[Dixielandjazz] Double Bass in N.O jazz (very long rant)

[Marek Boym]

Thank you for this very informative article.
Cheers

On 18 January 2011 17:57, Ulf Jagfors <ulf.jagfors at telia.com> wrote:
> FYI info. This is an article I have saved in my library. I might contribute
> to the discussion about tuba playing. Remember, I cannot comment on the
> correctness of the content. I just forward it. Don´t shoot the postman.
> Ulf Jagfors
>
>
> This revised and expanded version of the article is still incomplete. This
> working copy is here on the web for the benefit of those interested in the
> topic. -- D.C.M., 9 August, 1999.
> Old Webpage version of 1990 article
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Note: This article first appeared in a different form in the December 1990
> issue of the defunct New Orleans music magazine "Wavelength". It was
> expanded upon for a lecture I gave at the New Orleans Music Colloquim in
> April 1999. -- D.C.M.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> SLAP THAT BASS!
> NEW ORLEANS STRING BASS PIONEERS
>
> New Orleans Introduce A New Sound
> New Orleans has had a strong tradition of producing great bass players from
> the last century up to the present day. New Orleans string bass players
> recieved much attention when a new sound was becoming prevalent in the
> rhythm sections of both large and small bands during the late 1920's and
> early 1930's. The string bass, plucked and slapped, was filling the role
> more usually filled by the tuba. Many of the leading national dance bands
> added slap bass players to their rhythm sections--whenever possible, New
> Orleans musicians. Although musicians from elsewhere soon started imitating
> this style, it was clear that the leading exponents of slap string bass were
> all New Orleanais.
> Wellman Braud (born 1891, died 1967) may have been the most important single
> popularizer of the slap style during his long stay with the Duke Ellington
> Orchestra, making numerous recordings and frequent radio broadcasts. Braud
> was not alone in bringing this style to national attention.
>
> The string bass work of Steve Brown (c. 1890-1965) rivaled the cornet work
> of Bix Biederbecke in amazing listeners to the Jean Goldkette Orchestra.
> Wellman Braud said that Brown was the greatest of all bass players.
>
> The great George "Pops" Foster (1892-1969) gave rhythmic drive to the bands
> of Luis Russell and Louis Armstrong while teaching the slap style to some of
> the best northern musicians. Foster was a wonderful creative musician.
> Foster wrote a fine autobiography with Tom Stoddard. The dates and incidents
> in the book should be compared with other sources.
>
> John Lindsay (1894-1950) was a trombonist (he recorded on that instrument
> with the A.J. Piron Orchestra) who said he switched to sting bass in order
> to get more jobs. His bass is heard on the classic Chicago 1926 Jelly Roll
> Morton Red Hot Pepper records, and in the '30's Lindsay was one of the group
> of New Orleans and Mississippi musicians in the Harlem Hamfats, a band which
> kept one foot in the New Orleans tradition while pointing the way towards
> the Rhythm & Blues style of a decade and a half later.
>
> Al Morgan (1908-1974)was youngest of the pioneers who popularized slap style
> for the national audience, Morgan went up to New York and became the first
> string bass player to recorded with Fats Waller in 1929. He returned to New
> Orleans, taking part in the great Jones & Collins Astoria Hot 8 recordings.
> Morgan provided the slap bass backing for Cab Calloway's Orchestra in the
> early '30's. He developed a number of acts with Calloway (some of which were
> later continued by his successor Milt Hinton), including a routine on
> "Reefer Man", an abbreviated version of which is preserved on film in the
> W.C.Fields movie "International House".
>
> What was the origin of this new instrumental style?
>
>
> Sting Bass and Recording Technology
> In tracing the history of slapping the bass, it is important to note that
> early recording simply couldn't pick up the string bass. Before the mid
> 1920's, records were made by the pre-microphone "acoustical" process, where
> musicians played into the large end of a megaphone-like recording horn, the
> small end of which was attached to a diaphragm which caused a needle to
> vibrate, tracing the sound waves into the grooves of the master record.
