Post 602: MAKING TRADITIONAL JAZZ VIDEOS

I feel hugely privileged to have lived to an age when - sitting at my computer here in Nottingham, U.K. -  I am able to click a button and watch wonderful traditional jazz performances from all around the world. We have to be deeply grateful to all the generous and hard-working video-makers who provide us with these treats.

Some of them have high-quality equipment. They use two or more cameras and have a separate sound-recording apparatus.

If it had not been for video-makers such as those codenamed digitalalexa and RaoulDuke504, I might never have discovered the wonderful traditional jazz being played by relatively young musicians in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. Their videos convinced me that I had to get to New Orleans to see and hear for myself.

Good news is that digitalalexa (Al and his wife Judy) produced the first video of Tuba Skinny to be viewed more than a million times: THIS ONE - CLICK ON TO WATCH IT.

When I decided to try to make some videos, I bought a simple small camera from the cheaper end of the Panasonic Lumix range. It is intended mainly for taking still photographs but, like most cameras these days, it has a built-in microphone and the facility to record videos. It also has a useful 'zoom' feature.

Once you have made a video, it is easy to load it on to such a site as YouTube, thereby making it available to viewers all over the world. You have merely to follow the simple instructions on the screen.

I have had only four or five opportunities to video truly outstanding jazz bands. But I have made a number of videos and put them on YouTube. My favourite - the one with which I am most pleased - shows The Shotgun Jazz Band at The Spotted Cat Club (New Orleans) playing Royal Garden Blues when I was there for the French Quarter Festival in April 2015. The band was on absolutely cracking form and I was able to film from the side, very near the band, so I obtained some pleasing close-up shots of Haruka, Marla, James, John and Twerk.

If you have not yet seen that video, you can watch it BY CLICKING HERE.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I still do.

I must also mention James Sterling, who discovered the music a few months after I did. Living in Florida, he has been able to travel to New Orleans far more often than I have, and he has uploaded some fine videos.

If you haven't yet explored what's up there on YouTube, you should start by looking at the offerings of the three video-makers I have mentioned.

Post 594: DISENTANGLING 'TANGLED BLUES' (SHAYE COHN AND TUBA SKINNY)

An 18-bar vocal from Erika

I first heard Tangled Blues when Tuba Skinny performed it at The Louisiana Music Factory on 14 April 2015. It was a new composition by Shaye Cohn, with words by Erika Lewis.

Tangled Blues is a very pleasant tune, somewhat country-and-western in feel and played in the Key of F.

But something about it struck me as strange. You form the impression  that you are listening to one melody. But listen carefully and you find there are two separate tunes. Let's call them A and B. They have a lot in common. For example there are motifs such as this one that occur in both A and B (giving the piece that feeling of unity).

It occurs twice in A, played (I think) on the chord of F. It also occurs twice in B, but this time (I think) played on the Bb chord. So we begin to see what a clever 'tangle' Shaye has woven for us. Part A has a lyric and comprises 18 bars. How many tunes can you think of that consist of 18 bars (not counting tunes that are really 16 bars with a 2-bar tag, such as Sister Kate)? Can you think of any? Apart from Miss Otis Regrets by the wonderful Cole Porter, I can't. So Shaye has played a very clever trick here.

However, Part B is a conventional 32 bars but with no lyric.

Despite their similarity of 'feel', the two parts sound (to my ear, which may be misleading me) quite different in chord structure. It seems A starts with, and twice uses, the I - IV - V - I chord pattern whereas B starts on the V chord (dominant - C7th, followed of course by the tonic), of which it makes much use later.

The whole performance goes like this:

4-bar Introduction
18-bar A (Ensemble)
32-bar B (Cornet 16 + Ensemble 16)
18-bar A (Todd on Tuba playing the melody)
32-bar B (Clarinet 16 + ensemble 16 - trombone with melody)
18-bar A (the only occurrence of the vocal - sung by Erika)
32-bar B (Ensemble, cornet-led)

Total = 154 bars; performance time about 4 minutes 20 seconds.

What a clever, pretty and intricate tangle indeed! Well done, Shaye!

'Tangled Blues': Todd plays
the  18-bar melody.

You can watch a street performance filmed by RaoulDuke BY CLICKING HERE or digitalalexa's video (the performance at which I first heard the tune) BY CLICKING HERE.    

My friend Peter Petrovič, who lives in Maribor, Slovenia, enjoys the challenge of trying to work out tunes by ear. He sent me his attempt to decipher Tangled Blues; and I think he has done really well.

Post 567: THE GENEROUS MAKERS OF GREAT VIDEOS

If, like me, you spend many hours watching YouTube videos of traditional jazz bands playing in the USA - and particularly in New Orleans, you must have noticed that dozens of the videos have been put up by two video-making enthusiasts who use the code-names digitalalexa and RaoulDuke504. And more recently James Sterling has also come on to the scene. And there others - such as Wild Bill and jazzbo43, who have captured many good New Orleans performances for us. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude; and I think the bands too must be grateful to these people for spreading their fame to many thousands throughout the world. 

A great experience I had in New Orleans during April 2015 was meeting two of these video-makers. They were enthusiastically filming at the French Quarter Festival.

RaoulDuke504 has the advantage of living near New Orleans. I met him while he was filming the Tuba Skinny performance at the Festival. Here he is:

I had the great privilege of shaking his hand and thanking him for the pleasure he has given me (and so many thousands of people) with his wonderful videos.

Digitalalexa is actually two people - husband Al and his wife Judy from New Jersey. They travelled down frequently to New Orleans and had a grand time filming their favourite bands. Al and Judy film the same performance from different angles and when they return home Al edits the two videos into one, trying to make the most of the best shots they have obtained between them. It was a great honour to meet Al and Judy several times at various events. Al told me his videos by 2015 had over three million 'hits'. It was through their videos that I (and hundreds of other fans) first discovered Tuba Skinny and some of the other great bands. So I am deeply grateful.

Here is Judy at The Louisiana Music Factory, where they were about to film a Tuba Skinny Concert.

And here at the same event is Al.

These wonderful modest people enjoy their relative anonymity. But I hope they won't mind my featuring them on this Blog and saying a Big Thank You to them on behalf of us all for bringing us such pleasure.

Good news is that Al and Judy produced the first video of Tuba Skinny to be viewed more than a million times: THIS ONE - CLICK ON TO WATCH IT.

By the way, Al and Judy also founded The 2015 French Quarter Festival and Tuba Skinny Appreciation Society. Al and Judy designed and then Judy embroidered a batch of these lovely souvenir bannerettes. They distributed them to several fans to wave during the Parade and they also gave some to the members of Tuba Skinny.

What terrific souvenirs. I treasure mine!

James Sterling lives in Florida and can get to New Orleans in five hours by car. In January 2015, he came upon a YouTube video of Tuba Skinny (probably one of digitalalexa's). He told me it changed his life for ever. (Exactly the same experience had happened to me a year or two earlier.) He said: 'I watched Tuba Skinny videos for 6 hours straight, finally stopping at 1am'. Since then, James has made the journey three or four times each year. In 2016, I had the pleasure of meeting James and his wife, too. Here he is in Frenchmen Street. Thank you, too, for all the good work, James!

Post 472: 'CRUMPLED PAPERS' - MYSTERY SOLVED

A few years ago, a new tune appeared on the streets of New Orleans.

I heard that it had been used in the TV series Tremé, where it had been played by the most important band in the 21st-Century Revival of traditional jazz - Loose Marbles.

It is a tune I like and recommend, for several reasons. It is short (essentially a 12-bar theme), lively  and very catchy. It is in a minor key (D minor) and it's good to have a minor-key tune in our programmes occasionally. As it seems to use a very small number of chords (possibly only D minor, G minor and and A7th), it is also easy to improvise on.

It was called Crumpled Papers and I could find no reference to it in earlier jazz literature. So where had it come from? Who was the composer?

For a long time, that was an unsolved mystery. However, John Dixon has let me know it is a Michael Magro tune. John told me: Michael ‘wrote’ this, as in just came up with a nice simple melody for a basic 12-bar minor blues. We actually recorded this a couple years ago with him on clarinet, Marla on trumpet, Tyler on bass, Justin on snare drum, and Ben Polcer on piano. Not sure if the recording will ever see daylight though.

So the mystery is solved. Michael, as you probably know, founded Loose Marbles way back in September 2000 and he still runs that band in New Orleans today.

Michael Magro

Modest though its beginnings may have been, Crumpled Papers is a great little tune, given the way it lends itself to improvisations. Have a listen to it, as played by Tuba Skinny. There's a choice of videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSLTjnqs648

For a slightly more pedestrian performance, but less affected by audience noise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mzwmIzkB4w

Thanks as ever to those two great video-makers digitalalexa and RaoulDuke504.

Post 302: OUR MUSIC GOES GLOBAL

A correspondent from Connecticut set me thinking. She said it is a wonderful thing that - thanks to YouTube - performances by the bands on Royal Street, New Orleans, can be enjoyed within hours by viewers all over the world. She said it's as if we are all attending a 'Global Concert'.

That's exactly how it is. I constantly receive e-mails from fans saying 'Have you seen this latest YouTube  video? It's terrific.' In my turn, I pass on such tips to other friends. So these performances become what journalists call 'Breaking News', spreading rapidly throughout the world.

The quality of much of the video work is first-class. A recent e-mailer told me that watching some of the videos is 'almost like being right there in the street'. We are all grateful, I'm sure, to the video-makers - those with the codenames digitalalexa, RaoulDuke504, jazzbo43, Dmitriy Prityikin, Wild Bill, guitarded71 and many more.

The musicianship is some of the best to be witnessed anywhere. So we must also be grateful to the musicians, who do not mind their performances being enjoyed free of charge throughout many different countries.

In its turn, however, YouTube is helping to spread the fame of these great bands. Correspondents often tell me they would never have heard of such bands as Tuba Skinny and The Smoking Time Jazz Club and The Shotgun Jazz Band, had it not been for YouTube. And many say they decided to take a vacation in New Orleans as a result of watching these videos.

Yes, how things have changed since the days when the best that fans could do was to save up for the latest 78 rpm record of Jelly Roll Morton or Louis Armstrong. We are indeed fortunate to enjoy the immediate aural and visual gratification that comes from living in the great technological age of Traditional Jazz Concert 'Breaking News'.
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FOOTNOTE
The book Enjoying Traditional Jazz, by Pops Coffee, is available from Amazon.

Post 237: TUBA SKINNY TESTIMONIALS

I start my days at my In-Box, where I usually find at least a dozen e-mails from readers of this Blog. These are appreciated; and I try to reply to them all.

I must tell you the topic my correspondents raise most often is the joy that discovering Tuba Skinny (the young New Orleans band) has brought to their lives. Some of them thank me for pointing them to the YouTube videos of this wonderful group of musicians.

Here's a recent typical e-mail:

I’m happy to report that 'Tuba Skinny' are under my skin ... a narcotic mix of youth, exuberance and Shaye Cohn’s phrasing. I listen to their YouTubes and am compelled to have a blow myself.........repeatedly failing to reproduce their magic but I enjoy trying!

And another:

...I bought all of the Tuba Skinny CDs because of your blog. Thanks so much. They are terrific! I walk to work...........where I teach harmony, counterpoint and composition......I have an mp3 player and listen both ways. I am conducting my orchestra this Friday..............and I should be absorbing the concert music on my walks. Ha, instead I have had a week of Tuba Skinny - I can't get enough of it - comical.

Another:

Dear Ivan,

I just turned 79 last March. Quite by accident, I also discovered Tuba Skinny. I've long been a dixieland/jazz lover. Your treatise on Tuba Skinny was spot on. I agree with your comment on the washboard, but they do make it work..........Many thanks for your wonderful blog on Tuba Skinny. (I'm also in love with Shaye.)

 Sincerely,

Lou 

Another reader - an English trumpet player on holiday in New Orleans - told me he came across Tuba Skinny playing in the street and he stood 'absolutely mesmerised' for two hours by Shaye's playing.

There are over 250 videos of Tuba Skinny on YouTube. I am an admirer of - and greatly indebted to - the video-maker codenamed digitalalexa, who has filmed the band in the streets dozens of times. A fine example of his work is to be seen by clicking here.

Post 216: A VERY SPECIAL PERFORMANCE - 'ALMOST AFRAID TO LOVE'

Tuba Skinny has given us a mind-boggling performance that serves as a lesson to us all. We have to thank the generous and prolific film-maker codenamed digitalalexa for making it available to us on YouTube. (I will give you the Link to it shortly.)

I am speaking about Almost Afraid to Love. This is a song I had never heard of. But banjo-player Stan Cummings of Sacramento kindly informed me it was composed by Ann Turner in 1938 and made famous at that time by the great blues singer Georgia White.

Georgia White

On the face of it, no performance could be simpler. It's just seven choruses of a 12-bar blues in C - 84 bars of music in all.

But the way it is interpreted is exemplary - demonstrating all that is great about traditional jazz at its best. Just listen.

Chorus 1: Against a solid foundation provided by the tuba, washboard, guitar and bass drum, the cornet introduces us to the tune; but the music is like a conversation between three old friends. Using her cup mute, Shaye makes the sad statements and Barnabus (trombone) and Ewan (clarinet) respond sympathetically to everything the cornet says.

