[Dixielandjazz] Re: 1919 March/Rag

[Dan Augustine]

Bill and others--
     Nay, i was not responding to you or anyone really.  I was just 
wondering why nobody had even mentioned my post and the composers 
listed (Michel Jouve and Frank Terran).
     The second track of the CD "Jazz Casual" (Koch Jazz is a 
subsidiary of Rhino Entertainment)(from Ralph Gleason's TV show) is a 
conversation between Gleason and Murphy, of which the following is my 
impression of what they said regarding this tune:

Ralph: "Turk, what was the name of that tune?"
Turk:  "That was a tune called '1919 Rag'.  It was originally a French
         march.  I can't pronounce the name [unintelligible] if I knew it.
         I think the reason people in New Orleans gave it up originally
         was that they couldn't say it either."
...
Turk:   "This happened to be a French march that they later named '1919'."

     So i gather that this was one of those marches in a book of 
marches, with some hard-to-pronounce French title in which they don't 
pronounce half of the letters and mispronounce (at least to American 
ears) the rest.  They couldn't say the name, so they gave it another 
name, the "1919 March" (possibly in that year), and later made it 
into a rag.
     Perhaps some of our European brethren and sistern could check 
some books of old French marches (from the early 1900's), if such 
exist.  Or, perhaps the alleged composers' names might be listed in a 
French publisher's catalogue or a library.  Ah, research!  I would 
love to be able to go through Turk's papers and arrangements and such 
(aren't they now held by the San Francisco Traditional Jazz 
Foundation?) to see if he had any notes on this (and other) songs. 
Maybe after i retire in January i'll volunteer my services to them.

     Dan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 15:36:39 +1100
>Subject: Re: Rifle Rangers/1919 Rag
>From: Bill Haesler <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
>To: Dan Augustine <ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu>,
>	DJML <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>
>Dan Augustine says in part:
>>  So nobody believes the information i posted on Nov. 24th?  Turk  even talks
>about it on the recording, and about how hard the original French title is
>to pronounce.<
>and from the previous post:
>>  Murphy CD called "Jazz Casual--Turk Murphy/Muggsy Spanier" (Koch Jazz KOC
>CD-8569, 1995). This was from a 1960's TV show originally recorded on June
>20, 1962. The first song is "1919 Rag", and in the liner-notes this is
>listed underneath the song: "Michel Jouve-Frank Terran  BMI Woodchuck Music
>Inc.". Maybe they are the arrangers, not the composers, who knows.  This is
>the only information (other than "Trad. (P. D.)")<
>
>Dear Dan,
>I did not mean to imply that.
>Not at all.
>However, you did not say before that Turk MENTIONED it on the program/CD.
>Can I assume he meant that it was difficult to say "1919' in French.
>Or what did he mean by the "original French title"?
>Why would he need to have used French in the first place? Was it a European
>program and is Koch 8569 a French CD?
>Many more questions than answers.
>But a few more leads to follow! French military music perhaps?
>8>)
>Kind regards,
>Bill.


-- 
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**
**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu  **
**     "If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes       **
**      impossible."  -- James McNeill Whistler                       **
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**