THE ROOTS OF JAZZ. CD TABLATURE
The songs and licks that made it happen.
Dinah
East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon)
Honeysuckle Rose
I'll Remember April
Rose Room
Yesterdays
The Roots of Jazz Guitar
Series: Guitar Collection
Format: Softcover with CD - TAB
Composer: Fred Sokolow
Inventory #HL 00699082
ISBN: 9780793577347
UPC: 073999990829
Width: 9.0"
Length: 12.0"
64 pages
A complete survey of jazz guitar, its pioneers and how it developed. Includes: six note-for-note transcriptions of famous standards pivotal to the genre; instruction in the essential playing styles; the history and development of jazz guitar; biographies of the pioneering artists; a recording of the songs, exercises, and licks; and more.
Songs include:
- Dinah (Eddie Lang)
- East of the Sun (And West of the Moon) (Barney Kessel)
- Honeysuckle Rose (Charlie Christian)
- I'll Remember April (George Van Eps)
- Rose Room (Django Reinhardt)
- Yesterdays (Wes Montgomery).
64 pages.
MUSCAL INTRODUCTION
A LOOK AT THE ROOTS OF JAZZ GUITAR
At the beginning of the twentieth century, New Orleans bands began combining two traditions: They
borrowed some repertoire from European bands, which often included strings, horns, and a piano,
and performed classical pieces, polkas, mazurkas, sentimental ballads and waltzes. They also imitated
Southern string bands, sometimes called "spasm bands," which consisted of guitars, banjos, violins,
mandolins and string bass, and who played ragtime, blues, jigs and reels. New Orleans bandleaders
like Buddy Bolden and Kid Ory used all these instruments and fused the musical styles, and
their music began to be identified as "jazz."
Johnny St. Cyr, who played with Kid Ory, Jelly Roll Morton and many of the New Orleans bands,
was typical of the first jazz guitarists: he was a four-string banjo player who played guitar as a sideline.
Seldom soloing, he strummed four-beats-to-the-bar and provided bands with a rhythmic backbone.
In pre-microphone days, banjo was audible over loud horns; guitar did not cut it. But in the
'20s, as phonograph recordings gained popularity, the guitar became more prominent. It was easier
to record than banjo.
HOT JAZZ: GUITARIN THE '20s
Jazz was the hot popular dance music of the decade that is often called "The Jazz Age."
Accomplished pickers like Roy Smeck, Nick Lucas and Lonnie Johnson performed the first melodic
guitar solos on records in the 1920s. These versatile players played popular tunes, blues and
whatever the traffic would bear, sometimes fingerpicking but usually flatpicking scales, chords and
arpeggios. But most performing guitarists in jazz bands simply strummed chords, until Eddie Lang
came along.
Lang performed with many of the popular ensembles of his day, including the Goldkette Orchestra,
Red Nichols and the Five Pennies, Paul Whiteman and Bing Crosby. One of the first studio guitar
aces, he accompanied most of the stars of his era on records. Live and in the studio, Lang combined
rhythmic strumming with a melodic soloing style, opening up new possibilities for a whole generation
of guitarists. When he died, in 1933, he left a recorded legacy of ensemble work, solos and duets
with Lonnie Johnson and with lifelong musical companion, violinist Joe Venuti. He inspired countless
jazz banjoists to play guitar, and to be melodic as well as rhythmic. The guitar became a soloing
voice in jazz.
THE '30s SWING ERA
During the swing or big-band era, guitarists in popular swing orchestras played rhythm. Count
Basie's guitarist, Freddie Greene, never played a solo. Some guitarists like Carl Kress, Dick
McDonough, George Van Eps and George Barnes followed Eddie Lang's lead and created beautiful,
harmonically rich, chord-based soloing styles. They recorded solos, duets and small ensemble "listening"
(not dancing) records for jazz afficionados. Like Lang, they usually played Gibson L-5 archtop guitars.