Chorus 2: Erika begins to sing, telling the story with an uncluttered accompaniment. What a solid foundation Todd gives (as usual) on the tuba!

Chorus 3: Erika completes the story - with Shaye providing tasteful background colouring, using the cup mute.

Chorus 4: Ensemble. Both the cornet and trombone are muted now. This is another chorus sounding like a conversation between three old friends. It reminds me of the string quartets of Haydn and Mozart. Some of the phrases are exquisite - such as Shaye's phrase responding to the trombone at 1 min. 49secs.

[I think this must be one of Shaye's favourite phrases - you hear it frequently in her playing.]

Chorus 5: The 'conversation' continues; with Evan making assertive statements on his clarinet, while the cornet and trombone reply 'Yes, we know. It's a shame. You're so right!'

Chorus 6: Erika resumes the song.

Chorus 7: Erika completes the song, but with the others performing like the Greek Chorus from Oedipus Rex - commenting sympathetically on the events of the story. It is outstandingly good four-part interplay with the singer. And as the performance comes to an end, there's one more surprise in store. Shaye picks up her 'jam funnel' mute for a strong conclusive effect in the final two bars, descending a C minor arpeggio.

There is nothing strenuous or over-loud or showy or raucous about this performance. There are no screaming high notes. The playing gives the illusion of being totally relaxed, simple and effortless. But the apparent simplicity conceals art of the highest order.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT.

Post 214: A TUBA SKINNY STREET PERFORMANCE

One morning in April 2015, Tuba Skinny had agreed to play some street music ('busk', as we say in England) on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. But when Shaye Cohn showed up, nobody else had arrived. Undeterred, she took out her violin and started to play all alone.

A few minutes later, Jonathan Doyle, the great clarinet player, arrived and joined her. So the two of them played as a duet, improvising a fast 12-bar blues in the key of D.

But it wasn't long before five other members of Tuba Skinny arrived. Shaye switched to her cornet, and away they went, giving a concert that witnesses told me was absolutely brilliant.

Here is one of the tunes filmed by the great video-maker digitalalexa at the time:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW.
When I heard about this concert, I was bitterly disappointed to have missed the performance. I was in New Orleans but happened to be in a different part of the City at the time.

But my friends David Wiseman and Bill Stock, both from England, were there and told me about it. Bill took the pictures above and kindly let me have them. He gave me this additional background to the story:

The busk was on Friday, the first main day of the French Quarter Festival. At his hotel in North Rampart Street, Alan Bates bumped into Todd, complete with tuba. Todd was visiting his Mum who was staying at the same hotel. He confirmed TS would be out in Royal Street from 11am.  Alan phoned me and we rallied the troops. We set off in search but were disappointed that there was no sign of the band at their usual spots. I then saw Jon Doyle on his bike, pedalling fast along Royal. We  flagged him down and he said that Shaye had called the band to the corner of Royal and Bienville Street. And that is where the story started. Their usual spots had been taken by other buskers but Shaye had obviously carried out an early recce to  find this location.

Things got better for me. A few hours later I saw Tuba Skinny playing in a Frenchmen Street bar. I also attended two more of their concerts.

Post 196: 'ALL I WANT IS A SPOONFUL'

One of the delightful videos of Tuba Skinny put up on YouTube by the generous and indefatigable film-makers codenamed digitalalexa (Al and his wife Judy) - to whom we should all be deeply grateful - is a song called All I Want is a Spoonful, played in Bb. It is essentially a simple eight-bar theme.

Erika plays the drum and sings the words, accompanied by five members of the band and their dog - and another dog who seems keen to make friends with Robin. Shaye plays both the fiddle and the cornet. And there is a fun chorus nicely played by Todd on the tuba, against stop-chords. You can get to this video by clicking:

HERE.

It's a new song to me, though I have found it was recorded in 1925 by 'Papa' Charlie Jackson, who probably also wrote it.

It's a tune firmly demonstrating the popular progression known as The Salty Dog Chord Sequence.

Tunes with this sequence begin (usually two bars) on the chord of the 6th note in the scale (e.g., a tune in the key of Bb starts on the chord of G or G7th). This is normally followed by the chord on the 2nd note of the scale, and then on the 5th note of the scale, thus continuing the ‘circle of fifths’.

