Handy–Memphis Blues

In a recent post, we said: “The fusion of ragtime and blues, the use of the banjo is part of the miracle of jazz. The music gets your feet tapping and your blood racing. In fact, jazz may start out as music, but it cannot be defined properly unless we include, simultaneously, our emotional response in the same description. It is hard to imagine the fox trot arrangements played by the 1920’s dance bands without recognizing both aspects of the sound, the external and internal. It became more formal in the swing bands, but the small group arrangements never lost touch with the origins of syncopated excitement.”

In the next four posts of “supporting music,” we are going to try to cover a wide range of jazz styles and tempos. It will be a great deal to absorb at one sitting, so it is best to come and visit a number of times, until you can differentiate the sounds. We provide these different styles and tempos to remind us all that music is never static, not even traditional folk songs or jazz tunes. Hot jazz might be slowed down to make it more tragic or funerial in sound; or just the opposite might occur and a slow tempo at origination might be increased at a later date. In addition, a ragtime piano tune might be spruced up so that it could be played by a jazz ensemble. Finally, small jazz ensembles might be unified by a disciplined band leader to sound like a swing band, even if there was no written music.

Let’s take a chronological tour through jazz, starting with W. C. Handy’s 1912 composition, “Memphis Blues.” It was recorded in 1914 by the Victor Military Band, and it is a good recording. However, it was recently (2012) re-recorded for its centennial by the Wolverine Jazz Band in a surprisingly excellent performance. We are going to stick with the 1914 recording, because we want to emphasize a key point: in 1914 the band played a blues composition in a ragtime style.