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Swinging Projects for Lindy Hop & Balboa Dancers

Early Jazz

DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #100: Livery Stable Blues

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O n e   H u n d r e d !

Wow!

I never thought I will write 100 Song of the Week posts, and there is still no end of the series in sight!

What song should be posted as the 100th song?

I decided to feature a song what had made history.

So, it's not about dancing today, it's about the first Jazz song ever recorded.

Unfortunately, I have to say, the first Jazz recording was not by a black artist, it was by a white group.

A black musician had the chance to be the first, though.

It was Freddie Keppard, a cornetist from New Orleans, who got an offer by Victor in 1915 but he refused because he was afraid, that other musicians would steal his music (although, there are other theories out there as well)!

Livery Stable Blues

The fame of the first recording went to the white orchestra Original Dixieland Jass Band.

On Februar 26, 1917, they recorded Livery Stable Blues, coupled with Dixie Jass Band One Step for the Victor Talking Machine Company.

This 78 record became a huge success and was sold massively. It marked the beginning of the Jazz era and launched Jazz as popular music.

The Original Dixieland Jass Band – they changed «Jass» to «Jazz» in late 1917 – was formed in 1916 in New Orleans.

The band consisted of five members: leader Nick La Rocca (cornet), Larry Shields (clarinet), Eddie Edwards (trombone), Henry Ragas (piano) and Tony Sparbaro (drums).

They had already recorded for Columbia on January 31, 1917, but that session was unsuccessful. They went back to re-record the songs after the successful release of the Victor recordings.

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band called itself the creators of Jazz because it was the first band to record Jazz commercially.

Band leader Nick La Rocca even claimed, that black musicians were not at all involved in creating Jazz (source: Ken Burns documentary «Jazz»)!

Read more about the Original Dixieland Jazz Band on Wikipedia.

DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #100: "Livery Stable Blues" by Original Dixieland Jass Band

Title: Livery Stable Blues
Artist: Original Dixieland Jass Band
Recorded: February 26, 1917
Tempo: 167 bpm
Style: Early Jazz

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #95: Four Or Five Times

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From a few songs, I like to collect different versions. «Four Or Five Times» is one of them and this week's song is one of my alltime favourite swing tunes. A recording from 1937 by Jimmie Noone (23.04.1895-19.04.1944).

Beside Johnny Dodds and Sidney Bechet, Jimmie Noone is considered one of the three top New Orleans clarinetists of the 1920s. Noone had a smoother tone and his style influenced many musicians of the Swing era of the 1930s and 1940s, such as Benny Goodman.

As a child, he played the guitar before he started to take clarinet lessons at age 15. Sidney Bechet, who was 13 (thirteen!) at that time, was one of his teachers!

From 1913-1914 he played with Freddie Keppard and in 1916 with Buddy Petit and the Young Olympia Band. In 1917 he moved to Chicago (like many other musicians from New Orleans) to join Keppard's Creole Orchestra.

After breaking up in 1918 he became a member of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, where he stayed until 1920 to join Doc Cook's Dreamland Orchestra for the next years.

In 1927/1928 he started leading a band at the Apex Club. Pianist Earl Hines and alto saxophonist Joe Poston (how interplayed with Noone) were members in the quintet. They were recording for Vocalion including an early version of «Sweet Lorraine» (Noone's theme song) and «Four or Five Times.»

Version of «Four Or Five Times» from 1928

The music they played was a transition from the early jazz style (all instruments play at the same time) to the modern swing style (solos by Earl Hines and Jimmie Noone).

Throughout the 1930s, Noone worked mostly in Chicago. On some of his late 1930s recordings he played with trumpeter Charlie Shavers. Also young singer Joe Williams became a member of his band but unfortunately, Noone and Williams never recorded together.

In 1944, Noone was in Kid Ory's band in California but before Noone really could gain fame, he unexpectedly died of a heart attack.

Four Or Five Times (1937)

DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #95: "Four Or Five Times" by Jimmie Noone | Shuffle Projects

Title: Four Or Five Times
Artist: Jimmie Noone
Recorded: December 1, 1937
Tempo: 168 bpm
Dance: Lindy Hop, Balboa


What is your favourite version of «Four Or Five Times»? Let us know in the comment section below!

Every Monday, I post a new «Song of the Week«.
You can find the songs also on my Spotify playlist or on 8tracks.

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Related Posts:

Song of the Week #59: «Four Or Five Times» by Joe Williams
Song of the Week #94: «Petite Fleur» by Sidney Bechet
Song of the Week #93: «Moonglow (Take 2)» by Benny Goodman Quartet

DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #37: Singin› The Blues

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With Louis Armstrong, Leon Bismark «Bix» Beiderbecke (10.03.1903-06.08.1931) was one of the most influential jazz cornet soloists of the 1920s.

Bix taught himself to play cornet by ear, he never learned to read music well. Unfortunately he drank himself to an early death.

He first recorded with the Wolverines in 1924, after which he played briefly for the Jean Goldkette Orchestra before joining Frankie Trumbauer's Orchestra in 1926.

In the same year, Beiderbecke and Trumbauer both joined Goldkette.

The following year, Trumbauer and Beiderbecke left Goldkette to join the best-known and most prestigious dance orchestra in the country: the New York–based Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

Singin› the Blues (together with the recording «I'm Coming, Virginia») is a milestone in Jazz history.

The jazz ballad style was born and some elements can be found in Cool Jazz of the 1950s and 1960s. Bix had an unusual purity of tone and he was a genius of improvisation.

Check out: Bix Beiderbecke Resources

Title: Singin› The Blues
Artist: Frankie Trumbauer & His Orchestra w/ Bix Beiderbecke
Recorded: 04.02.1927
Tempo: 136 bpm
Dance: Lindy Hop

Click the link to download the song from: Amazon ･ iTunes

You can find the songs of the series also on my Spotify playlist. Official hashtag of the series: #djcsotw

Do you like the «Song of the Week» series? Share your thoughts below.

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #33: Chimes Blues

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While teaching a workshop about jazz and swing music history, I had the idea to post from time to time a song which had a great impact to (early) jazz music.

On August 8, 1922, Louis Armstrong moved from New Orleans to Chicago to join King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.

At the Lincoln Gardens, they developed their cornet duet style («breaks»): Armstrong played a second cornet line while Oliver was playing the first cornet.

With Armstrong as a member, the already popular band took Chicago by storm.

On April 5, 1923, Oliver and Armstrong travelled by train from Chicago to Richmond Indiana to make their first recordings at Gennett Records.

One title they recorded was Chimes Blues and this recording is a milestone in history. Armstrong improvised with such a great intensity nobody had ever heard before.

Title: Chimes Blues
Artist: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
Recorded: 6.4.1923
Tempo: 161 bpm
Genre: Early Jazz

Click the link to download the song from: Amazon ･ iTunes

You can find the songs of the series also on my Spotify playlist. Official hashtag of the series: #djcsotw

Do you like the «Song of the Week» series? Share your thoughts below.

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DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #23: Muskrat Ramble

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For the first time Herräng Dance Camp offered a Swing Orchestra class, taught by the Carling Family (Carling Big Band). I attended this class as a rhythm guitarist and we all had a very inspiring week!

Hans Carling, father of the family and one of our teachers, mentioned different recordings, which are eminent in jazz history and which are references for all the following generations of jazz musicians.

The early jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five belong to this collection, they have been a revolution in jazz history: here we hear for the first time improvisation. Before that, ragtime phrasing was the most common form of playing music.

Let's have a look at Muskrat Ramble. The jazz standard was written by Kid Ory and first recorded on February 26, 1926. It became the group's most frequently recorded piece.

During the New Orleans/Dixieland revival in the 30s and 40s, Muskrat Ramble was very popular and recorded many times by different artists.

The tune contains a 32-bar ensemble section at the beginning, followed by 16-bar solo sections for the trombone, cornet and clarinet. After the solos, an ensemble section of 32 bars is played, followed by a two-bar trombone tag.

Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five: Louis Armstrong – cornet, Kid Ory – trombone, Johnny St. Cyr – banjo, Johnny Dodds – clarinet, Lil Hardin – piano.

Louis Armstrong Hot Five Muskat Ramble

Title: Muskrat Ramble
Artist: Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five
Recorded: 26.02.1926
Tempo: 176 bpm
Dance: Balboa, Lindy Hop

You can find the songs of the series also on my Spotify playlist. Official hashtag of the series: #djcsotw

Do you like the «Song of the Week» series? Share your thoughts below.

Now Check Out: