[Dixielandjazz] Lesser Tributaries of OKOM

[Dan Augustine]

     A couple of days ago i was browsing through the used records at 
Half-Price Books here in Austin and came across a 1977 LP by Leon 
Redbone called _Double Time_.  I'd always kind of liked his stuff, 
but didn't have any of his recordings, and one time on TV i saw him 
singing accompanied by a tuba player ("What genius!", i bethought). 
So i bought it, and like it, and i thought i might tell y'all about 
it to help explore the farther reaches of 'OKOM'.
     The personnel on the LP is impressive: Milt Hinton (bass), Jo 
Jones (drums), Don McLean and Eric Weissberg (banjo), Jonathan Dorn 
(tuba), Yusef Lateef (soprano saxophone), Ed Polcer (trumpet), Vic 
Dickenson (trombone). They don't play on every song, but most of them 
do on "Diddy Wa Diddy".
     Now, i expect that a lot of you are way ahead of me, and have 
been for years, but maybe some haven't yet branched out into the 
lesser tributaries of OKOM and discovered adjunct lecturers like Leon 
Redbone.  I recently started exploring these byways and was 
immediately rewarded with my first recordings by Jim Kweskin's Jug 
Band, the Even Dozen Jug Band, and the Memphis Jug Band. The first 
had Maria D'Amato (later Maria Muldaur) and did songs like "Somebody 
Stole My Gal", "Rag Mama", "Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me", 
and "Ukelele Lady".  The second, from 1964, featured Maria D'Amato, 
John Sebastian, Steve Katz, David Grisman, and Joshua Rifkin, doing 
songs like "Mandolin King Rag", "Evolution Mama", "Overseas Stomp", 
and "Rag Mama". The third, from c. 1934, did songs like "On the Road 
Again" (no, not _that_ one), "Memphis Jug Blues", and other lesser 
known tunes.  But if you like regular OKOM bands doing these and 
similar tunes, you might also like jug bands.  In fact, i also bought 
Maria (D'Amato) Muldaur's _Maria Muldaur_, with some very OKOM-like 
songs like "Any Old Time" and "The Work Song".
     Another similar kind of recording is _Jazz_ by Ry Cooder (brought 
to my attention by alert musician Monte Price), which features songs 
like "The Pearls/Tia Juana", "In a Mist", "Davenport Blues", and 
"Shine", with players like Red Calender (tuba)and Earl Hines (piano).
     Now, i am only an egg (to quote _Stranger in a Strange Land_) in 
this kind of music, but i discovered that i like a lot of it, and 
thought you might too.  In fact, if you know of similar kinds of 
music, or other recordings you like, why not tell us?  One of the 
two-edged swords of the human mind is the fine ability to categorize 
things, but sometimes the walls of those categories get too high and 
too hard and we lose the ability to see into other rooms and the 
similarities of what we like.

     Dan
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**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu  **
**    "In each human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass, and a          **
**     nightingale.  Diversity of character is due to their unequal   **
**     activity."   --  Ambrose Bierce in _The Devil's Dictionary_    **
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