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 148: V - I - V - I THE SWEET SUE CHORD PROGRESSION

Among the many chord progressions at the opening of famous tunes is the one known to traditional jazz musicians as the SWEET SUE PROGRESSION.

It begins on the Dominant 7th, with the Tonic as the next chord. (Often this pattern is then repeated before further developments.) To put it simply, if you’re in the key of C, you begin these tunes on G7th (usually two bars) and then move on to C. 

This progression is very useful when composers fancy bouncing back and forth between the dominant and the tonic. It is simple and therefore popular with improvisers.

Examples:

Absolutely Positively
April Showers 

Auf Wiedersehen 

Avalon 

Black Bottom Stomp [final strain] 

Blue Chime Stomp [2nd theme]
Dallas Rag
Do What Ory Say 

Gatemouth
His Eye Is On The Sparrow 

I'm Blue and Lonesome, Nobody Cares for Me
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate 

Jealous 

Louisiana
Martinique
Miss Annabelle Lee 

My Life Will Be Sweeter Some Day
Pretty Baby 

Say Si Si 

So Do I 

South [second strain] 

Sweet Sue 

That’s A Plenty [final strain] 

Up Jumped the Devil
Way Down Yonder In New Orleans 

Willy The Weeper [second strain] 

Winin’ Boy Blues 

It is also the basis of several tunes known as 'Stomps'.

Post 63: 'BLUE CHIME STOMP'

Tuba Skinny (and more specifically - I guess - Shaye Cohn) did it again: in early-2015 they came up with a new tune and gave it a brilliant performance from which we can all learn something.

I am referring to Blue Chime Stomp which - thanks to the generous video-maker codenamed RaoulDuke504 - became the newest tune in their YouTube repertoire on 24 March 2015. Have a listen by clicking here.

Great stuff, isn't it?

Underlying all the excitement and brilliance, the tune comprises just two 16-bar themes, both played in the key of Bb. Let's call them A and B.

The A Theme includes the 'Chimes' - descending in semitones over bars 1 - 4  and 9 - 12.

The B Theme is sprightly and melodious. Using a comfortable chord progression (you find something very similar in Do What Ory Say and Dallas Rag and Sister Kate and South), it lends itself easily to improvisations.

The band plays the themes in this order:
A-A-B-B-A-B-B-B-A-B-B

As usual, Tuba Skinny add sparkle, brilliance and excitement to the basic material. This includes playing the 'chimes' in different ways - such as hitting the second beat of the bar rather than the first, and breaking each chime into four single notes played by the tuba, trombone, cornet and clarinet successively over the four beats of a bar.

And when they play Theme B, they build up the excitement like this:

5th time: Clarinet alone leads;

6th time: Clarinet gets support from the trombone;

7th time : Cornet joins in, for a thrilling energetic polyphonic chorus.

There are no tedious 'solo' choruses. Except as mentioned above, the full ensemble keeps busy throughout.