Tubas, euphoniums, mouthpieces, and anything music-related.
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I just realized this tune is a friggin' HUNDRED years old !
We'll be playing it a step lower in F.
We won't be looking a this 100-year-old published version nor chord changes and slashes.
(Believe it or not, we KNOW this obscure tune, including the verse at the beginning.)
Once you click on the link (above) you'll see that it's from a black musical (ie. a "musical review") that had a three month run on Broadway from the end of 1924 into 1925.
Florence Mills was the headliner, and she died (yes: quite young) less than two years after this show ended (tuberculosis).
...She lived just about as long as Bix, and was a contemporary.
This picture of Mills was taken around the same time this song was written:
This is NOT her singing, but Armstrong and Bechet are on this along with Bechet playing a JAZZ SARRUSOPHONE SOLO !!! sarrusophone
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Mary Ann wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 9:40 am
Just curious --- how many four string banjo players were (are?) there?
Most traditional jazz (ie. DIXIELAND) banjoists play four string banjos. The short neck ones are called tenor and the long neck ones are called plectrum. The five string ones - which are used for bluegrass - are also referred to as plectrum, and are tuned differently - basically in a chord, with the fifth string serving as a drone which is typically tuned for whatever (usually a sharp) key the tune is pitched.
Roughly fifty years ago, three older players formed a brotherhood called B.A.N.J.O. They decide to call themselves "banjists", as they thought it sounded more sophisticated and respectful. Some other banjoists - who also had self-esteem issues - decided to do the same. Not surprisingly, when this word was used to describe themselves to others, most others would nod knowingly, but would actually have no idea as to what was meant.
When a guitarist is asked to play this type of music, it's not all that uncommon for them to find an inexpensive 5-string, remove that string, tune the remaining four strings in the same way that the higher pitched four strings of a guitar are tuned, and thus be able to play a banjo - without having to learn how to play a banjo.
As as we all know (without consciously knowing), most banjos are not very good. When we hear the playing on the old Beverly Hillbillies theme, we are hearing not only extraordinary player, but an extraordinarily fine instrument as well. I like working with really fine banjoists who also own very fine instruments, but - if the player is not good - I also prefer that the instrument not being very good, because it mostly sounds like muffled drumming, and it's better to actually not hear very much of what they are doing.
Featured in this track is a short-neck four-string tenor banjo (tuned in fifths). The maker is Vega. It features an extra large head, and it's difficult for the owner of this instrument to find replacement heads, it due to that. We recorded this roughly forty years ago, but I'm also working with this same banjo player tomorrow afternoon - as well as the same piano player (who is a member of P.I.A.N.O., and - thus - a pianist, even though that word sounds a little bit too much like... never mind.)
The banjo playing starts around 1:40 or so. The rest of us in the band jokingly referred to his 16th note triplets as "double clutching".
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And, based on the tenor banjo I almost bought once, it is tuned like a viola. If so, a lot of those chords are pretty far up the neck.
Third, I play the piANo and so I am a piANist. I do not play the PEEano and so am not a PEEanist. I never understood why people could not say that word correctly, except for the habit of putting the emPHAsis on the first sylLAble.
Mary Ann wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 10:48 am
Stand-up bass still? I hear no tuba.
And, based on the tenor banjo I almost bought once, it is tuned like a viola. If so, a lot of those chords are pretty far up the neck.
Third, I play the piANo and so I am a piANist. I do not play the PEEano and so am not a PEEanist. I never understood why people could not say that word correctly, except for the habit of putting the emPHAsis on the first sylLAble.
I had an Ampeg so-called "baby bass", but toured (whenever it involved flying) with a vintage Fender Jazz bass, because I was also schlepping the tuba on tour and it was just too much. Customs people in Europe would give me a really hard time with that Fender, because they brought so much money in Europe. The first time they pulled me over, I had no idea what the hell they were doing, but figured it out subsequent times through customs. I learned to tell them that I would sell my mother before I would sell my bass, which seemed to convince them. Another line that I would use was "If I sold my wonderful Fender bass, I'd end up having to buy some sh!tty German-made bass", which made them laugh, and let me on through.
As I'm sure you can hear when you stick some headphones on, I developed a style on the bass with that band whereby I would let a particular pitch ring for a certain amount of time and then gently let go with my left hand, to limit the amount of ring. It was sort of the backwards thing of a tuba trying to imitate a string bass, whereby I was trying to sort of imitate the sound of a tuba with the bass.
So-called "stick basses" were just coming into being, and were very expensive. Most pickups that one could put on an acoustic upright bass were tinny sounding and risked feedback, thus the Ampeg, but I also fortified the Ampeg with a Schaller magnetic pickup which was screwed onto the bottom of the fingerboard.
If you stick even a pair of cheap headphones in your cell phone, you will easily hear the bass. I prided myself on intonation, but if you listen carefully to the first four walking bass pitches going into the swing chorus (after the first banjo chorus), you will hear me playing some pitches which are not in the scale, Thankfully, they really aren't noticeable enough to sound bad... perhaps a bit "Nancy Sinatra boots are made for walkingish"...
If there's something that Dan knows, it's the neck of a tenor banjo - every possible inversion of every possible chord, whereby he can melody and chord at the same time via super fast inversion changes. He's all over the place. I believe he's now about 85 years old.
I actually like this obscure song, and am glad to see it on the tune list for tomorrow.
For the bass players, I don't play the roots of the chords on those first three sets of changes (which are similar, but in different keys), I simply grab the third, and move down a half step on each one of those. I think it sounds more sophisticated that way, and - via the more sophisticated-sounding bass line - I don't have to resort to calling myself a tubist. ...particularly not with only four valves and a academia-shunned recording bell...
Last edited by bloke on Sat Apr 29, 2023 11:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
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bloke wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 10:00 am
When a guitarist is asked to play this type of music, it's not all that uncommon for them to find an inexpensive 5-string, remove that string, tune the remaining four strings in the same way that the higher pitched four strings of a guitar are tuned, and thus be able to play a banjo - without having to learn how to play a banjo.
The guy I play with regularly does this, and calls it his "faux banjo".
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Dan also has a really nice four string tenor guitar tuned in fifths. I've been trying to get him to bring it lately, but I also keep forgetting that he just recovered from some cancer surgery, as he really keeps his health issues quiet and never discusses them. I forgot again, asked him if he would bring it tomorrow, and his answer was "maybe next time".
I believe this is the second time - spread several decades apart - that he's received a clean bill of health after some really serious cancer and removal of it. He's also one of those guys who has enough money to buy a city, but lives like someone who just has a regular type job. He and his wife live in a nice bungalow, he drives a Subaru, and his clothes look to be off the rack.
I remember playing upright in a trio doing a brunch gig at a top-shelf restaurant/bar in NE Jackson. The owner of the restaurant was named Mandy, and she had divorced and remarried the same guy three times, a la George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin.
At this jazz brunch, she announce that they were (once again) engaged, and would be visiting the JP the next morning before heading to Aruba.
We played this for her.
She knew it, too — because we had played it for her before…
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Thought Criminal
Mack Brass Artiste
TU422L with TU25
1964 Conn 36k with CB Arnold Jacobs
Accent (By B&S) 952R with Bach12
The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column
Mary Ann wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 9:40 am
Just curious --- how many four string banjo players were (are?) there?
Roughly fifty years ago, three older players formed a brotherhood called B.A.N.J.O. They decide to call themselves "banjists", as they thought it sounded more sophisticated and respectful. Some other banjoists - who also had self-esteem issues - decided to do the same. Not surprisingly, when this word was used to describe themselves to others, most others would nod knowingly, but would actually have no idea as to what was meant.
You're killing me.
We've got an extraordinary banjo player in my small jazz combo. He's our front man, singer & pianist as well. In between sets we'll do a lot of improvised duets together. He's a funny guy who can really work an audience. Back in the 1970's - 1980's Preservation Hall used to travel with an excellent old time banjo guy, but I can't remember his name for the life of me.
I remember that guy, saw him at P. Hall once, and never did know his name. I'm thinking his banjo (like my friend's) had a very large head.
...maybe, this guy ??
...and - back when I was in there, there was no "art" on the walls...just "the sign"...It was filthy - at least, back when Jaffe's Dad (who played a four-valve Buescher B-flat helicon) owned it.
(I probably would have bought a ticket and ducked me head in there at subsequent trips to NOLA, but the admission fee skyrocketed, and the lines waiting to go in began to wrap around the block...re: the lines to see "Mary Poppins" back in 1964. People really do want to experience things that are REAL, EVEN IF they aren't absolutely amazing.)
All of the people who were originally "preserved" (including the original preserver) passed their expiration dates.
They didn't put on "super slick-sounding" shows, but - well... - I work with a 90-year-old, a 85-year-old, and a 75-year-old.
None of us are quite as "slick" as we once were...
Not surprisingly, when this word was used to describe themselves to others, most others would nod knowingly, but would actually have no idea as to what was meant.
...particularly not with only four valves and a academia-shunned recording bell...
