[Dixielandjazz] Flatted Fifths Redux

[Stephen Barbone]

The Blues have had flatted fifths since their beginning.

For example Blues in C is based upon a five note C (minor) Pentatonic
Scale.

C Eb F G B

Then the flatted fifth, or Gb is added for "soul fullness", plus the
octave root and you get.

C Eb F Gb G Bb C

Which numerically is:

1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7, 1

These are the notes that are "correct" in a Blues in C. Musically, you
can use them anywhere in the Blues tune. (That is not to say some won't
fit better than others in a specific spot) They've been played that way
in the blues for over 100 years. The flatted 3rd, 5th and 7th are
commonly referred to as the "blue" notes.

So, if you listen carefully to most "blues" bases OKOM players, you will
hear flatted fifths routinely from the early days of recording through
the present. And as pointed out by others, you will also hear them from
folks like Beiderbecke who was not particularly blues based as well as
from Teagarden who was.

And if one believes that the "Blues Scale" is not enough to know, in
order to play blues, I refer you to Monk's Mysterioso which is the piece
he wrote using "walking sixths" over the conventional Blues Scale. He
wrote it specifically to prove that a piece could indeed be written and
played using the only blues scale after hearing some "authoritative"
jazz critic say it couldn't be done, because there wansn't enough to
work with. (Don't you just love it when some pencil pusher says: "You
can't do that")

And as Mop pointed out, the tri tone exploration also includes them. Pee
Wee Russell was big on tri tone exploration from the 1920s until his
death. (Tri tones are 3 note sequences of whole tones and whole tone
scales include the flatted fifth.)

Stravinski also used whole tones and flatted fifths from about 1910.

So, whether you like bop in addition to OKOM as McCallum and I do, or
not, as Mop and others do not, it seems as if the flatted fifth preceded
the boppers by several generations.  If one dislikes the way boppers use
them as opposed to how "trad" players use them, well, so what?  Jazz has
always been the music of change and  none of its styles will please
everyone. The disagreements about Bix within the OKOM segment are proof
of that. And poor Stravinski, mentioned above, is still vilified in some
classical music circles because of the way he heard and wrote music.

Suffice it to be happy that they were always around, contrary to what
many of us may have believed before this thread was opened. And like
Gerry Mulligan once said about Pee Wee Russell: (something like) "Pee
Wee is light years ahead of me harmonically". I don't remember the exact
quote but you can find it in Sudhalter's "Lost Chords" somewhere in the
Chapter on Pee Wee.

One just never knows who is hippest, does one?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone