[Dixielandjazz] Stock arrangements and recordings

Thu Jan 17 08:50:15 PST 2008

Just a question.  I don't know exactly what you are talking about.  I have a 
huge pile of "Stocks".  What I have are big band and a few Dixie band 
arrangements that came out in the 40's and 50's.  The cost was about $1.25 
per arrangement.  A lot were done by Johnny Warrington and other arrangers 
of pop tunes of the time.

I'm not familiar with any that existed much before that.  I have some in a 
Dixie book but most are swing and ballroom stuff.

Are we talking about the same thing?

I think the arrangers did these in response to the number of big bands that 
existed.  When the big bands went away so did the "Stock" arrangements.  I 
don't think they were off of recordings but arranged for the sake of selling 
the charts.

In about 1955 I was a member of a band that was just starting and we needed 
music.  We went down to a music house that had a lot of them.  We bought 
about 30 or 40 and they practically gave us a bunch more as closeouts.  I 
think they were around a quarter each.  I think they were so happy that we 
actually bought some of them.  I have a couple of hundred that were thrown 
out by the AF.  Since I sell nostalgia music I thought about computerizing 
the rhythm sections and trying out a mini big band.  I have about 10 so far 
but I stopped two years ago.

Some of those stocks are still, to this day, being used by one of the big 
bands here.

The interesting thing about most of the big band stocks was that they would 
work with vastly reduced instrumentation if you didn't use the last section 
that usually had a tenor solo.   I used them throughout the 60's with a 5 
piece group.  The two horns were alto sax and trumpet and sometimes a tenor 
playing the trumpet part.  While I have argued with one band leader about 
this and it's true they didn't have a big band feel but they were better 
than just fake books.  This was before I learned how to "arrange" on the fly 
and make a fake chart sound arranged.  At the time I think they helped my 
bands sound better than just playing through fake charts and if I got a job 
for a larger group I could just add horns and not have to worry about it.

For the most part today I think they are collector's items more than have a 
lot of practical use.  I did give four of them to a high school band so they 
could experience playing stocks.
Larry
StL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Tyle" <jazzchops at isp.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 1:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Stock arrangements and recordings

> Steve wrote:
>> This ties back to the "Recreated recordings" thread too.  But, I guess I 
>> can address this to Sheik and to Chris Tyle specifically...
>>
>> I just bought Chris' "Sugar Blues" album, the tribute to King Oliver, 
>> yeah it's 12 years late but at least I have it.   ;)
>> Marty Eggers suggested to me that at least the  chart of "Aunt Hagar's 
>> Children Blues" was a stock.  I've not heard an Oliver recording of it 
>> (actually, I have very few Oliver recordings any more--I've lost so 
>> doggone many CDs over the years   ;(   )  but that certainly seems 
>> possible.  I really like Marty's use of the bow, and the tango rhythm in 
>> the bass/drums (Hal Smith).  (Marty gave credit to the arrangement for 
>> the cool feel!)
>> But, to get to the question--Were the "stocks" the creation of some 
>> publishing house lackey, working off the original published sheets, or 
>> were they based on the recordings by whomever popularized the tune, or 
>> were they the charts used in the recording?
>>
>> Since the ragtime band I play with uses a lot of stocks reworked for our 
>> instrumentation, I'm curious as to the origin of them.
>>
>> thanks!
>>
>> steve
>>
> First I'd like to mention that most if not all the King Oliver recordings 
> can be heard at redhotjazz.com, including the Oliver Dixie Syncopators 
> recording of Aunt Hagar's.
>
> We used just a few stock arrangements for the Oliver recording. The point 
> of the recording was not really a recreation; it was to play certain tunes 
> to try to capture them in the style of Oliver Creole Jazz Band, circa the 
> time with Louis et. al. I picked several tunes that the band was known to 
> have recorded that were not released, i.e., "When You Leave Me Alone to 
> Pine," "If You Want My Heart (You Got to 'Low it, Babe)," and I also 
> picked tunes the band was known to have played but didn't record, "Oh, How 
> I Miss You Tonight," "Royal Garden," etc.
>
> According to the liner notes for the session, "Maryland" and "Eccentric" 
> were stocks, but I remember "Oh How I Miss You" as being a stock also. The 
> rest of the arrangements were by John Gill.
>
> Now, to answer your specific questions, most were written by an arranger 
> hired by the publishing company. (I think the word "lackey" is a bit 
> inappropriate here. Most of the arrangers were very skilled musicians.)  I 
> know composer Joe Jordan did some stock arrangements, as did Charles "Doc" 
> Cooke.
>
> There are examples of 1920s and 1930s bands working from stocks, but 
> editing them - adding solos, etc. There are some stocks that are based on 
> recordings, but I think most were written and then recorded.
>
> That being said, your ragtime stocks were most likely published that way, 
> not taken from recordings.
>
> Cheers,
> Chris Tyle
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz 
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> 