[Dixielandjazz] "Oriental Jazz"

[Louis Lince]

Hi Steve and listmates,

In the late '20s and early '30s the "Oriental" phase was replaced by a 
series of "Hawaiian" etc. type songs...eg Drifting and Dreaming, Yaaka Hula, 
My little Bimbo, Beneath hawaiian Skies etc.

Things always were cyclical. I have no doubt that there will be yet another 
craze...BUT please let it not be Rap (where the C is silent)


Louis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 3:05 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] "Oriental Jazz"


> List mates:
>
> Shortly after World War One ended, the Tin Pan Alley composers started
> writing pseudo oriental tunes. There was a groundswell of audience 
> interest
> in tunes about the "inscrutable" East.
>
> (Mysterious maybe, but not inscrutable) :-) VBG
>
> Most of these tunes were written not by Orientals, but by guys named
> Schwartz.
>
> It was a popular song subject phase for a while and everybody and his
> brother wrote Oriental Songs to make money at it. You were virtually
> guaranteed a HIT SONG if it had an oriental theme.
>
> If you are a silent movie buff, you know that there were a lot of 
> "Oriental
> Tunes" played as accompaniment by the pianist. This may also have helped 
> the
> market for them. The below from a silent movie history book.
>
> "There is also no shortage of Asian or "Oriental" tunes which were steeped
> in stereotype, and may actually have helped establish the precedent of
> traditional musical stereotypes for many decades that followed. Similar 
> but
> equal treatment was offered for Middle-Eastern nationalities as well in 
> the
> form of Arabian and "Hindoo" melodies."
>
> Oriental Jazz was not a genre. It was the jazzing up of Oriental theme
> popular tunes written first for silent movie background and then by Tin 
> Pan
> Alley composers for the mass market.
>
> Cheers,
> Charlie Chan
>
>
>
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