[Dixielandjazz] The nature of chord progressions for an EddieCondon sounding band.

[jsbarque at netscape.net]

I once got fired from a band for playing modern jazz chords on the banjo, albeit only 4 note ones.

Graham -  are you the same Graham Martin who took my old MGA bits back in the Storyville days?

Tony Orr
Melbourne

Charlie Hooks <charliehooks2 at earthlink.net> wrote:

>
>On Thursday, July 7, 2005, at 12:18 AM, Graham Martin wrote:
>
>>
>> So, I have some questions with regard to chord progressions.
>>
>>
>>
>> 1.     Do the types of chords used in a progression add interest for
>> the listener? Even if they don't know why.
>>
>> 2.     Do the types of chords used date a band - as to the period of
>> jazz they are playing? In other words, did they use different chords
>> in the nineteen twenties, to the nineteen fifties, or the twenty
>> first century, if it comes right down to it?
>>
>> 3.     Do the types of chords used in a progression by the rhythm
>> section influence greatly the lines used by frontline players in the
>> Dixieland ensemble and in their solos?
>>
>> 4.     This is my most important question! If my band is trying to
>> reproduce something like the sound of a 1950's Eddie Condon Band,
>> what type of chord progressions should be used? To qualify this
>> somewhat: To my ear Condon of that decade is more or less the same
>> sound I am hearing played today by musicians like Jon-Erik Kellso,
>> Ed Polcer, Tommy Saunders, Jim Cullum, etc., etc. I will stop at
>> trumpet players because I think you will realise the OKOM that I am
>> talking about.
>
>
>O.K., ignoring the sage advice that "a closed mouth gathers no feet,"
>I'll jump in here.
>
>In Chicago one of our very top pianists is Steve Behr, a unique
>player in almost all ways, who can shift deliberately from one era to
>another in musical style.  And Steve told me years ago that the main
>difference between the older styles (of the twenties, early thirties)
>and the "modern" styles is the use of minor seventh chords.  The
>twenties bands used no minor sevenths.   And you can try this for
>yourselves: a modern player, going from, say, C to G7 will almost
>always prefer at least a passing Dm7 that will resolve into the G7;
>in the twenties the change would have been directly to the G7.
>
>Steve says that he always has to decide before playing a tune whether
>or not to use the minor seventh plus resolution.  And his choice does
>directly affect the overall sound, suggesting to me as a front line
>player somewhat different lines of improv.
>
>Then, too, in support of Steve's statement is my experience working
>in Detroit for years with Ragtime Charlie Rasch, a wonderful player
>whose entire life is lived in the twenties--in dress, in camera (he
>uses a Kodak bellows with roll film)--I'm saying that Charlie is
>nothing if not authentic.  The notes he plays will be exactly the
>ones on the piano rolls he owns. You get the picture.  Well, Charlie
>simply will not play a minor seventh chord!  Not ever.  "Aw," he'll
>grin, "that's too modern."
>
>Condon's bands were much too modern for Charlie, and one of the main
>reasons is that minor seventh resolution; but they used in general
>the kinds of chords Billy Kyle played on Louis' 1955 band with Arvell
>and Trummy and Barrett.  Now Barrett could also switch back and
>forth, and I'm on at least one recording with him and with Steve Behr
>where one track is deliberately in the twenties style.  The
>difference is quite easy to hear.
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>Charlie Hooks
>
>> __________________________________________
>"For every one of the great problems of life there is an answer
>--simple, plausible and wrong."--H.L. Mencken
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