Fw: Jazz/Jump-what is it?

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Scorcher" <s_c_o_r_c_h_e_r@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 10:29 AM
Subject: Re: Jazz/Jump-what is it?


>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Scorcher" <s_c_o_r_c_h_e_r@xxxxxxx>
> To: "! [HARP-L]" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 12:02 AM
> Subject: Re: Jazz/Jump-what is it?
>
>
> >
> > Rick, it sounds like you know a lot more than I do about this - that
> > you're very scholarly, in fact, so I know I shouldn't disagree with
> > you, but I guess I'm just living in a different reality.
> >
> > > Rick Dempster said:
> > >        I think 'Jump' is one of those long abandoned terms like like
> > 'race' and 'sepia' and perhaps, in disco-'seventies' 'laid-back', a
> > useless term that came into use for a while.
> >
> > AFAIK, "Jump" (esp "Jump BLues") is a currently used (and usefull)
> > term with real meaning. So is "race" (several meanings) sepia (a
> > color) seventies (a decade), and laid-back (a mellow state-of-mind),
> > at least, as far as the language (well, one of them, anyway) we speak
> > in Southern California is concerned.
> >
> > >        As I understand it, a 'jump band' referred to a smaller
> > combo, from, say five to eight pieces, playing an R'n'B based
> > repertoire, with perhaps a smattering of standard show tunes & pop
> > tunes.
> >
> > Jump Blues, as I understand it, is basically danceable blues. Sort of
> > halfway between Blues and Rockabilly.
> >
> > >        It was intended, as the name implies, for dancing.
> > >        I have read of Louis Jordans Tympany Five (which if I recall
> > always had more than five) being referred by this term, as well as Joe
> > and Jimmie Liggins bands, Buddy Johnson's Orch., Jay McShanns smaller
> > outfits and so on.
> >
> > William Clarke and Rod Piazza also offer (or offerred, in Mr. Clarke's
> > case) up a version of this style, often referred to as West Coast
> > Blues. In fact, this style is VERY popular among chromatic blues
> > players.
> >
> > >        These bands represent a fair amount of variation between
> > them, but I think they give you a fair indication of what the term was
> > applied to.
> > >         You could easily throw the recordings of Wynonie Harris, Big
> > Joe Turner and Roy Brown, except these guys were singers rather than
> > band leaders.
> > >         The term seems to have been in use from about the
> > mid-forties to the mid-fifties.
> >
> > We still use the term here, AFAIK.
> > -Scorcher
>
> Hi,
> Jump Blues is all of that, but in many ways, a somewhat different way of
> putting it is that it is an offshoot of the Big Band Jazz/Swing bands from
> the 30's, but compared to the Big Bands like Duke Ellington's or Count
> Basie's bands, which had as many as 42 pieces, the Jump bands are
relatively
> smaller, being usually not more than 15-20 pieces at best, with a much
> heavier accent on the back beat (the 2 and the 4), and then Rock and Roll
> was also an offshoot of that with an even more heavily pronounced back
beat.
>
> Sincerely,
> Barbeque Bob Maglinte
> Bostonb, MA
> http://www.barbequebob.com
>