Examples of tunes following The Salty Dog Chord Sequence are:

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Alabamy Bound

All I Want Is A Spoonful

Any Time
At The Jazz Band Ball [main strain]
Balling The Jack
Friends and Neighbours
Good Time Flat Blues (also known as Farewell to Storyville) [chorus]
Jazz Me Blues [main strain]
Louis-i-a-ni-a
Put and Take Blues
Rose of the Rio Grande
Salty Dog [the archetype]
Seems Like Old Times
Shine On Harvest Moon
Since My Best Girl Turned Me Down
Sweet Georgia Brown
Tailgate Ramble
There’ll Be Some Changes Made
Up A Lazy River
You've Got The Right Key But The Wrong Keyhole

Post 162: WORLD'S BEST 'FRONT LINE' AWARD!

I remember seeing in a jazz magazine about thirty years ago a photograph with the caption 'The World's Best Front Line'.

It was a picture taken in a New Orleans bar and showed a trumpet player, with a clarinettist and a trombonist on either side of him, playing their hearts out and obviously pleasing the journalist or photographer.

I was reminded of this when it occurred to me that the World's Best Front Line Award for musicians active today could well go to Jonathan Doyle (left, clarinet), Shaye Cohn (cornet) and Barnabus Jones (trombone). When those three get together, there is no matching them for rapport, teamwork and musical brilliance.

Here they are at the 2014 French Quarter Festival, playing Willie The Weeper.

I'm indebted for the picture above to my British friend and traditional jazz enthusiast, David Wiseman.

How thrilling they can make any tune sound, even just a basic 12-bar, as in this recent video put up on YouTube by the generous digitalalexa, with Erika Lewis producing a terrific vocal as ever:

CLICK HERE TO WATCH.

Interestingly, of course, these musicians rarely appear literally as a 'front line' - preferring, when space allows, for their band to be spread out in a semi-circle, so that all the players can see each other and the audience can see all the musicians. It is also easier for signals to be given by the leader.

As I have said elsewhere, I wish more bands would adopt this formation.

And by the way, after I wrote the above, another sensational 'front line' emerged in New Orleans. It was The Shotgun Jazz Band's Haruka Kikuchi (trombone), Marla Dixon (trumpet) and James Evans (reeds).

My word, their playing is thrilling too! Try this:
Click on to watch them play 'Climax Rag'.
 .

Post 161: 'OWL CALL BLUES'

Photo : David Wiseman

Tuba Skinny have introduced a beautiful slow-paced song, Owl Call Blues, to their repertoire. It is gloriously sung by Erika Lewis. The melody was written during a tour in France by Shaye Cohn and the lyrics by Erika herself. What a team!

I'm pleased to say it is on their sixth CD, which is actually called Owl Call Blues and includes 14 other tunes, such as Dallas Rag and Oriental Strut.

I can tell you this haunting, melancholy tune immediately embeds itself in your mind. You will want to hear it again and again; and you will go around humming it for days.

It's not a 12-bar blues. It is a 16-bar tune that begins by working its way down a chromatic ladder of long notes. In general feel, it has something in common with Jelly Roll Morton's 1938 composition, Sweet Substitute, Fred Meinken's Wabash Blues (of 1921) and Alex Hill's 1934 song Delta Bound (which Tuba Skinny have also brilliantly recorded).

Tuba Skinny perform it entirely in Bb.

Erika's lyrics comprise two 8-line verses of mystic wistful, nostalgic, pastoral poetry. Both verses begin with the same four lines, but the second four lines are different.

Several readers have asked me to give them the lyrics. I may be wrong but, to my ear, they are as follows.

The valley wide, the valley low,
The ocean deep, the undertow:
I'd walk for miles; I'd walk for days
To feel again your warm embrace.
The clouds roll in to mask the moon.
The owl calls a mournful tune
To a fire that glows with sparks that fly.
I sit and stare, and wonder why.

The valley wide, the valley low,
The ocean deep, the undertow:
I'd walk for miles; I'd walk for days
To feel again your warm embrace.
So take me back to those good old days,

Of running free above the glades.

In tender years we danced and sang.

Our time will come to go away.

If, like me, you can't resist trying to play it yourself, you will probably be able to pick out both the melody and the chord structure (in the main it seems to be a three-chorder, though for the long note - E - in Bars 3 and 4 I settled on Bb diminished).

I first came across this tune in two YouTube videos. One was recorded inside a museum and the acoustic is inevitably resonating, bringing out the full glory of Erika's voice. The Band (with Shaye going for the higher octave) plays three choruses before Erika sings:

Watch it by clicking here.

The second, also filmed in the open air by the great video-maker digitalalexa [Al and his wife Judy], obviously has a quite different acoustic. You can watch it

by clicking on here.

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Footnote

The book Tuba Skinny and Shaye Cohn is available from Amazon.