[Dixielandjazz] Stock charts

[dwlit at cpcug.org]

Thanks, Don. That's a keeper.

The publishers sent bandleaders loads of free charts, hoping they'd play
them on gigs. Many were pedestrian or worse, but there were many really
good charts, some of which were better than the those written and recorded
by even well-known bands.

--Sheik (who misses his Charleston Sheiks--having all those horns around
me, not the library work nor hauling equipment)

> A bit of history about this subject of stocks.
> The famed Goldkette arrangement of Clementine began as a stock sent by
> the publisher. Though most of it was played as is, Bill Challis made a
> little tinkering here and there to mold it to the talent of the band.
> Certainly Bix's classic solo was not something a Jack Mason type would
> write out.
> Consider the McKinney's Cottonpickers, one hot, hot band for its time.
> Leader, arrranger and tenor man Don Redman rewrote a number of stock
> arrangements, adding and balancing the talents of the band and
> re-arranging to fit. While he wrote many full charts himself, the demand
> to play the continuing "hit" tunes of the week or month meant relying on
> some stocks just to keep up. It was a common practice in that day.
> The Clementine stock was recorded by several other bands of that time --
> but once you hear them and then hear the Goldkette version you realize
> that the key is not the chart, but in the talent that makes it their
> own. That element -- taste if you will - cannot be written; but stocks
> served their purpose of making a band commercially successful because
> the public still anted to hear their favorite tunes of the day. Does
> the  title "What a Wonderful World" hit a Bell?
> Some have shuddered over that tune here on the list, but for Louis, in
> his late life, it kept him widely popular with a wider public than might
> have been the case.And bands today suck it up because when the paying
> public requests it, the smart players play it, take their checks home to
> the bank, and bitch in private.
> Again, the key is the talent that makes any chart swing. And brother,
> for me nothing every swung harder than the Goldkette Victor band when
> they were ready to play. Flip that original Clementine side and give My
> Pretty Gal a listen. Ventuti on fire, Brown's slap bass setting the
> standard, and clarinet  soaring n contrast to Spieglwe Willcox's
> straight melody. Thank you Mr Challis.for it. Swing? Swing? Like a
> trampeze on steriods!
> Don Ingle
>
> Paul Edgerton passed on this::
>>> A lot more attention needs to be given the place of stock charts in the
>>> history of 20s-30s jazz. They reflected and codified the music styles
>>> of
>>> the era, and proved to my satisfaction that jazz can be written and
>>> arranged.
>>>
>>> Their study is much easier today because the charts are increasingly
>>> available, eg. from Jim Jones' YesterTunes.com
>>>
>>> --Sheik
>>>
>>
>>
>
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