[Dixielandjazz] Sing ... a New Song

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

"unto the Lord", saith the Bible -- and why indeed not the rest of us!
I mean songs new to the rest of us.
My late uncle's efforts to compose for the great Highland pipe were well received.
But by people who had heard them under other names, which these ancient pipers could supply.

What do you think of my tune?
"It's very good, but was first noted in the eighteenth century and it's name is..."


I do object to some of the Liverpudlian repertoire as arranged by Bob Wilber for WGJB --
the problem there and with other pop songs is that ...

change in the weather or not, there is too often in some pop songs 

(A)the problem of polysyllabics on the one note (no harmonies/changes?)

(B)the utter meaningless of the tune without any words

so even Maestro Wilbur found himself limited. 


I suppose an unduring problem has been the fondness of the prematurely aged for the same thing the same way always. 

Remember Dick Hyman's shock when he heard European bands playing a range of repertoire derived from listening to recordings from the 1920s. Rather than the sub-sub-dixilanding which might prompt:

how come the saints are marching in again?
Did they ever leave?  


la-bas, les routiniers!
(including the "our own tunes" of juniors against which Ronnie Scott protested)

(and the Clontranes unbeloved of Danny Moss!)


I've just thought of a "tribute" Ronnie Scott joke. 

Ronnie comes across a tenorist doing his own material.
There is nothing new in that, he tells the young material-ist.
"Have you heard this composition before?" Ronnie is challenged.
And his reply is, "I forget..."




Robert R. Calder