[Dixielandjazz] How did key tunes get into the standard dixieland repertoire?

D and R Hardie darnhard at ozemail.com.au
Sun Sep 9 16:44:54 PDT 2007


Hello Sheik,
                    Bunk Johnson seemed to hold the view that  jazz 
bands  should play the pop tunes of the time. He did this in his last 
recording series and received some stick from the critics who thought 
tunes like Chloe out of keeping with 'traditional jazz'.
It seems obvious  now that the early bands had to play the latest from 
tin pan alley and the stage because their audiences wanted them. Hence 
the popular rags like Maple Leaf and Frog Legs had to be included 
during the ragtime craze at the turn of the century. The idea of a 
canon of proper  jazz tunes appears to have been a construct of the 
1940's. (Bunk apparently used the Red Back Book of Rags for his 
recreations of the rags; witnesses confirmed he still  had a copy in 
the 40's)
regards
  Dan Hardie
http://tinyurl.com/nqaup

On Sunday, September 9, 2007, at 12:10  PM, dwlit at cpcug.org wrote:

> Hi Dan. In my longer version of my question, I asked where Bunk, etc.,
> relearned their old tunes, especially multi-strained ones that surely
> required some intense effort.
>
> Lo and behold, thumbing through your history, I found your section on
> Bunk's early days, with a list of his tunes. If he was playing as 
> often as
> you say he did, then he probably had 'em down c-o-l-d, probably mainly
> just had to tidy 'em up in the 40s...
>
> --Sheik
>
>> Hello all,
>>                  As Sheik points out popular songs  are part of the
>> history of jazz. Buddy Bolden played hit tunes of his day like Ida and
>> Lazy Moon.
>>                      Another early source was the religious music of 
>> the
>> time. You can catch a video of the Buddy Bolden Revival Orchestra
>> playing the Jubilee- Ride on King Jesus at:
>>    http://www.esnips.com/web/BuddyBoldenRevivalOrchestra
>>
>> regards
>> Dan Hardie
>> website
>> http://tinyurl.com/nqaup
>>
>> On Sunday, September 9, 2007, at 03:52  AM, dwlit at cpcug.org wrote:
>>
>>> By "standard Dixieland repertoire" I mean today's most commonly 
>>> played
>>> tunes.
>>>
>>> Let's ignore the 40s New Orleans and West Coast revivals, which
>>> immeasurably broadened the possibilities. Or, we can take individual
>>> revival tunes with early origins--eg Maryland my Maryland, 1919 
>>> March.
>>> We
>>> know they were old tunes, but how did Bunk, etc., reacquaint 
>>> themselves
>>> with them?
>>>
>>> Actually, my initial concern was tunes such as "When you're smiling",
>>> which dates from 1928. Perhaps Armstrong's record was the jazz spark,
>>> perhaps Noone's. How widely was Coon Sanders Orch. listened to by
>>> jazzers?
>>> If the tune was popular, why don't we have more records of it?
>>>
>>> It's not enough to identify the tunes as pop tunes. "I'm looking 
>>> over a
>>> 4-leaf clover" was recorded by Goldkette and Al Jolson, but not 
>>> picked
>>> up
>>> by jazzers, yet it was a well-known "sing-along" tune even in the 
>>> 50s.
>>>
>>> I've sort of backed into the question because when I can, I like to
>>> "justify" playing a tune or putting it into one of my books by 
>>> naming a
>>> famous jazz figure who recorded it.
>>>
>>> The tunes are a basic part of the history of jazz, and jazz is part 
>>> of
>>> the
>>> history of many pop tunes: who played what, where, when and why? Dan
>>> Hardy
>>> investigates some of this in his explorations of Buddy Bolden's 
>>> music.
>>>
>>> --Sheik
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> 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? <snip>
>>>> --Sheik"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> As I see it, many of the tunes in the Dixieland repertoire WERE the
>>> popular tunes of the day. Others were written specifically, such as 
>>> the
>>> original raft of tunes by the ODJB. Eddie Condon used a lot of 
>>> popular
>>> tunes - Bing Crosby hits etc. What amazes me is how long they have
>>> survived as Dixieland standards, especially as some of them are not
>>> that
>>> good.
>>>> Graham Martin
>>>
>>>> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>
>
>
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