Post 581: MAY AND SHAYE - 'THRILLER RAG'

Thriller was one of the rags composed by May Aufderheide. She wrote it in 1909. May was also the composer of 'Dusty Rag', which is still a favourite with our bands.

I think May would have greatly enjoyed hearing Tuba Skinny, in 2017, adding Thriller Rag to their repertoire. As so often, we have to thank the videomaker RaoulDuke504 for recording their performance for us. You can watch it BY CLICKING HERE.

I believe the sheet music starts with the instruction 'Not Fast', but Shaye Cohn chooses to ignore this and play the piece at a pretty quick tempo. I don't think May Aufderheide would have disapproved of the effect this achieves. Such a tempo certainly provides the basis for 'thrills'.

In fact, although the whole band plays well, I think this performance is in particular a tour de force by Shaye herself.

The four-bar Introduction (from 10 seconds into the video until 14 seconds) is possibly the most thrilling part of all. Shaye leaps to the high Ab and rapidly tumbles down through arpeggios on the Ab diminished chord.

The Thriller comprises two 16-bar themes. Tuba Skinny play through Theme A twice, during the second of which (at 34 seconds) Shaye introduces some interesting variations. When they come to Theme B (54 seconds), Shaye frequently plunges down to the Ab below the stave; and yet then leaps up two octaves to the Ab above the stave for more of those descending arpeggios (e.g., 1 minute 08 seconds). This is something very difficult to do on a cornet, especially at this speed. I am not even sure I have heard Shaye do such a thing before. It's a sign that she is at the height of her powers and full of confidence.

By the way, from all I have said, you may have inferred correctly that the band plays Thriller Rag in the key of Ab - the key in which May Aufderheide composed it. But some bands (certainly here in England) have taken to playing it in F, which is - in a sense - cheating but makes it a good deal easier on the lips!

Also notice how well Shaye directs the performance. In addition to making it clear which instruments are to take 16-bar solos, there are at least six other discreet signals:

2 mins 10 secs: All the 'front line' to join in.

3 mins 09 secs: Return to Theme A.

3 mins 29 secs: Switch to Theme B - finger pointing down:

3 mins 43 secs: Washboard to play the 'break'.

4 mins 03 secs: Front line to play the break.

4 mins 08 secs: Final chorus (leg extend signal).

Post 360: 'POSTAGE STOMP' - PLAYED WITH ENERGY AND DRIVE

What joy it is to hear an up-tempo tune played with real energy and drive, and with a total sense of control and great teamwork.

It is an experience that, I'm sorry to say, does not happen often enough here in England. So many of our musicians are very elderly and are really not up to producing that drive any more. (I am one of them.)

If you look at a performance given on 30 March 2016 by Tuba Skinny, filmed by the great Louisiana-based video-maker codenamed RaoulDuke504, you will see what we are failing to achieve.

They are giving a routine street performance of Postage Stomp. It's a simple 32-bar tune with the same chord pattern in the Middle Eight as dozens of other tunes:

 III7 - III7 - VI7 - VI7 - II7 - II7  - V7 - V7

This allows for 'breaks' in Bars 23/24.

Click here to watch the video.

Barnabus, the regular trombone player, is absent, but one chorus is taken by the saxophone and there is another in the first half of which cornet and clarinet trade fours. Further variety is provided by a percussion chorus (against stop chords) and a tuba-led chorus - with the clarinet, sax and cornet playing long notes to decorate the Middle Eight. Above all, though, four of the choruses involve dramatic, driving work from the full ensemble. There is brightness and energy from all quarters, with Robin on percussion and Shaye, so busy on cornet, never allowing the tempo or the excitement to drop. The banjo, guitar, tuba and drums keep the tune pounding along in rock-steady fashion.

To Tuba Skinny, this performance was probably nothing special - just another day at the office. But to us old guys who are struggling to play the music, it's an object lesson.

For those of you who are interested in such matters,  Postage Stomp is, I believe, a tune from 1930, featured that year by Maynard Baird and His Orchestra. I think it was composed by Sam Goble and Vic Johnston (members of Maynard Baird's Orchestra). They played it in the key of F and you can hear their bouncing, slickly-arranged version by clicking here. Tuba Skinny play it in Bb.

And, while we are on the subject of playing with energy and drive, have a listen to Tuba Skinny (in the same set as Postage Stomp), playing Dallas Rag. Do so by clicking here.  Sensational!
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Post 135: GOOD PLAYING (TUBA SKINNY'S 'BIG CHIEF BATTLEAXE') AND BAD PLAYING

I have been watching (on YouTube) quite a few English bands playing in pubs and clubs. First, I am pleased to report there are a few young musicians in these videos - playing traditional jazz or music that is on the fringes of traditional jazz. Also, in the north of England, there are places where young people may be seen dancing to jazz in the old style - some of them aspiring to be as good as Amy Johnson and Chance Bushman.