Meanwhile, inspired players like Snoozer Quinn, Teddy Bunn and Oscar Aleman (who played an allmetal
National guitar) helped develop the art of single-note jazz soloing throughout the '30s. But the
creative genius who caught most listeners' and players' ears was the Belgian gypsy, Django Reinhardt.
The first international jazz star, Reinhardt rose to fame playing with his "quintette" in Paris. Although
his own style and his duets with violinist Stephane Grappelli were admittedly based on the
LangNenuti model, he took single-note guitar soloing to new heights. His ad-lib improvisations were
fiery, tender, incredibly inventive, and he always swung. Budding country, blues and jazz guitarists
memorized his solos.
DINAH, EDDIE LANG
Born into a musical Italian family October 25, 1902 in Philadelphia, Salvatore Massaro studied violin
and music theory at age seven. By his teens he was playing four- and six-string banjo in pop
orchestras, often with his boyhood friend, violinist Joe Venuti. Venuti claims Lang was self-taught,
and the only guitarist he recalls Lang mentioning as an inspiration was Segovia. When asked who
Lang imitated, Venuti said "Who else was there? Eddie started it all."
In 1924, using the name of boyhood baseball hero Eddie Lang, he joined the Mound City Blue
Blowers, a sort of jug band, as a guitarist. The recordings he made with them demonstrate why
Lang is said to have legitimized guitar as a jazz instrument: instead of simply strumming the chords,
he played several chords per measure, and peppered his backup with bass runs, passing tones,
arpeggios, single-string fills, bluesy string-bending and harmonics.
In the next several years, Lang was increasingly in demand as a performer. He played with the big
bands of Jean Goldkette (where he befriended Bix Beiderbecke), Roger Kahn, Adrian Rollini, and
Paul Whiteman. Although he was capable of reading music, Lang played by ear. During his tenure
with Whiteman, he kept a piece of paper the size of a business card in his pocket that contained on
it (in markings only decipherable by Lang) everything he needed to know about Whiteman's musical
repertoire. When Whiteman's singer, Bing Crosby, went solo, Lang became Crosby's guitarist and
appeared with him in the 1932 film, The Big Broadcast.
One of the first versatile studio guitarists, Lang recorded with Red Nichols and His Five Pennies,
Cliff Edwards (known as Ukulele Ike), AI Jolson, Ruth Etting, Sophie Tucker, the Boswell Sisters,
Emmett Miller and a host of blues singers, including Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey and Texas
Alexander. His technique was most audible when he recorded solo (often composing his own
songs), and in duets with Joe Venuti or with small ensembles such as Venuti's Blue Four or Blue
Five. These were probably the first listening (not dancing) jazz recordings. Using the name "Blind
Willie Dunn," he recorded memorable duets with guitarist Lonnie Johnson, the other guitar giant of
the '20s, who, like Lang, played both blues and jazz.
By 1933, when Lang died of complications from a tonsillectomy, most jazz bands had switched from
banjo to guitar, and most guitarists were playing the archtop, F-hole instrument Lang preferred.
Using blues and classical techniques, he inspired the first generation of jazz guitarists, most of
whom agree: Lang laid the groundwork for jazz guitar.
PERFORMANCE NOTES
"Dinah" features Lang's backup and lead styles. It has a typical pop song structure, and in 1928 Joe
Venuti's Blue Four, recording for Okeh Records in New York City, gave it the usual jazz treatment
(see as follows). Released in Europe by Parlaphone, it was one of the "chamber jazz" sides that
made Venuti and Lang internationally famous. The quartet consisted of Venuti, Lang, a pianist and
baritone sax.
SONG STRUCTURE AND THE JAZZ TREATMENT
Like many pop tunes, "Dinah" has an AABA structure:
• An eight-bar section ("A part") is played twice in a row, with a slightly different ending the second time.
• An eight-bar bridge follows (that's "B").
• The "A part" is repeated.
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