Post 517: BEGINNERS' FAKE BOOK

I have written before about the value of fake books (sometimes called 'busker's books') to traditional jazz musicians, especially in the early stages of mastering your craft.

But beware. Some fake books - though crammed with tunes - are not as helpful as you may expect. They contain very few tunes the traditional jazz musician is likely to play.

But you can find less pretentious books that provide the leadsheets (words, notes and chords) of quite a few essential tunes. Such is 101 Pub Favourites for Buskers. Pub favourites tend to be in most cases traditional jazz favourites too; and they are often among the simplest tunes you need to master.

So from this book, for example, you can learn such tunes as After the Ball, You Always Hurt the One You Love,  Ain't She Sweet, Bill Bailey, On a Slow Boat to China, Nobody's Sweetheart Now, I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, and so on. Here, for example, is On The Sunny Side of the Street - as you can see, very clear and easy to learn from. AND it even includes the Verse (which many musicians don't know).

I bought this book way back in 1986, would you believe, when I was at the stage of getting started and trying to play a few simple tunes in a group formed by three friends. It was produced by Wise Publications. There were several others in the '101' series.

I doubted whether these books were still on sale three decades later. But a quick internet search showed me that you can easily still order a new copy for about £18 (i.e., U.K. price) or you may obtain a used copy much more cheaply.
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By the way, if you may be interested in reading my e-Book called 'Playing Traditional Jazz', which is for jazz players and would-be jazzers, click here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS38JVI
This will let you sample-read a few pages.

Post 477: 'CHLOE (SONG OF THE SWAMP)'

Let us have a look at Chlo-e (Song of the Swamp) which is a lovely and unusual tune from the 1920s. Some of our jazz bands still play it and I am very pleased that this is so.
Chloe was composed in 1927 by Charles N. Daniels, under his pseudonym of Neil Moret; and the lyrics were by the great Gus Kahn, who was very important in the history of our music. Working with various composers, Kahn wrote the words for such songs as these:

My Baby Just Cares For Me
That Certain Party
Making Whoopee
Carolina in the Morning
Love Me or Leave Me
I Never Knew That Roses Grew
Yes, Sir, That's My Baby
I Wonder Where My Baby is Tonight
I'll See You in My Dreams
Spain
It Had to be You
Pretty Baby
Memories
On the Road to Home Sweet Home
It Looks Like a Big Time Tonight
Coquette
Crazy Rhythm
Toot Toot Tootsie
Ukulele Lady
Ain't We Got Fun
Chloe
Side by Side
On the Alamo
Nobody's Sweetheart Now
You Stepped Out of a Dream

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Chloe may have been used first in the 1927 musical called 'Africana' but there is no definite evidence for this, even though, on the original sheet music, a picture of the singer Ethel Waters apparently connects it to that show.

Whatever the truth, it must have soon become popular because it was recorded during the late 1920s and during the 1930s by several famous orchestras and singers.

Chloe begins with an interesting but somewhat spooky 16-bar Verse in a minor key (usually A minor). The words of this verse are:

'Chlo-e! Chlo-e!'

Someone calling, no reply.

Night shade's falling, hear him sigh.

'Chlo-e! Chlo-e!'

Empty spaces meet his eyes.

Empty Arms outstretched, he's crying.....

(and so we are led into the 32-bar Chorus in the related major key [C]).

'Through the black of night, I got to go where you are.

If it's wrong or right, I got to go where you are.
I'll roam through the dismal swamp land searching for you,

'Cause if you are lost there, let me be there too.
Through the smoke and flames, I got to go where you are,

For no place could be too far, where you are.

Ain't no chains can bind you,

If If you live, I'll find you,

Love is calling me.

I got to go where you are.'

Searching for a girl at night, through swamp lands, and going through smoke and flames? How on earth did this situation arise? Weird, isn't it? 

The important thing is that the Chorus, which is the only part that most bands play these days (and the only part that is played on many of the classic recordings), has a memorable melody, almost as strange as the words. The way it achieves its effect, I think, is by giving itself a sort of minor flavour while it is actually written in the major key. It does this partly by beginning each 16 with four bars on the dominant seventh rather than the tonic and then following these with some bars on the tonic seventh and, what is more, beginning these bars by using the flattened seventh as the melody note.

I am sorry if I make it sound complicated but it is an easy tune to learn and to improvise upon, so I think bands would be well advised to have it in their repertoire, if only to provide something to contrast with other tunes in their programme.

