Fwd: [Dixielandjazz] Re: NEW TUNES FOR OKOM?

[Charlie Hooks]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Charlie Hooks <charliehooks2 at earthlink.net>
> Date: Sat Jun 18, 2005  12:43:47 AM US/Central
> To: Dan Augustine <ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu>
> Cc: DJML <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Re: NEW TUNES FOR OKOM?
>
>
> On Friday, June 17, 2005, at 08:47 PM, Dan Augustine wrote:
>
>> (I never have understood why you can't do dixieland-waltzes.)
>>
>
> But of course you can.  There's Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz," 
> there's Steve Allen's "Gravy Waltz."   There's Ann Ronell's "Willow, 
> Weep for Me."  There's "Hello, Young Lovers," written in 3, which, 
> if you haven't played, you have a revelation coming. (You ought to 
> hear Russ Phillips play it in 4 at a lightspeed pace!)  
> There's...oh, hell, there's a million of 'em: "I'll See You Again," 
> one of Noel Coward's most poignant tunes...almost as gripping as 
> Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do?"   C'mon: THINK, people!  You ever 
> try the 12 bar blues in 3?  No? Try it. Another revelation.
>
> Truth is: jazz waltzes are some of the most wonderful OKOM music 
> around.  Eubie Blake once told me he deliberately wrote his songs so 
> that they would work in either 3 or 4.  He said he was working on 
> the edge of the popular change over from waltzes to 2-step, and he 
> needed to touch both bases.  And sure enough: if you try almost any 
> Eubie tune, it will swing in either direction.  Try "Memories of 
> You."  You never realized...right?
>
> Jazz waltzes can swing their asses off; and because they can, they 
> are great fun to play in normal dance tempos.  But:
>
> Then try my favorite hustle: a superslow downhome black blues tempo, 
> but separated into triplets on every beat, making a 9/8, but 
> actually playing eighths and sixteenths. Dooba dooba dooba do daht 
> daht like Hubert Lawes, the great black flutist back in the 
> seventies who recorded "Come, Ye Disconsolate"...ooh, man!  Ain't 
> nothin' more total downhome feel than on that cut!  It's pure 
> Southern black church, and there ain't nothin' homey-er than that.  
> You might have to explain briefly to white audiences where you're 
> coming from initially, but they"ll hear it soon enough.  It's 
> irresistible. Blacks need no explanation. They were born hearing it!
>
> Time to crash: fun to write, but too much of The Creature, as me 
> Irish ancestors accurately described him.  But I have re-read and 
> find nothing reprehensible.
>
> Charlie
>
> ____________________________________________
> "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."--Paul 
> Hornung