> While this proved satisfactory for recording most mid range frequencies
> (such as the human voice, trumpets and trombones), picking up other sounds,
> particularly string instruments and high and low frequencies, presented
> difficulties for the phonograph's "tin ear". Bass response was particularly
> problematic. The worst part of the problem was that bass sounds loud enough
> to be clearly recorded tended to knock the recording stylus right out of the
> groove (Electric microphones did not totally solve this-- as late as 1943
> Chester Zardis' slap bass knocked out the stylus in a George Lewis recording
> session).
> Some experiments were tried, The Edison Phonograph Laboratories constructed
> a giant recording horn. It's mouth filled a room from floor to ceiling. The
> length of the great funnel stretched for half a block between two buildings.
> Edison engineers said that the contraption could pick up and reproduce the
> lowest note of a bass viol. It was hardly suitable for mass production,
> however.
> Despite such experiments, bass response was simply not a high priority with
> the record companies of that era, Most home phonographs of the time were
> inadequate to reproduce what little bass response could be picked up. While
> the better studios of the time could pick up a recognizable semblance of
> tuba, drummers were usually limited to snares, sock cymbals, and woodblocks,
> and string bass players were usually told to sit and wait during the
> recording session.
> 1925 saw the biggest single leap forward in recording technology of the
> pre-digital era. The American recording industry's big two, Victor and
> Columbia, adopted the new Western Electric recording process. Despite
> compression of dynamics, this new process provided much wider frequency
> response and improved overall fidelity compared with the old acoustical
> process. Most other record companies followed the lead and brought electric
> microphones into their studios in the next few years. Improved home
> phonographs, both acoustical and electric, came on the market in order to
> allow record buyers to hear the fuller range of the new records. In the
> recording studios, bands were able to use their regular instrumentation and
> play in a manner much closer to how they played live.
> At first recording engineers were loathe to feature instruments inaudible
> only a few years before, but in 1926 and 1927 Victor let Steve Brown record
> numbers featuring the slap-bass prominently with the orchestras of Jean
> Goldkette and Paul Whiteman. The records of these popular bands sold well.
> The string bass revolution now had the mass media of the time behind it, and
> spread rapidly.
>
>
> When Did Slap Style Originate?
> These first recordings of the New Orleans style of bass playing do not mark
> the beginnings of the style, which was already in existence. From the
> descriptions of ear-witnesses of the time, we know that some New Orleans
> musicians were already slapping the bass at least half a decade before the
> phonograph and the radio gave the style national exposure. Listeners and
> fellow musicians recalled that Steve Brown had been playing his bass slap
> style with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in the early 1920s. Some people with
> either keen ears or keen imaginations say there are moments when Brown can
> actually be heard on the band's 1922 acoustical recordings-- somewhere
> behind the louder banjo, piano, drums, surface noise, and turn-table rumble.
> (The 1939 book "Jazzmen" said Brown can be heard on those sides, and that
> information or misinformation has often appeared in print and liner notes
> since, but I've never been able to hear him, and I've never met anyone else
> who said they've been able to, either on the original 78s or any reissues,
> even when trying repeatedly while playing around with the equalization with
> various equipment. Similarly, I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has
> actually heard Ed Garland's bass on Kid Ory's first recording session in
> California. Books and liner notes seem to always list Garland as being on
> that session, though it's not even certain that he was with the Ory band at
> that particular date.)
> The musician who replaced Steve Brown in the Rhythm Kings was "Chink" Martin
> Abraham (1886-1981). He is perhaps best remembered as a tuba player, though
> he also played very fine slap string bass.
>
> Many New Orleans bass players of the early jazz generations doubled on
> string bass and tuba. As a generalization, String bass was played more often
> in dance bands, the tuba in the street with marching bands. However before
> the late 1920s recording companies preferred the tuba for use on recordings.
>
>
> Simon Marrero (1897-1935) was one of the best regarded string bass players
> of his generation. He recorded with Papa Celestin and Dave Nelson; on some
> sides that discographies and liner notes claim are with string bass he can
> be heard playing tuba. Simon Marrero gave lessons to Al Morgan and to his
> own younger brother Eddie Marrero. Simon Marrero earned many job offers on
> his trips up North; he played for a time with the Blue Rhythm band in New
> York.
>
> Ed Garland's birth date is given as 1895, He might have been somewhat older;
> he died 1980, He's best remembered as bass player with Kid Ory's Band for
> decades. Garland said he introduced slap style to California in 1917.
> Perhaps he introduced it to the parts of California where Bill Johnson
> hadn't been playing a couple years earlier.
>
> While some New Orleans bass players were spreading the style to other
> locations, fine bassists such as Chester Zardis (1900-1990), and Sidney
> Brown (1894-1968), played professionally during this time while seldom
> venturing far from New Orleans.
>
> Just when DID this manner of playing originate?
>
> New Orleans bassist Albert Glenny, born in 1870, lived to 1958, said that he
> almost exclusively bowed during his early career in New Orleans. He was
> somewhat disdainful of the pluckers and slappers, "that ain't no bass
> playing...pick pockpick", but said he had to learn that newer style in order
> to keep playing professionally. By the time that Chester Zardis (1900-1990)
> started playing professionally a different attitude had developed. Zardis
> said that bowing was little used except on waltzes and slow tunes; slapping
> and plucking were necessary to give the music a real jazz feeling.
> Apparently the new bass styles took hold sometime between the time when
> Albert Glenny learned to play string bass and when Chester Zardis learned to
> play string bass. This was only one of many changes taking place in New
> Orleans music in the early years of this century, the years which saw the
> development of the music we now know as "jazz".
>
> There are more clues to narrowing down the time when this new style
> developed.
> Many bass players from New Orleans and the surrounding countryside testified
> that bowing was the standard way of playing in the early 1910s.
> Multi-Instrumentalist Arnold "Deacon" Loyacano recalled he was exclusively
> bowing and had never encountered the slap style when he left New Orleans to
> head up North with Tom Brown's band in May of 1915. (Loyacano was up north
> for some time. He said he started picking and slapping with the New Orleans
> Rhythm Kings around 1921-22, before Steve Brown took his place with that
> band.)
>
> Eddie Dawson (1884-1972) recalled picking up the picking style some time
> before the District closed. Storyville was legally closed down in July of
> 1917, at which time Dawson's employer in the district helped him get a job
> at a bank.
>
> Joseph "Babe" Phillips was born about 1879, lived to 1960, Phillips played
> bass for years around St James, St. Johns, and St. Charles Parishes, bowing
> like all the other country bass players he knew. When he came to New Orleans
> in 1918, he switched to that picking style because every body else in the
> city was doing it. Phillips seems to have kept some of the old country
> bowing style in his playing in to the later years of his long carrer.
>
> We have some good clues as when the New Orleans string bass style changed,
> apparently not known in early 1915, spreading rapidly by mid 1917, and the
> accepted style by 1918.
>
> Who invented slap style?
>
> The answer is not clear,
> There is no general consensus among musicians who were around at the time.
> Ed Garland said, "I really don't know who was the first one to pick a bass.
> It was just one of those things. It just automatically come to us. We would
> do that slapping cause we seen someone do it".
>
> (The late Jazz historian William Russell commented with a bit of
> exaggeration, "It seems about every bass player I've talked with claims to
> have started the slap style".)
>
> One of the most important senior claimants was Bill Johnson (1872-1975?).
> Bill Johnson claimed to have invented slap style while playing a job up in
> Shreveport, when his bow broke and he was temporarily unable to get a
> replacement. Johnson's musical travels took him throughout the U.S.A. in the
> early part of the century. He led bands in California around 1910, and was a
> co-leader of the Original Creole Band with Freddie Keppard. This important
> New Orleans style band toured vaudeville in the mid teens, giving the nation
> an early sample of that music which was not yet known as "Jazz". . Johnson
> mentioned that when the band arrived at New York City's Winter Garden, the
> northern musicians stared at him uncomprehendingly while he drove the band
> with his fancy slapping.
> I believe the date The Creole Band played at the Winter Garden in New York
> was December of 1915, which is the earliest date I have for a description of
> the slap style.
> (This is a rather early date for slap style; photographs from 1916 show
> other New Orleans bass players such as Dandy Lewis of Petit's Eagle Band and
> young Wellman Braud using bows-- although this was in the era of slow camera
> shutter speeds before action photos became common, so the posed photographs
> may not be indicative of these musicians usual playing style.)
