Listening Guides

Listening Guide 6.1
"Dippermouth Blues" 4 beats per measure

iTune link = Dippermouth Blues

Analysis of "Dippermouth Blues" (SCCJ,1/5)

"Dippermouth Blues" is multithematic like a rag piece, whereas blues are typically strophic. The ensemble portions are collectively improvised, though this practice of improvisation comes closer to prearranged playing without music. Of particular note is the well-coordinated work between the two cornets, an atypical combination in a New Orleans–style jazz band.
        The rhythm section is playing a 4/4 feel rather than a lighter 2/4 feel typical of ragtime. Baby Dodds plays rhythms reminiscent of a syncopated march or tap-dance rhythm. He is not playing the drums but the woodblocks, a standard instrument in his live performances. They were necessitated also because of the older acoustic method of recording that did not record drums well.
       The most outstanding feature of this 1923 performance is the cornet solo by Joe Oliver. The fact that it is covered somewhat by the doodling of the other wind instruments and was worked out, for the most part, in advance does not detract from its brilliance. It is an essay in economy, effectiveness, and formal balance. In one neat package, this 1923 performance summarizes the major features of jazz music and has become an influential model for generations of jazz musicians.
       The opening gesture is straightforward enough: a blue (lowered) third to the tonic note B-flat (see Figure 6.1). The entire solo rarely exceeds an octave and only involves five or six notes; the same can be said for most of blues singer Bessie Smith's recorded performances. What Oliver and Smith do with those few notes is remarkable, proving the adage from an old song title "It Ain't What You Do, It's the How What You Do It." Between the blue third and the tonic, for instance, Oliver applies several types of manipulation to achieve expressive tension and release: (1) The pitch smoothly rises then falls from the first pitch to the second. (2) Vibrato is delayed until just before he stops the second note, so that vibrato is used not for general tone production but as an expressive device. (3) Oliver uses a mute on his cornet, a plunger or his hat. He places it over the bell of his cornet and quickly fans it immediately after starting each note, giving the cornet a wah-wah articulation, a common product of timbral manipulation.
       In the first four measures of Oliver's second solo chorus he plays a three-note motive in a free rhythm that would be virtually impossible to put into music notation accurately. While this is not an example of swing in the strictest sense, the fluidity of Oliver's rhythm is an example of a relaxed rhythm over the tension of the insistent quarter-note pulse in the rhythm section.
       The third chorus of Oliver's solo begins with a two-note repeated figure at the high end of the solo's overall range. The combination of repetitiveness and range is the perfect choice here, demonstrating a plan whereby the beginning of each successive solo chorus becomes more dramatically tense. Additionally, the banter of the other instruments gradually moves toward the foreground, almost engulfing the last third of Oliver's solo; the tension he creates seems to simultaneously egg the band on and fight to maintain command of the moment.
       The final chorus of the piece is the same as the first; the band plays a collective improvisation. The performance ends with a two-bar extension of the last chord, a typical New Orleans practice.
       There are other wonderful recordings by transplanted New Orleans musicians, such as cornetists Freddie Keppard and Henry "Red" Allen or clarinetist Jimmie Noone, but the series of Creole Jazz Band recordings certainly represent some of the best music these musicians had to offer.
       Jazz had been in a constant state of evolution from the time it became jazz until these recordings, although we have no way to monitor its progress other than from the testimony of participants and eyewitnesses of the music. The evolution process continued even after jazz was first recorded. We have to remember that although jazz was something radically new to much of the world in the late teens and early twenties, it was at least 20 years old to those who introduced it. It was time for the music to move on. New Orleans musicians were being affected by the music around them as much as the music around them was affected by jazz. Likewise, musicians from outside the New Orleans milieu wanted to try their hand at jazz but had not grown up with the musical traditions that were second nature to New Orleans musicians. This had a great deal of bearing on the development of jazz and produced offshoots of jazz and new facets to the music. Its days as a well-kept secret with a certain regional and ethnic context were coming to a close.
       In the next chapter we will profile three significant jazz figures who produced some of their most important work in the Chicago setting. Two are youngsters who forged a new path for jazz, and one is a jazz musician who epitomized the older New Orleans style.