[Dixielandjazz] sounds of the twenties

[Larry Walton Entertainment]

Some years ago when I was in college we had a NY eve gig and everyone went
home.  The drummer thinking that the dorm where his drums were would be open
ended up with no drums. NOT!  Our agent made some calls and came up with a
pre twenties drum set.  The bass drum was about 30" with a rolling un
muffled boom although there was one of those felt mufflers screwed to the
rim that pressed on the head.  the snare sounded more like a tom and the tom
tom was one of those Chinese things with the tacked on head.  The cymbal was
about 10" and sounded more like a hub cap.  It came with a cowbell and
Chinese temple blocks and even a set of brushes.  There was a Hawaiian scene
painted on the bass with a light bulb inside that blinked behind the moon.

I couldn't believe it.  This  wasn't precisely the sound I was looking for
and at that time was so un-cool.

Actually the sound of that set is just what you want IMHO for early era
jazz.  If you look at old photos that's the exact setup that you will see.
It's a sound that can't be duplicated by modern drum sets.  The bass had
more of a boom and as I said the snare was more like a tom sound. The snares
were gut and would be affected by humidity the same as the heads.  The
Chinese tom had a higher pitch (again depending on humidity) than toms of
today.  The cymbal had more of a flat chink rather than a ring like today's
cymbals.  I don't recall that there was a hi-hat.  Speaking of that I played
one time with a black guy that said he played with Louis Armstrong on the
river boats.  The unique thing about his set was that he used a sizzle
hi-hat.  I can recall only seeing that once before when I was a kid.  I'm
sorry but I can't recall the mans name.

Saxophones were definitely darker in sound than today's horns.   Other than
that I would imagine that the rest of the instruments sounded pretty much as
they do today.

Larry Walton
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Cebuisle2 at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 6:19 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] sounds of the twenties


> Actually, we don't know WHAT rhese 20's and 30's jazz groups really
sounded
> like, so how can we judge them?
>
> Firstly, the drums couldn't be recorded, except cymbals, until Western
> Electric invented a sophisticated recording system during the late
thirties.
> Muggsy Spanier's group made a splendid series of recordings using this
system in
> 38. Prior to that many systems consisted of just a horn into which
everyone
> played, while the engineers hassled with the egos of the guys who wanted
to out
> play everyone else .(Sidney you-know-who comes to mind)
>
> Then there were the scratches, which magically appeared almost as soon as
> you played the recording a few times. This old phonos were not hi fi, many
were
> wind up, using crude steel needles. I know. I bought a bunch of them.
>
> Then there were the horns which often were far from top line instruments.
> many were promptly placed in hock shops during slack times when musicians
had to
>  raise chickens (Kid Ory) for a living or maybe veggies (Bunk) Modern
> precision  manufacturing wasn't around then. Drum heads were REALLY
calfskin, and
> sagged  badly if it was humid.
>
> I am sure these old recordings sounded a lot better in the studio than
they
> did to those  who bought the new records, or we who play them nearly a
> century later. Tinny? Yes. Scratchy? Yes. Comical? often. Chairs could be
clearly
> be heard scraping, probably as the guys reached for the gin bottle  during
> sessions.
>
> But I love to hear these early jazz tunes re-created by modern groups
using
> original instrumentation. I get up off the couch and do the second  line
> strut, with my wife's umbrella, at least until she yells from the kitchen,
"Knock
> it off!!"
>
>
>         Hee Hee!   tradjazz
>
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