[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland song-styles

[Stan Brager]

Dan;

If you want to include a love song in your list, I recommend Eddie Condon's
"Wherever There's Love" on the Decca CD "Eddie Condon: Dixieland All-Stars".

Stan
Stan Brager
Trombonist-in-Training

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Augustine" <ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 3:35 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Dixieland song-styles


> DJML--
>      A couple of months ago, driving back from the Sacramento Jazz
> Jubilee, i was talking with a highschool classmate and his wife
> (Feryl and Ruth) in Carson City, Nevada, about dixieland (OKOM,
> traditional jazz, etc.).  They already liked 1930's (and after)-style
> swing-music, but apparently had never heard much dixieland.  All i
> had with me was my car's CD-case of about 20 dixieland-CD's, and i
> was trying to play for them samples of dixieland.
>      I had two (probably unrealistic) aims in mind: 1) sketching the
> history of dixieland from about 1900 to today via song-styles; and 2)
> illustrating the incredible diversity of types of song-styles in
> dixieland (_not_ band-styles like Condon-style, West Coast, New
> Orleans, but styles like marches, gospel, dances, etc.).
>      Obviously i didn't have enough samples to accomplish either aim,
> but here's something close to what i played for them:
>
> Gettysburg March (Turk Murphy)
> Bugle Boy March (Michael White)
> Original Dixieland One-Step (Yerba Buena Stompers)
> Weatherbird (Great Pacific Jazz Band)
> Bozo (Caoba Jazz Band)
> Just a Closer Walk with Thee (Michael White)
> Gimme a Pigfoot (Queen City Jazz Band, with Wende Harston)
> Willie the Weeper (Titan Hot 7)
> Russian Lullaby (Reynolds Brothers)
> Big Bear Stomp (Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz Band
> March of the Uncle Bubbys (Tim Laughlin)
> Jubilee Stomp (Gully Low Jazz Band)
>
>      Those of course are probably not the same songs or the same order
> i played them in, but you get the idea.  They liked the songs i
> played (only 30-60 seconds per tune), and Ruth said she thought
> "Jubilee Stomp" was just 'frantic' (i would have said 'energetic',
> but you gotta remember that this was Carson City, not New York City).
>      However, since then i've been thinking more about the range of
> dixieland song-types, or styles of subject-matter in songs. We never
> talk about this feature of dixieland and seem to take it for granted,
> but i don't think any other kind of jazz incorporates as many
> different styles in it as dixieland.
>      Here are some more examples of song-styles/subjects.  You can
> think of lots more, and can (and will) quibble with my categories.
>
> spiritual/gospel: Old Man River (Wild Bill Davison)
> folk song (?): Green Leaves of Summer (Kenny Ball)
> march: South Rampart Street Parade
> blues (?): St. James Infirmary (Jack Teagarden)
> barbershop: Down by the Old Mill Stream (Kings of Dixieland)
> children's song: Red Wing (High Sierra)
> folk/country-western: Red River Valley
> dance: Charleston
> Civil War march: Gettysburg March
> broadway: Mame
> rag: 1919 Rag; 12th Street Rag; Maple Leaf Rag
> bunny hop: Jinken (Golden Gate Rhythm Machine)
> patriotic: American Patrol; Battle Hymn of the Republic
> state songs: Back Home in Indiana; Maryland, My Maryland
> city songs: Dallas Blues, St. Louis Blues, Bay City
> New Orleans: Iko Iko (St. Gabriel's Celestial Brass Band)
> circus: Thunder and Blazes
> ethnic: Irish Black Bottom; Hava Nagila; Mexican Hat Dance
> popular songs: When I'm 64; Midnight in Moscow
> novelty: Sheik of Araby; In a Persian Market
> early American: Lassus Trombone
> Australian: Noalimba Breakout (Steve Waddell's Creole Bells)
> French: C'est Pas Ma Faute (Sac a pulses)
>
>      You see what i'm trying to get at?  I'm not concerned with the
> labels per se for the song-styles, but the different kinds of mood
> (major/minor), rhythm (Latin, march, dirge, dance), subject-matter,
> associations that the audience has with them.  Playing such differing
> styles creates a lot of enjoyable listening for an audience, and
> perhaps in our set-lists we don't think enough about using different
> song-styles to add more interest to our music.
>
>      Dan
> -- 
> **--------------------------------------------------------------------**
> **  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu  **
> **   "If I owned Hell and Texas I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell." **
> **                    -- General Phillip H. Sheridan                  **
> **--------------------------------------------------------------------**
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