It is not easy on YouTube to find a simple, straightforward version (featuring both Verse and Chorus). Here's a highly arranged recording by the Duke Ellington Orchestra, but you have to wait till 1 minute 22 seconds to hear the Verse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YKWKIfEN8Y

There was of course a famous irreverent version by Spike Jones, which you may also find on YouTube if you wish. It includes the Verse.

At least four video-makers have filmed Tuba Skinny playing this tune (Chorus only) and you may find the resulting videos easily enough on YouTube.

The lead-sheet for this tune is readily available: it has been provided in The Firehouse Jazz Band Fake Book, with which all jazz musicians are familiar. 

It is also available on the famous site run by Lasse Collin, though he does not include the Verse and his suggestions for chords are slightly different from those of the Firehouse Jazz Band. Here's the Firehouse version:

Post 450: JAZZ TUNES - WHERE CAN I FIND THE SHEET MUSIC?

I often receive emails from people who ask me whether I can help them by providing music, usually for particular tunes that have taken their fancy. More often than not, I am unable to do so.

I was also approached after a performance by a young man in the audience who said he was learning the trumpet and asked whether he could 'borrow the music for a few days' so that he could learn the tunes our jazz band had just played. Unfortunately, I could not oblige: the 'music' was in our heads and not on paper.

So, if you are learning to play a musical instrument and want eventually to be in a traditional jazz band, where can you get the music? 

Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible these days to go into a music shop and buy off the shelf a dixieland band arrangement of, say, Maple Leaf Rag, or sheet music for Steamboat Stomp.

So picking tunes up from old recordings by ear is one solution. And it is a method we occasionally resort to.

But if you hunt on the Internet, you can find some sites that will help you. In particular I recommend the site of that fine, generous, Swedish musician Lasse Collin:

CLICK HERE.

If you use Lasse's materials, you will have enough to keep your band going for years. He provides clear lead sheets, giving the melody line and the chords in a simple form. That's just what you and your band need.

Another possibility is to buy buskers' books (fake books). These also provide collections of lead sheets.

Second-hand copies of these are cheaply available on Internet auctions. But be careful to buy those that contain tunes that will definitely be of use in traditional jazz. Many fake books - despite their bulk - contain very little that will be of use to you.

Post 313: REGIONAL CHORD BOOKS

In my country, England, I learned to speak English by copying my parents and other native speakers. I acquired the local accent.

But when I travelled 100 miles, what did I find? English was spoken in not quite the same way. There was a different regional accent. When I travelled 200 miles, the difference was very marked. When I travelled 300 hundred miles, I would occasionally have difficulty understanding what the locals were saying.

I expect the same thing happens in virtually every country and every language.

But here's a curious parallel in traditional jazz music.

A wise old jazzman told me many years ago that, when you move from region to region, you find the local jazzbands play some tunes in different keys from those to which bands in your own region are accustomed.

For example, all the bands in your area play a certain tune in Bb. But move 100 miles and you find that all the bands in that area go for C.

All the bands in your area play a tune in F. But in another region you find all the bands play it in Eb.

(Yes, the difference is nearly always one tone.)

In the years that followed, I was able to confirm the truth of this from my own observations. If you guest or deputise in a band 100 miles or more from your home, be prepared to play some tunes in keys that will feel unfamiliar.

How has this come about? My theory is that within each region the musicians deputise in each other's bands and build up over decades a kind of communal regional chord book.

An interesting phenomenon, isn't it?

Post 249: HOW TO IMPROVISE IN JAZZ

If you're wondering how on earth to go about learning to improvise, may I suggest you watch a wonderful tutorial on YouTube? It is given by the American trumpet-player Charlie Porter. It is full of wisdom, inspirational and also entertaining.

Charlie is a thousand times better at improvising on the trumpet than I am. And he is a natural gifted teacher. He's the man to follow (in this and other YouTube tutorials that he has generously given to the world).

To see the video
CLICK HERE.

And another super little video that gives you some idea about how the trumpet, trombone and clarinet go about collectively improvising is this one:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW.

As for me, I took up trying to play traditional jazz too late in life. I had no Charlie Porter to advise me and my learning processes were more pedestrian.

A wise old friend and jazz musician - Bill Stevens, who alas died several years ago - got me started by telling me there were two ways to improvise when playing jazz. He said you can improvise either on the melody or on the chords. Bill said that if you improvise on the melody, you will sometimes sound terrible but you will also achieve some exciting things. If you improvise on the chords, he said, you will always sound 'right' but will not be so exciting.

