[Dixielandjazz] Obscure tunes

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

On breaking up the boredom:

Actually I like exploring unknown tunes.  I think I got hooked when I pulled
the Bischet tune "Have You Seen My Mother" out of a stack of tunes and the
trumpet man went wild and told me that I had to play it.  Wow what a kick

Having said that there is a lot of crap out there as there is today.  It's
up to the musician to sift it out before presentation to the public.  If you
play too many of those tunes your audience will go to sleep and go away.  As
I see it you have to play the bread and butter tunes and you can get away
with a few of the others unless your audience expects to hear new "old"
tunes.  I could imagine a lot of jazz societies being in this category.

A  friend of mine and also a brilliant cornets ( Steve Lilly of the St.
Louis Stompers) tells the audience the story of the tune and something about
it's background.  The audience loves it.

A jazz musician should never get bored with a tune because jazz is infinite
and the tunes are just the framework that we hang an (hopefully) original
composition of a solo.  If it gets boring then  expanding your understanding
of the chord progression and try changing something.  Use your imagination.
I get bored with arrangements but not jazz choruses.

Larry Walton
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Craig I. Johnson" <civanj at adelphia.net>
To: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 5:10 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Ambassador Satch - Faithful Hussar


Steve Barbone wrote: (again)

> Because they're to damn busy playing sissified OKOM like "My Canary's Got
> Circles Under His Eyes" and other obscure tunes that are obscure today
> because they weren't any good the first time around either.
>
> All in order to fool the aging audience that this is indeed, "Artistic
> Dixieland." Yessir, play that tune that nobody's ever heard before. You'll
> get a rep for brilliance

Siissified?

And, aside from that, sometimes it's fun to break the monotony of one more
repeat of Bill Bailey, China Boy, Indiana, Tin Roof Blues, Saint James
Infirmary
Hello Dolly and The Saints. Speaking both as a musician and a fan, even a
nice tune like
Wonderful World (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) can get cloying after
hearing/playing it every gig. Sometimes it's nice to hear "When I Leave the
World Behind"
in its place. Not all of those "unknown" tunes 'are crap and were crap
before'. Some probably
just didn't  make the top 20/40 for some other reason - the band that
recorded them, the music
publisher's or radio station's/recording studio's bias or because the
competition
among the new tunes was great that week/month, whatever.

Steve, You seem really hung up on this issue. It's a real put-down to fans
or musos
who enjoy discovering a little known tune once in a while that "breaks it
up."
I feel that I'm being told that I'm an idiot for enjoying what I enjoy.
I like listening to Ernie Carson or Leon Redbone for just this reason.
I tend to like bands that mix up the obscure with the more familiar
and sometimes banal old favorites. i.e. mixing the money makers with the
interesting little "gems." Louis must have felt the same way or he never
would have recorded "Huzzer Kazzar". Eddie Condon recorded a few
rather obscure things too.

I'll admit that the dictum  "only play tunes that the audience can
hum or whistle" has its place ($$), but not all the time.
And I'll admit it depends on the audience at the time.
---and the band as well: "Red Man Blues" never became a big hit,
but the New Black Eagles rendition of it really turned me on
when I heard it years ago. Their recreation was better
than the original. I think it had to do with the Black Eagles' "drive".
-- and at the time they were not playing to an "aging audience -
it was a pretty young bunch of folks.)

Craig Johnson
Cornet - Maine Street Paraders.
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