But so many of these pub and club trad jazz performances are disappointing. I see elderly gentlemen with beer bellies looking smug or not particularly interested while wearily and mechanically playing the same old dreary, uninspired procession of 32-bar (or 64-bar) 'solo' choruses. Sometimes there is a pretty awful vocal too. The tunes drag on for six or seven minutes, long after the band has anything more to 'say' about them.

No wonder that - on the whole - very few young people are attracted to the music.

I may sound like a miserable old crabstick, but I felt I had to write something about this today.

Then this morning I listened again to the CD Pyramid Strut, made by Tuba Skinny, that great and energetic young band of New Orleans.

Straight away, my faith in the music, and its ability to thrill and excite, was restored.

Take the very first tune on the CD - Thomas Allen's Big Chief Battleaxe. For a start, the band obviously gave a lot of thought to how it would tackle the tune. (How many English pub bands do that?) They decided to use only two sections from the familiar four (omitting the less interesting). They kept the 16-bar Bridge (which they decided to treat as a kind of Verse) and the 16-bar Main Theme.

As you probably know, the Bridge is played in G minor and the Main Theme in the related key of Bb.

Having made that decision, they then worked out how to make the interpretation interesting. For example, they would play the Bridge as an Introduction and then the Main Theme eight times - but twice punctuated by the Bridge again. Each time, the Bridge and Main Theme would be given different treatments, with a variety of instruments taking the lead. But the focus - as usual with this band - would be on good ensemble playing. So you end up with a performance comprising 11 segments of 16 bars each, 176 bars in all.

There's so much of interest to enjoy. And yet it's all over in less than three and a half minutes.

If you want the detail, it goes like this. Try following this while you listen to it.

16 Bars (1) BRIDGE. Clearly stated, with full ensemble.

16 Bars (2) THEME. Clearly stated, with full ensemble.

16 Bars (3) THEME. A more decorative statement of it. Note Jonathan Doyle's lovely fluid playing here and elsewhere.

16 Bars (4) BRIDGE. Full ensemble, differently stated this time, with more fluidity.

16 Bars (5) THEME. Trombone states it, with cornet and clarinet dropping out.

16 Bars (6) THEME. Trombone still leads but cornet and clarinet add sympathetic decorations in response. 

16 Bars (7) THEME. Something very different: the Cornet improvises on the theme, accompanied only by the washboard and banjo. The re-entry at the end by the tuba dramatically leads us into:

16 Bars (8) THEME. The full ensemble frolicking around the simple chord progression, with lovely work from the clarinet.

16 Bars (9) BRIDGE. The best surprise in the performance. The TUBA plays a special improvisation on the Bridge, while the others support him with long crescendo-diminuendo notes.

16 Bars (10) THEME. Ensemble, with more bounciness and fluidity than ever, building to a climax. Robin uses his cymbals to exciting effect.

16 Bars (11) THEME. Ensemble. This is the climax. There's busy, free expression all round and yet they are all still listening to each other.

That's the way to do it!

Incidentally, on YouTube you can find several videos of Tuba Skinny playing this tune - in various settings. The pattern usually differs just a little from what's on the CD, but it is always interesting.

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.

Post 8: HOW TO LEAD THE BAND

What a performance!

It would be hard to find a better example than this video of a leader carefully setting the right tempo, driving the band along, directing the musical traffic and making very clear what is wanted from everyone, while working up some great excitement in the music.

The leader is the cornet player Shaye Cohn and the tune is Fats Waller's Minor Drag. Click on the link below and hold on to your hats. Note all the subtle signals Shaye gives by means of eye contact, body language, quick words to John Doyle (clarinet) and Barnabus (trombone), a hand signal to Robin (washboard), the notes she holds at the ends of choruses - even left hand on the head to signal a return to Theme A!
Click here to watch.

Incidentally, as I have said elsewhere, why on earth don't more bands follow Tuba Skinny's example in seating arrangements? Having the band in an arc formation means the audience can see all the musicians and - for signalling purposes - the musicians can all see each other.

In other videos, you can even see Shaye 'conducting' the band by extending a bare foot! She does so near the end to indicate that this is to be the final chorus. For example: CLICK HERE. And for another example of Shaye showing great energy, drive and imagination, both in her own playing and in the direction of the band, look at this wonderful performance of Weary Blues: CLICK HERE.