[Dixielandjazz] correct pitch, Ory, Savoy Blues

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

Almost every time I think I'm not going to follow something like all the  
posts on pitch and recording speeds, I open the posts anyhow.  Any by  golly, 
someone will usually ultimately enlighten things such as John Gill  did 
below.  And one more time I will find it worthwhile to stay  curious.  Thanks 
John!
Ginny 
 
 
In a message dated 2/4/2011 4:48:59 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
smokewagon at yahoo.com writes:

If I may  say something about all this correct pitch, and all. For years we 
have known  that recording speeds and playback speeds have been a little 
funky over the  years. So very simply, if you take Oliver's Dippermouth Blues 
which was  recorded in "C" and play the record back at the speed that puts 
it in tune  with concert C, then you have the correct tempo that Oliver 
played it in. You  will notice that all 3 of Oliver's versions of Dippermouth are 
a little  different tempo wise. Thew notion that the proper playback speed 
would be 58  rpm is silly, as is the notion that they played it in "G". I 
remember  researching that the proper playback speed for Columbia Records was 
80 rpm!  And I believe all the record companies had differen playback 
speeds, all  slightly off from one another. You will find that a lot of the keys 
were  different then played today, although many are the same like Dixielannd 
One  Step, Clarinet Marmalade, etc.
As fo Ory and the trombone glissandi in  Savoy blues. First of all the key 
is G. The tune was put together to feature  the guitars of Lonnie Johnson 
and Johnny St. Cyr and they have the prominent  solos. However both 
Armstrong's and Ory's solos were memorable. Ory does not  slide from the 6th position 
to first position, a common mistake. If you listen  to The Hot Five Record 
he glissandis from 4th position F natural to 2nd  position G every time 
except the last one where he glisses from the 4th  position F natural to 3rd 
position F sharp for the D7th chord. He does not  gliss up to A which is the 5th 
of the D7chord and is not as pleasing a tone as  the third,F#
Later on after Ory claimed the tune he changed the key to F.  But his gliss 
work then goes from 3rd position Eflat to first position F  natural and the 
last one from around 4 th position D natural to E natural in  the 2nd 
position. I'm not sure if he did it excactly this way on every  recording he did 
of it in F, but he does on the early ones.
Check it out.  By the way Mike Owen was mentioned in one of the posts. He's 
one of the best  traditional trombone players I ever heard. I worked with 
him a lot in New  Orleans.
Regards
John  Gill