[Dixielandjazz] Using popular tunes

[Gary Lawrence Murphy]

last summer we were invited to play on the grounds at a big
minor-league baseball tournement and had great response to our
spontaneous take on Take Me Out To The Ball Game, and then at a
wedding the bride had hinted that 'their' song was Earth Wind and
Fire's 'September', which turned out passably well we though (although
no one asked for one more chorus ;)

I'd be hesitant to rule out any song; I remember hearing in a pub a
recording of Earl Scruggs and his sons doing a bluegrass rendition of
the old 80's Devo hit, "Mongoloid", and there's not a great jump
between Scruggs-style bluegrass and full-tilt dixieland.  Charlie
Parker is often quoted for saying, "There's only two kinds of music,
the music you like and the music you don't" but I like to amend that
to say "There's the music you like and the music that you yourself
would play differently!" :)

I've even heard Pete Seeger play the final movement of Beethoven's 9th
symphony solo on the banjo!

On 1/26/14, Jim Kashishian <jim at kashprod.com> wrote:
> Marek wrote:
>
>>In the  liner notes to one of my Kid Thomas CDs I've read that Thomas
>> would
> bring the music for currently popular tunes for his band to learn and play.
>
> I enjoyed the clip on "You Are the Sunshine of My Life", Marek.
>
> Although many of today's popular tunes don't necessarily fit our style
> (peculiar chord changes/no chord changes/repetive/whatever), there are many
> out there that do work.  We have recently added a tune that is not normally
> done by Dixieland bands... "The Pink Panther" to our list.  I know, it's
> not
> exactly new, but very well-known & loved.  As soon as the audience hear the
> Ching, followed by Budumpta dum they go wild. We have others such as the
> oldie that Elvis made famous "Are You Lonesome Tonight".
>
> That doesn't mean that we don't do the old warhorses you mentioned.  I
> insist that those don't have to be "beaten to death", due to the fact that
> we of course are improvising, therefore even something played often can be
> changed and re-invented.  It's up to the band to make it fresh!
>
> Cheers, Jim
>
>
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