[Dixielandjazz] Standard Keys

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Ken et al,

In a lot of cases, standard keys for instrumental performances have been arrived at simply on the basis of the ranges of the principal instruments. For instance, the original song sheet of Body and Soul is in C, but it's now pretty well universally played in Db, following Coleman Hawkins's famous recording, as it sits comfortably for saxes and trumpet in that key (i.e. it avoids going too low or too high, so instrumental timbres are optimised).  

Of course, when singers are involved, all standard key bets are off. The tune has to be made to sit within the singer's safe range, so some exotic keys result. On big band recordings where singers took a vocal chorus, there was generally a key change from instrumental passage to vocal section, and another key change back to an instrumental closing passage. However, if the performance was a vocal feature with incidental involvement of the band, it would be pitched predominantly in the singer's key.

Cheers,

Ken Mathieson
www.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk