[Dixielandjazz] TradJazz.zip Somebody being heloful

[Rick]

Kit W. Johnson wrote:
>
> Hi Rick: Thank you very much for making those files available to all. 
> I’ve downloaded them and taken a listen to about a dozen. Question I 
> have is the source for the chords. There are quite a few differences 
> from what I’ve “grown up with”, so thought I’d check whether you were 
> using a particular fake book as a source, your own practices, etc. 
> Thanks again for sharing. Kit
>
> **Kit W. Johnson**
>
> **Black Swan Classic Jazz Band**
>
> **503-292-7673******
>
> **503-970-1251 (cell)******
>
> **kit at bscjb.com <mailto:kit at bscjb.com> **
>
> **www.bscjb.com <http://www.bscjb.com/> **
>
Kit,

That's a good question, and I've taken the liberty 
of passing it on to
the group.

I do have a good collection of fake books -- 
Anderson Collection, A CD
with all the REAL fake books, but a lot of these 
rely on my intuition --
I have a good collection of CD's -- Trad from the 
20's, all of the FH5,
Turk, other Good Time Jazz... I cut my eye-teeth 
on FH5, have been
playing for 60 years, so I do have a good feel for 
what comes next.
What's more, I know what's important -- most 
guitar music is arranged by
the (piano-playing) guy who did the whole 
arrangement, and he/she tends
to put in too much!!

I built this list as I was building a Trad jazz 
fake book for the
Colorado Nighthawks (or before that) and most of 
the tunes have been
played. A few of them don't have the melody -- 
like "I'm Coming
Virginia", which I love, but have never played 
with a live band.

One of the great things about BIAB is that you can 
Change it, try it, play with it, change it again, 
until you get it right!!

Usually, the banjo player takes these chords and 
simplifies them a little, adds passing chords as 
he/she goes along. The melodies are all very 
simple, and I hope soloists can listen to records 
and come up with a better melody line.

The most important part, in my experience, has
been the Tuba part. Many Tuba players have never 
played jazz, and they need a written part to play 
along. As they get familiar with the idiom,
they start varying from it. Altho the Tuba that my 
style puts in is "OK" it certainly not up to the 
standard of the HotLanta Trio -- one of my
favorites. \
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hotlanta+trio&x=17&y=16

Rick
Banjo Player since 1951