[Dixielandjazz] Instruments and vibrato

[David Richoux]

There is a taste of what those early bands might have sounded like in  
this recording of the The Laneville-Johnson Union Brass Band and The  
Lapsey Band.) It was re-issued on a 2 CD set "Talking & Drum Solos +  
Country Brass Bands" by Atavistic. (it may be filed under "Baby  
Dodds." Folkways Records’ COUNTRY BRASS BANDS OF THE SOUTH, VOLUME  
ONE  is the "bonus CD.")

http://www.atavistic.com/artist.cfm?action=2&ThisArtist=151&itemid=257

David RIchoux

On Sep 23, 2007, at 1:51 PM, J. D. Bryce wrote:

> I've been following the thread on traditional jazz instrumentation  
> and the one on vibrato.
>
> My readings for the last 45 years have convinced me that black  
> musicians picked up cornets, trombones, tubas and clarinets from  
> hock shops in the South after the Civil War.  These instruments had  
> been owned by members of Confederate army bands and had been hocked  
> after the war because their owners had bigger issues to deal with  
> than playing horns.  These instruments could be had cheaply and  
> that was a major factor.
>
> The black instrumentalists were, for the most part, untrained, and  
> played by ear; often missing a note in a melody and then coming  
> back to it.  They would literally "stagger" around the melody. This  
> could be said to be one of the origins of improvisation in black  
> music.  One source I read stated that one of the earliest  
> definitions of "jass" was "to stagger." As verification, the author  
> cited a quote from a black diary of around 1880; which said: "Abner  
> was drunk and jassing home."
>
> The black musicians would play marches, popular songs, dance tunes  
> and even lullabies.  When they played, they superimposed the black  
> emphasis on the second and fourth beats; rather than the white  
> emphasis on one and three.  This gave the music, to the white ear,  
> a herky-jerky feel.  It seemed, to the white listeners,  
> ragged....which term was applied to the black piano pre-jazz  
> artform to become "ragtime."
>
> The so-called "blues" sound was actually an attempt to replicate an  
> musical African scale to western instrumentation.  Thus, the Eb, Gb  
> and Bb were played on a C chord, creating the dissonance and  
> tension that is at the root of the blues.
>
> Black music was originally vocal music and, when the black  
> musicians played their cornets, trombones, etc., they replicated  
> the natural vibrato of the voice on their horns.  My father used to  
> speak of a "singing tone," and it is interesting to note that by  
> 1935, even classical trumpeters were playing with noticably more  
> vibrato than had been the standard in 1920.  This was  
> unquestionably the influence of Louis Armstrong.
>
> As for the saxophone:  The American military consciously emulated  
> the French army in terms of uniforms, drill instruction and even  
> military bands.  This was why the American army wore blue and why  
> their caps were variations on French military kepis.
>
> French military bands were alone in Europe in using saxophones, and  
> the American military bands did the same.  Thus, a certain number  
> of clarinetists in military ensembles were converted to play  
> saxes.  Prior to 1914, saxophones had two octave keys: one for  
> playing above G and the other for playing G and below. This was  
> cumbersome to say the least.
>
> Saxophones(with their idiosyncratic octave keys) began apearing in  
> hock shops in New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston after 1900.   
> This was because these ports were the primary debarcation ports for  
> the troops demobilizing from Cuba after the Spanish-American War.   
> If a military musician had a clarinet, cornet or trombone, he might  
> keep it to play it as a civilian.  But, there was virtually no  
> music written outside of the military for saxophones.  It was  
> reasonable that a saxophonist might hock his horn at the port. At  
> any rate, these horns began showing up in black bands between 1900  
> and 1910.
>
> In 1914 a new-patented octave key arrangement, that eliminated the  
> double octave key mechanism, became standard on saxophones. This  
> simplified the playing of the horn and enhanced its marketability.
>
> As black music began to be exposed to the general public, so the  
> sax was introduced to that same public.  Initially, white bands  
> played black-styled arrangements as novelties in their repertoire.   
> Since the C melody sax was pitched in C, the general procedure was  
> to get the violinist to play C Melody because he could continue  
> reading the violin part without transposing.  More and more, the  
> sax began to supplant the violin in pop bands as the demand for  
> black-influenced music increased.
>
> By the mid-1920's the C Melody had given way to alto, tenor and  
> baritone saxes in three-man sections.  The standard section  
> configuration was: A A T with one of the altos doubling on bari and  
> the tenor player doubling on bass sax.  They all played clarinet as  
> well.
>
> The only notable variation on the A A T sax section in the  
> mid-1920s was the Fletcher Henderson band which routinely used an A  
> A T T configuration.  This configuration became the standard  
> "swing" sax section of the late 1930's.  The other exception was  
> the Ellington band which poineered the A A T T B configuration  
> which, after 1940 became the standard sax section configuration, as  
> it is still today.
>
> Sorry about this long post, but I could lurk no longer.
>
> Jack Bryce
> one of Sheik Littlefield's Minions
>
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