of today's best jazz bands:

CLICK HERE.

Bogalusa Strut, by the way, is said to be a re-interpretation of the first two themes of Scott Joplin's Rose Leaf Rag. If you listen to that rag, you will hear at once that the harmonic progressions are indeed the same.

Mobile Stomp, though in 4/4 time, is said to use the melody of  The Waltz You Saved For Me; and indeed the two melodies are almost identical. But according to my researches so far, it seems The Waltz You Saved for Me was composed in 1930 - after Mobile Stomp, so it is probably unfair to suggest that Morgan 'lifted' his tune from the song.

Most traditional jazz bands in the 21st Century not only show influences of the Sam Morgan Band in their playing and musical arrangements but also still have at least a couple of Morgan's tunes in their repertoire.

And the fact that the Morgan Band recorded the three spirituals seems to have set the precedent that traditional jazz bands must now include spirituals in their programmes. (It is believed the band would never have played spirituals for dances but recorded some only because the recording engineer requested them.) Similarly, the band demonstrated (as in Mobile Stomp) - I think for one of the first times on record - the excitement generated when you play stop-time choruses.

So we all owe a great deal to Sam Morgan. And we are also indebted to Jim Robinson who, in later years, revived and perpetuated his music, and also made us aware of other tunes Morgan's band liked to play. (See the comments from John Dixon below). 

Sam Morgan's House in New Orleans

---------------

John Dixon (of The Shotgun Jazz Band in New Orleans) has kindly sent me the following information:

It’s worth noting that more can be learned from the interview with Andrew Morgan from the book ‘The End of the Beginning’ (by Barry Martyn [Jazzology Books, 1998]). Morgan speaks at length about the recording of those cuts (most of the tunes were not in their regular repertoire prior to the recording).

Also, Jim Robinson’s Riverside Living Legends LP ‘Jim Robinson’s New Orleans Band’ is an important record because it was the re-recording of Mobile Stomp and Bogalusa Strut that brought those tunes out of retirement and made them traditional New Orleans jazz standards. When they recorded that album, Jim didn’t even remember how they went. The producers went to Tulane to the archives, got the old SMJB records and played them for the band. The takes you hear recorded on Jim’s record were done just moments after they learned the songs. That record is also chock full of other Sam Morgan band tunes that they regularly played but didn’t record; Apple Tree, Yearning, Whenever You’re Lonely. Also featured on that Riverside LP are George Guesnon and Alfred Williams - both Sam Morgan Jazz Band alumni (though not in the lineup that was recorded). Guesnon is especially well-recorded on Jim’s record. It’s one of my favorite records. 

I’ve attached an image of the backside of the LP I took with my phone, perhaps you can read the album notes.

Thanks!

John

It is possible to read the liner notes. Click on and enlarge.
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Post 422: 'LET THE LIGHT FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE SHINE ON ME'

I first heard the gospel song Let the Light from the Lighthouse Shine on Me in 1965. It was being played by one of the English traditional jazz revival bands.

I discovered that some think it was composed by Blind Willie Johnson (pictured above) who died in 1945. He certainly recorded it but it is probably an old gospel tune dating back to before even his time.

The correct title could be Let YOUR Light from the Lighthouse Shine on Me. That's what Blind Willie sings.

This is how I now play it on my keyboard. 

Post 278: WHY ARE HYMNS AND SPIRITUALS IN OUR REPERTOIRE?

We take it for granted that hymns and spirituals have a place in our repertoires. But they still occasionally take people by surprise. For example, some weeks ago, friends and I were playing in Oakham, a market town in Central England. One of our tunes was The Old Rugged Cross. An elderly gentleman came up afterwards to tell us how much he had enjoyed it. He said he had never realised that a hymn could work well when played by a jazz band.

Marla Dixon, with all-star support, singing 'Over in the Gloryland'

You hardly ever hear a traditional jazz concert in which there is not at least one hymn or spiritual. Also, audiences no longer feel uncomfortable (as English people would have done a hundred years ago) about dancing to such religious music.

Among the most popular titles are:

Amazing Grace

At The Cross
By and By

Does Jesus Care?