Since then, I have come to the view that there is a third way and that it is used (wittingly or unwittingly) by most jazz musicians: it is a mixture of the two above.

My advice will be less useful to you than Charlie Porter's but it may just give you a further means of support if you are really struggling.

Let us take for an example the first four bars of All of Me. And let us have it in the key of C. Written in 1932 by Seymour Simons and Gerald Marks, this song has long been a jazz standard. Here's how the melody and chords for those first four bars appear:

So the chords are two bars of C major and two of E7th:

To improvise on those four bars, you could simply play notes from the chords over the sixteen beats. Indeed, this is perhaps a good exercise for complete beginners. You might come up with something like this:

But when you feel confident, move on to something with a bit more sparkle. You must still work round and through notes from the chords but don't be afraid to throw in notes adjacent to them; and build in some syncopation, to keep things swinging. For example:

Now you are on your way!

Bill Stevens' 'chord' method of improvising over a complete tune involves doing this kind of thing with all the bars. The great majority of 'standards' (such as All of Me) comprise 32 bars, which you come to feel as four eights. There is usually some repetition of chord patterns within the tune, so this helps.

When learning a new tune, you may feel more confident if you memorise the notes of the melody and the chord sequence. You may be clever enough to work these out by yourself. But I find it easier to learn from 'busker's books' (sometimes called 'fake books') - obtainable in music shops or from the Internet, where there are many resources.

Post 87: BUSKERS' BOOKS AND FAKE BOOKS

I was playing in a traditional jazz band in a Cambridgeshire pub when a young man in the audience told me he was a trumpet player and wanted to learn to play traditional jazz. Could I please lend him 'the music'?

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. The 'music' has to be inside your head. It takes months to build up a repertoire and much of your learning may have to come from picking tunes up by ear, as many of the old-time tunes are virtually unobtainable in sheet music form.

But a good starting tactic is to buy some busker's books (also called fake books).

They do not contain piano-type music, with two staves. They simply give you what is known as a lead-sheet - the melody line and the chord sequence.

That's all you and your band should need. Provided that you are all working to the same melody and chord pattern, you can improvise to your heart's content and also work out - if you like - a 'head arrangement' (i.e. a plan for who will do what, and when).

Of course, these books have their limitations. They sometimes leave out the Verse of a song, giving you only the Chorus. That's all right if you want to play only the Chorus; but it's irritating if you want to include the Verse, to provide some contrast or variety.

And with more complex old tunes (such as rags with three or more themes), it is annoying if the fake book gives only one theme and omits the rest.

Another warning: there are so many busker's books on the market. Do not waste money on chunky books that claim to contain 500 or 1000 tunes if there are not more than four or five tunes in them that you will ever be likely to play with a traditional jazz band. There are many such books available. Don't be fooled by the bulk.

Over many years, I have built up a bunch of fake books. They can be quite expensive when new; but I have noticed recently that plenty of them are available on internet auctions, so you should now be able to pick some up cheaply. Simply type 'Buskers' Books' or 'Fake Books' into your search.

After that, there are also resources on the internet where you can freely download the music for some of the rarer old jazz tunes.

For an example of dozens of tunes generously provided by a very remarkable Swedish gentleman - a musician and artist named Lasse Collin - go to this website:
  http://cjam.lassecollin.se/

It is also possible - if you search - to find downloadable books of tunes, sometimes generously provided by particular bands.

Also be warned that, when you come to play a tune with other players, you may find the band uses a version with slightly different chords or melody notes from those in your fakebook. They may even use a different key. So be prepared to adapt.
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27 April 2013

Post 58: 'FIDGETY FEET'

Yes, it seems crazy, but I carry the whole of Fidgety Feet around on just 21 square inches of paper.

I keep it, together with hundreds of other tunes written out in this way, in a set of easily portable mini-filofaxes. I am very keen on filofaxes both as little works of art and as effective methods of storage and record-keeping.

Fidgety Feet (with its alternative title War Cloud) was recorded at a romping speed by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1918. Composer credits were given to the band's members Nick LaRocca and Larry Shields.

I like to take a filofax full of tunes with me on bus and train journeys, so that I can browse through them and brush away some of the rust that develops in the brain if you go several months without playing a particular number.

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