> After returning briefly to New Orleans, Bill Johnson moved to Chicago, where
> many considered him the city's best bass man throughout the '20's. He helped
> King Oliver put together his great Creole Jazz Band, made up mostly of
> musicians a generation younger than Johnson. Because of the recording
> limitations of the time Johnson recorded with Oliver only on banjo, not his
> primary instrument. Bill Johnson made a number of fine recordings on string
> bass in Chicago in the late 1920's where he demonstrates not only masterful
> plucking and slapping, but also uses bow work effectively on hot numbers. He
> taught various Chicago musicians the slap style; Milt Hinton said they
> considered him the father of that style.
>
> Another noted string bass players of Johnson's generation, Henry Kimball
> (1878-1931) was praised by Ed Garland, Wellman Braud, and Pops Foster.
> Kimball is said by some to have been mainly noted for his bow work early on;
> a 1920 photograph of him with the Fate Marable band shows Kimball plucking
> the bass strings while holding the bow in his hand. Jimmy Johnson
> (c.1876-c.1937?) played string bass with the legendary Buddy Bolden at the
> turn of the century. Wellman Braud recalled that Jimmy Johnson was a good
> bow man, but used the bow less than Kimball. In 1936 Johnson provided the
> up-to-date sounding bass work on the recordings made by Don Albert's swing
> band in San Antonio.
>
> Billy Marrero (1874-c.1920) was Simon Marrero's father and taught younger
> players such as Chester Zardis. Zardis gave conflicting answers at different
> times when asked whether Billy Marrero played slap style. Another of Billy's
> sons, Eddie Marrero, took up bass after his father's death; Eddie remembered
> his father mainly as a bower. Others have said that Billy Marrero plucked
> but did not slap the bass.
>
> Johnny Prudence (or Predonce) was a contemporary of Billy Marrero.
> Information on Prudence is scarce; Albert Glenny said that Prudence was the
> first to pick the bass.
>
> Eddie Dawson (1884-1972) started out playing guitar and banjo, switching to
> string bass in 1912. Dawson said after he picked up the slap style he taught
> it to George Foster, and that Pops Foster copied from Dawson when he was in
> the Magnolia Band. In his later years Dawson said he believed he "started
> (plucking) that 4/4 rhythm" behind bands,
>
> Another bassist who had played guitar, "Chink" Martin also claimed to be the
> first in New Orleans to replace the two beats of ragtime with a four beat
> bass line, filling out the chord.
>
> [Waelde]
>
> Music historians will note that pizzicato, or picking strings with the
> fingers, has a long history in the classical tradition. Pizzicato is usually
> reserved for occasional passages for special effect instead of the more
> usual bowing, and is technically different from the more vigorous plucking
> of the New Orleans musicians. The technically difficult musical slapping of
> the bass seems to have been completely foreign to the musical world outside
> of the deep south when the first New Orleans players were demonstrating a
> mastery of it. Plucking and slapping the string bass seems to have been one
> of the developments in the New Orleans style of music in the mid 1910s.
>
> Like jazz itself, we might not be able to attribute its origins to any one
> musician. Again like jazz, it can however be said that slap style bass was a
> New Orleans innovation to which many fine musicians made important
> contributions. This new rhythmic voice found its way not only into jazz and
> swing, but had also diffused by the middle of the century into such diverse
> music as country, bluegrass, Caribbean, and Guatemalan marimba bands. Even
> when the upright double bass itself is not present, the vigorous New Orleans
> bass line has influenced subsequent rhythm & blues and other popular musical
> styles. The New Orleans musical pioneers who developed their styles of
> playing the string bass without the bow imparted both specific and broad
> musical influences on future generations.
>
>                               -- Dan Meyer
>
>
> I wish to acknowledge the facilities of the Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane
> University, especially the oral history collection.
> Thanks to Richard B. Allen, Bruce Raeburn, Al Rose, William Russell, Tom
> Saunders for their help.
> © 1990, 1997, 1999 Daniel Meyer
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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