Jazz

2 Pages 455 Words

“Dixie Jazz Band One-Step” and “Dippermouth Blues” are two recordings that are from the 1920s yet have remarkable differences between the two. The differences could stem from a variety of reasons such as differences in the ethnicity of the musicians and the artists that influenced the bands.
“Dixie Jazz Band One-Step” was recorded in February 1917 by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The band features Nick LaRocca on cornet, Larry Shields on Clarinet, Eddie Edwards on trombone, Henry Ragas on piano, and Tony Spargo on drums. The band members were all anglo-saxon men who were from New Orleans but met in Chicago. The “Dixie Jazz Band One-Step” is a very fast and almost frantic song performed in a rag style. The drummer plays a boom-chick feel in many parts of the song but also plays the bass drum only on the down beats and uses wood blocks and cowbells for added percussion. The song was originally created by all the musicians improvising their individual parts and once it was written, the song was always played the same way. There are no long improvised solos in this piece.
The instruments have very specific roles in this tune. The trombonist plays in the tailgate style, trying to make up for the lack of a bass player. The pianist franticly plays the chords to the song. The clarinet plays obbligato to the melody and handles the stop time fills while the cornet plays the actual melody. The song’s form is very repetitive and there is little difference between the repeats of sections.
“Dippermouth Blues” is very different from “Dixie Jazz Band One-Step”. The instrument featured are the piano, trombone, trumpet, two cornets, bass, and drums. Two of the more obvious differences in the band are the woman piano player and all band members being of african-american descent. The most obvious differences in the songs are the form (this song is a 12 bar blues) and the time (this song is in 4/4).
Some...