Down By The Riverside

God Will Take Care of Me
Higher Ground

His Eye is on the Sparrow

How Great Thou Art

In the Garden

In the Sweet By and By

In the Upper Garden

It's Nobody's Fault But Mine

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

Just a Little While To Stay Here

Lead Me Saviour

Let the Light from the Lighthouse Shine on Me

Lily of the Valley

Lonesome Road

Lord, Lord, Lord, You Sure Been Good to Me

Man from Galilee

The Old Rugged Cross

This Little Light of Mine

Old-Time Religion

Only a Look
On Revival Day

Over in the Gloryland

Precious Lord, Lead Me On

Pass Me Not, Oh Gentle Saviour

Peace in the Valley

Rock Me

Roll Jordan Roll

Royal Telephone

Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down

Sometimes My Burden is Too Hard to Bear

Walking With the King

We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

When I Move to the Sky

When the Saints Go Marching In
Where He Leads Me

I began to wonder how it came about that such tunes have a place alongside the old pop songs, blues and rags in our repertoire.

It's easy to believe the myth that spirituals were sung in the cotton fields by toiling slaves in the mid-Nineteenth Century and that - when jazz bands came into being - they would have played them and from about 1910 would have 'jazzed them up'.

But I'm not sure it's that simple. I have found no evidence that this happened. For example, can somebody please let me know of any recordings of spirituals or hymns by jazz bands before 1927? I think there's nothing in the early recordings of the ODJB, King Oliver, Kid Ory and so on.

Until somebody does, I prefer the following explanation.

In 1927, Columbia Records twice recorded the great Sam Morgan Band in New Orleans. The recordings were made in the Godchaux Building, 527, Canal Street. Four tunes were recorded on each occasion. The resulting eight recordings are still considered a hugely important part of the history of traditional jazz and have influenced hundreds of bands over the decades.

The legend is that - like other jazz bands - the Sam Morgan Band played mostly for dancing and did not include religious music in its dance hall repertoire. However, one of the recording engineers was very keen on such tunes as Down By The Riverside and suggested that Sam's band should record them.

So the Band included three 'spirituals' in the eight recordings - and the rest is history: if Sam could do it, why not the rest of us?

Apparently trumpet-player Isaiah Morgan (Sam's brother) in a later interview made the point that jazz bands such as theirs might have played hymns and spirituals at funerals but would not have used religious music for dancing.

By 1940, it became commonplace for the most influential traditional jazz musicians to record spirituals. Think of George Lewis, Bunk Johnson, Louis Armstrong.

Quite a few spirituals we play - including some in my list above - were composed not in the days of slavery but in the days when jazz bands were already well established.

Here's a stirring modern example of a spiritual in a jazz band performance. In this video, we see two of the best bands in the world joining together to perform Over in the Gloryland - one of those spirituals made famous in 1927 by Sam Morgan: CLICK HERE.

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Post 277: IN THE SWEET BY AND BY - AND PIE IN THE SKY

I have often heard people use the expression ‘It’s all pie in the sky’. I occasionally use it myself. When I say something is ‘pie in the sky’, I mean it is something that sounds wonderful – as an aspiration – but that it will never actually happen. We shall have to go on putting up with something worse.

But I never knew where this expression originated – until recently. And, as an amateur musician, I found its origin very interesting.

There is a Victorian song (a hymn or spiritual) called In the Sweet By-and-By. It has words by S. Fillmore Bennett and music by Joseph Webster. The tune is simple and very pleasant. It is still often played by traditional jazz bands. The words of the Chorus are: 

 In the sweet by-and-by

 We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

 In the sweet by-and-by

 We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

A verse states that our spirits shall sorrow no more. Its message is that, however hard things may seem while we're here on Earth, better times will come in Heaven.

But a few years after it was composed, there came a man called Joe Hill, who chose to write an alternative set of words for the song. (Joe Hill had been born in Sweden as Joel Haaglund and was an immigrant to the USA in 1902.)

Joe Hill

That was in 1911. Joe Hill noticed how downtrodden working people were supposed to find consolation in such hymns. He did not like the way religion was being used to keep the labouring, uneducated classes in their place, enduring suffering and hunger, while their masters and bosses led luxurious, comfortable lives. So he wrote some new hard-hitting words on behalf of those downtrodden souls:

 Long-haired preachers come out every night,

 Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;

 But when asked how 'bout something to eat

 They will answer in voices so sweet:

 You will eat, bye and bye,

 In that glorious land above the sky;

 Work and pray, live on hay,

 You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

There are several more verses in the same vein – in particular suggesting the bosses should try their hand at hard work:

 When you've learned how to cook and how to fry;

 Chop some wood, 'twill do you good

 Then you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.

This is a powerful satire, with a message about a function of religion that is still relevant today, especially in other parts of the world from those for which it was originally written.

I am specially impressed by the ‘pie in the sky’. It is the perfect image to make the point. It so simple and so crisp. The internal rhyme makes it stick in our mind.

It is no surprise that it was adopted into everyday currency and is now used in hundreds of contexts Joe Hill could never have imagined.

So, following the centenary of his important contribution to the idioms of our language, let’s eat a pie and drink a toast to Joe Hill, who incidentally in 1915 was executed by the Utah authorities after being charged for a murder that he almost certainly did not commit. 30,000 angry supporters of Joe attended his funeral. But that's another story.

[And a similar expression to pie in the sky is of course jam tomorrow, which dates from Victorian times. It was used by the White Queen in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.]

Incidentally, a similar thing happened to the calypso-jazz song Buy Me a Zeppelin. It's about the joys of touring the globe and discovering new places, like the great explorers of the past - many of whom are mentioned in the lyrics. But in some performances the word 'explorer' is replaced by 'exploiter' and the song becomes a commentary on the evils of colonialism.
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Since writing the above, I have had this interesting response from David Withers in Christchurch, New Zealand:

Hi Ivan,

I have been following your Playing Traditional Jazz blog for a few months now, and enjoying it very much, Thanks to you I am now also hooked on Tuba Skinny.

As soon as I read your post today about Pie In The Sky and read the name Joe Hill my memory went into overdrive. I first heard this name in a song from Joan Baez recorded at Woodstock in 1969, I have a rendition by her on an LP somewhere, but not I think a live recording. The song was also recorded earlier by Pete Seeger, and even earlier by Paul Robeson (1939).

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,

alive as you and me.

Says I but Joe, you're ten years dead.

I never died said he,

I never died said he.

Not a jazz song, but from a similar era. The original (a poem) was thought to have been written about 1930 by one Alfred Hayes, under the title 'I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night.'. It was turned into a song by  Earl Robinson in 1936.

Post 244: 'IN THE UPPER GARDEN'

It's confusing but there are two lovely gospel numbers entitled In the Garden (1912) and In the Upper Garden (1900) and they are both played by traditional jazz bands. As far as I can tell - and by a strange coincidence - they were both composed by Charles Austin Miles. He was born New Jersey in 1868; he died in 1946. After a short career as a pharmacist, Charles became a full-time composer and music-publisher, specialising in gospel songs, of which he wrote several dozens.

My friends and I decided to add one of them to our repertoire. It is the one composed in 1900, known as In The Upper Garden. 

The Verse begins with the words Just beyond the River Jordan and the Chorus with We shall meet them some bright morning.

Having listened to it on YouTube, I decided it went like this. I put it in F:

For Bb instruments such as mine, it transposes into G:

And (better still) I'm very grateful to Ron Flack in Australia who, since reading the above, has sent me his transcription (for Bb instrument, but with concert chords) of the George Lewis version:

And more recently still, Brian Hutchinson - also in Australia - kindly sent me photocopies of the sheet music.

In The Upper Garden has to be played at a slow tempo, with much caressing of the simple harmonies.

As for the other In The Garden hymn, it is beautiful too and is written in 3/4 time. This is indeed the time signature in which even jazz bands usually play it. But that may be a subject for another day. It begins with the words:
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
(Chorus)
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

Post 151: 'NEARER MY GOD TO THEE'

I added Nearer My God to Thee to the handwritten collection of music in my mini filofaxes. It's easy to find on the Internet.

I was surprised to discover that although the famous words of this hymn were composed in 1841 (as a religious poem) they were not set to the music we know them by today until 15 years later.

The poet was Sarah Flower Adams of Loughton, Essex, in England. Here she is:

Her sister Eliza set the poem to music, but Eliza's version did not catch on.

Sarah died young (in 1848) and so did not live long enough to hear her poem become famous when performed to music by Lowell Mason. How very sad!

But Mason, the prolific American composer of hymn tunes, who set it to music in 1856, lived to the age of 80.

Later, other composers - including Sir Arthur Sullivan - produced yet more tunes to which this poem could be sung.

I thought it useful to have Mason's tune in my collection because jazz bands are on rare occasions called upon to play it.

They are also often called on to play What a Friend We Have in Jesus - another hymn that appeared first as a poem. It was written in 1855 by Joseph M. Scriven, an Irishman who had settled in Canada. Fate dealt him severe blows: twice in his life he was engaged to be married and both fiancées died before the marriage could take place.

He wrote the poem as a present to comfort his mother, back in Ireland, with no idea that it would ever be published.

It wasn't until 1868 that Charles Crozat Converse set it to music. Crozat was an American lawyer and composer, who had studied in Leipzig, Germany, and at the Albany Law School in the USA.

Post 132: SPIRITUALS, GOSPEL SONGS, TUBA SKINNY AND 'JUST A CLOSER WALK'

Ever since the great Sam Morgan Band recorded Over in The Gloryland (in New Orleans, 1927), it has been customary for our bands to include some hymns, spirituals and gospel music in their repertoire. Think, for example, of these tunes. All of our bands play at least a few of them.

Amazing Grace

At The Cross
By and By

Does Jesus Care?

Down By The Riverside

God Will Take Care of Me
Higher Ground

His Eye is on the Sparrow

How Great Thou Art

In the Garden

In the Sweet By and By

In the Upper Garden

It's Nobody's Fault But Mine

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

Just a Little While To Stay Here

Lead Me Saviour

Let the Light from the Lighthouse Shine on Me

Lily of the Valley

Lonesome Road

Lord, Lord, Lord, You Sure Been Good to Me

Man from Galilee

The Old Rugged Cross

This Little Light of Mine

Old-Time Religion

Only a Look
On Revival Day

Over in the Gloryland

Precious Lord, Lead Me On

Pass Me Not, Oh Gentle Saviour

Peace in the Valley

Rock Me

Roll Jordan Roll

Royal Telephone

Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down

Sometimes My Burden is Too Hard to Bear

Walking With the King

We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

When I Move to the Sky

When the Saints Go Marching In
Where He Leads Me

The wonderful young band Tuba Skinny has hitherto devoted its energies to reviving obscure numbers from the rags and blues of the 1920s, though in its early days (before Alynda Lee Segarra left the band) they made beautiful recordings of the spirituals Rock Me and Peace in the Valley.

In recent months, they seem to have turned their attention just a little more to the 'conventional' repertoire popular with other bands. For example, they have started playing High Society.

And in the field of gospel music and spirituals they have introduced Just a Closer Walk With Thee. This is among the best-known and most frequently played of all the spirituals. It is much in demand at jazz funerals. It is played in various ways and at contrasting tempos.

I was surprised when I noticed this week the new video put up by our friend the wonderful video-maker codenamed digitalalexa. I hardly expected Tuba Skinny ever to play this tune.

Everything they touch seems to turn to gold. It has happened again with Just a Closer Walk. You may have heard hundreds of performances of this tune. But have you ever heard one better than this?

CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT.

Digitalalexa has done well with both the sound recording and the pictures. It never seems to be easy for video-makers to get good sound recordings in Royal Street, but this one succeeds. (Unfortunately, there are also a few street 'noises off' but these do not detract from the beauty of the performance.)

The Band maintains a slow, gentle tempo. Erika sings the song with great feeling, in a manner reminiscent of her performance of 'Owl Call Blues'. She makes the most of the long-held notes, pitching perfectly and using rubato in a most subtle manner. The treatment of the tune by the rest of the band proves yet again what great art there can be behind apparent simplicity. First the theme is stated by Barnabus on trombone. Then Shaye and Craig join in, adding close harmony. After Erika's first vocal, we have two stunningly beautiful instrumental ensemble choruses, with first the clarinet and then the cornet taking the lead. Shaye plays some lovely muted cornet behind Erika's second vocal. The banjo, tuba and washboard throughout provide a solid and respectful foundation.

It is all made to look simple. But what a performance!

Commentator Alan Bates writes it 'brings tears to the eyes.....best one yet'. Well said, Alan.