The record changer (Mar 1945-Feb 1946)

BLUE NOTE PRESENTS ART HODES' BLUE FIVE MAX KAMINSKY Trumpet ART HODES Piano MEZZ MEZZROW Clarinet GEORGE "POPS" FOSTER Bass DANNY ALVIN Drum* No. 45 SHAKE THAT THING 12 inch APEX BLUES ART HODES' BLUE NOTE JAZZ MEN MAX KAMINSKY Trumpet VIC DICKENSON Trombone EDMOND HALL Clarinet ART HODES Piano ARTHUR SHIRLEY Guitar SID WEISS Bass DANNY ALVIN Drums No. 34 SUGAR FOOT STOMP 12 inch SWEET GEORGIA BROWN No. 35 SQUEEZE ME 12 inch BUGLE CALL RAG $1.50 F.O.B. New York, Excl. of Fed., State & Local Taxes ART HODES AND HIS CHICACOANS MAX KAMINSKY Trumpet RAY CONN IFF Trombone ROD CLESS Clarinet ART HODES Piano JACK BLAND Guitar BOB HAGGART Bass SID JACOBS Bass DANNY ALVIN Drums No. 505 MAPLE LEAF RAG io inch YELLOW DOG BLUES No. 506 SHE'S CRYING FOR ME io inch SLOW 'EM DOWN BLUES No. 507 DOCTOR JAZZ io inch SHOE SHINER'S DRAG No. 508 THERE'LL BE io inch SOME CHANGES MADE CLARK AND RANDOLPH Set of 4 Records — and 8x10 Photo of Band — $4.24 incl. Excise Tax, F.O.B. New York City. Add 20 cents for Packing. FOR COMPLETE CATALOG WRITE TO BLUE NOTE RECORDS 7*7 LEXINGTON AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY .V O V E M B E R , 19 4 5 8 (cf. Artie Shaw). The distinction is that swing has no room for collective improvization. Here is my amended version : Swing music is a derivative of jazz music. It is distinguished by three basic adulterations of the characteristics defined above : 1. The replacement of improvised counterpoint by vertical harmonization, in written scores or carefully rehearsed 'head' arrangements, which leave room for solo improvisation only. 2. The replaceemnt of folk themes, or the performers' own compositions, by commercially manufactured material. 3. The reduction of the six or eight-piece band to a quartet or trio, or, inversely, the enlargement of the band by means of duplication or triplication of each of the two brass instruments and by the addition of a full section of saxophones, to permit chord scoring within each of the subsections of the orchestra. This seems to me to cover the essentials of swing. -Of course, 2 is not true of all swing by any means (look at the list of Goodman Sextet recordings), and I think now it should be left to the last of our 3. I don't like 'adulterations' in the first sentence, but can't think of anything better — but a definition shouldn't seem to include an expression of opinion. What about 'simplifications'? And finally, we must remember that if we're to stand by this definition, from now on we must call the 1924 Hendersons Swing music ! 6 Your ragtime definition I'm not so happy about. It doesn't mention the obvious derivation from the marchparticularly in form. Where did you get the ph/ase 'secondary rag', which I've never met before?7 It took me "I -have long considered a great deal of Oliver's, Tate's, Goldkette's and the early Casa Loma's music as much closer to swing than to jazz. There is no reason why we should not apply the term swing music to bands prior to 1933. Goodman didn't invent swing. He or his press agents dug up the old word and applied it to a kind of arranged big band music with interpolated solos which is as old as jazz. By all means, then, let's call Henderson's a swing band. That's precisely what it was. 'This remark, like point 1 above and point 10 below, once again discloses the almost unsurmountable gulf between the British and European collectors on one side and the facts of life as. we know them on this side. If we define words like "jazz" and "swing", we do it because we want to sharpen their use by revising their everyday meaning ; if the Europeans ask for the definition of words like "blue note", "significant tone", "secondary rag", they do it because they are simply unfamiliar ivith their everyday meaning. Lack of acquaintance with the THE RECORD CHANGER