[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland Waltzes?

[Charlie Hooks]

on 10/15/02 6:46 PM, lUIS dANIEL Flores at luda@arnet.com.ar wrote:

> waltzes was one , may be not so important, of the music involved in the
> creation of jazz.
> L. Ferbos, for one, use a waltz way of playing OKOM.

    Eubie Blake either told me, or I read an interview where he said, that
there was a period during the twenties when it wasn't clear to him whether
waltzes or the two step or something else was going to be "the coming
thing," "the cat's pajamas" or whatever; and, he said, he wrote tunes that
could be played either way--"Memories of You" being a perfect example.  I
love that tune, used to do it as a clarinet feature and, as an ending, I'd
play the last 8 an octave up, ending on high F concert, then lifting one
more up--up to G concert, then down into the melody again, with a pause in
the rhythm while the guys laid out, a kind of clarinet cadenza that started
on low Bb concert and played the melody for a few bars:

    And those few bars just HAD TO BE in 3/4.  They just somehow NEEDED to
be; and that's how I played them, lifting up, up, and at last onto the
concert D, which is the 6th of Eb, the standard key.  It was a very nice
effect, but it's to Eubie's credit, not mine: he more or less built it in!

Where have guys like Eubie all gone?
Charlie