[Dixielandjazz] Standard Dixieland Repertoire

[Steve Barbone]

dwlit at cpcug.org (Sheil) asked

> 
> Hi Gang. How did key pop tunes come into the standard Dixieland repertoire?
> Who introduced 'em, or made 'em popular enough so that dixielanders
> adopted 'em?

For the war horse tunes, as standards see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dixieland_standards


> It's a reasonable assumption that "Memories of you" came in via the Benny
> Goodman Quartet. Did "Sweet Sue" come in via Jimmie Noone's Apex Club
> orch.? Etc. Etc.

IMO the tunes above became Dixieland "standards" because they were well know
to the public as Dance Tunes. And most Dixieland Bands of those times were
dance bands. Tunes came directly from The Great American Songbook, via Tin
Pan Alley, or Broadway Shows etc. The bands simply provided dance tunes that
the audience wanted.

Memories of You was a Broadway Show tune of 1930. The most popular version
of it was by the Four Coins from movie about Benny in 1955. (#22 on the
Billboard Charts) It was probably added to Dixieland Bands, at least in NYC,
right after the show opened in 1930, before Benny recorded it.

Going a little farther afield, for a list of 1000 "Jazz" Standards, see:
http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions/index.htm

"Memories of You" ranks 83rd out of the 1000. "Sweet Sue" ranks 193rd. Fun
site to surf. Number 1? "Body & Soul".

Naturally this list is not all Dixieland tunes, BUT, it wouldn't hurt to see
how many of them could be adaptable to Polyphonic Counterpoint. Playing more
of them might help a Dixieland Band's popularity among the masses. <grin>

Note especially the "origins" of the tunes. Heavily weighted towards Great
American Songbook and/or Tin Pan Alley. Pity they stopped writing tunes like
those during the latter part of the 20th century.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone