The record changer (Jan-Dec 1944)

The Record Changer, July 1944 Que At hit* and fiwAtiCtA . . . A Column Conducted By ERNEST BORNEMAN. All questions should be addressed to ERNEST BORNEMAN, National Film Board, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I More than 30% of all questions received this month dealt with the very last installment oi the JAZZ AND THE ANTHROPOLOGIST serial and especially with my suggestion that a single big band playing real improvised contrapuntal jazz could change the whole course of our music for the next years to come. One writer points out, rather aggressively, that "even now there are not enough musicians left to form a single seven piece orchestra that can play improvised jazz continuously, night after night, without becoming a bore to the public," and even if there were enough musicians available, "there would be no way of financing the project on a businesslike basis." Another writer shifts the argument a little by suggesting that "even though there may be colored musicians who can play that way, there certainly wouldn't be enough white men to form a band that can play together in the manner you suggest. You would have to form a mixed outfit and that would immediately run you into the same old set of prejudices, booking troubles and other difficulties with the union and the management." I think all this is by far too pessimistic. All big urban centers with populations over, say, 300,000, hold a sufficient number of middle-class jazz lovers to make a twelve or thirteen piece outfit a feasible project. Proof comes from the very success of the dozen or more spots with an honest music policy in New York alone. As to the line-up of the band, let me suggest some names for a colored and for a white band. All musicians are chosen not only as individual improvisers but as parts of various ensemble groupings as suggested in my original article. Pick any five reeds, seven brass, four rhythm, out of this total list and you will find that they stand a reasonable chance of sounding together almost without rehearsal. First Group: Trumpet or cornet: Bunk Johnson, Mutt Carey, Nat Dominique, Sidney de Paris, Cootie Williams, Bill Coleman, Henry Allen, Charlie Shavers, Lips Page, Clarence Brereton. Trombone; Ory, Higginbotham, Wells, Trickie Sam, Sandy Williams. Clarinet: Bechet, Simeon, Lewis, Bigard, Hall, Nicholas. Alto: Pete Brown, Tab Smith, Johnnie Hodges, Charlie Holmes, Bennie Carter, Willie Smith. Tenor; Happy Cauldwell. Bass or Baritone: Carney. Piano: Ammons or Johnson. Guitar: St. Cyr, Casey, Lucie, Addison. Bass: Foster, Braud, Page. Drums; Baby Dodds, Tubby Hall, Singleton, Catlett. Second Group; Trumpet or cornet: Spanier, Kaminsky, McPartland, Davison. Trombone; Julian Laine, Turk Murphy, Brunis, O'Brien, Teagarden. Clarinet: Mezzrow. Alto: Boyce Brown. Tenor: Freeman, Bud Hunter, Dick Clark. Piano: Sullivan, Stacey, Hodes, Bean, Zack. Guitar: Herman Forest, Eddie Condon. Bass: Bernstein. Diums; Wettling, Tuft, Krupa. II Mr. Louis Applebaum points out that I could have simplified my explanation of the blues scale and its evolution by linking it to the development of the normal diatonic out of its pentatonic and modal predecessors: To the simple pentatonic — C D F G A C— the half steps E and B were added later to make up the diatonic C D E F G A B C— thus the blues singer's tendency to diminish the intervals leading to E and B — the third and the seventh. Ill Miss Ruth Sparks writes to enquire for some short explanation of the origin of Boogie. My guess, though insufficiently verified at present, is that it stems directly from the guitar accompaniment of the old-time blues singer. Listen to Leadbelly's "Fannin' Street" and you will hear the twelve string guitar in a per{Continued on page4l )