History of Jazz - Songs

Reckless Blues

Bessie Smith, Blues, 1920s (Armstrong filling in around vocals with trumpet)

Maple Leaf Rag

Scott Joplin, Ragtime, 1899

Maple Leaf Rag (ii)

Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans/Dixieland, 1920s (swings and has improv)

Black Bottom Stomp

Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans/Dixieland, 1920s (Long piano solo, faster, high clarinet refrain)

Snake Rag

King Oliver, New Orleans/Dixieland, 1920s (Armstrong and Lili Hardin on this, 2 trumpets, descending chromatic lines in the trumpets followed by a trombone glissando)

Potato Head Blues

Louis Armstrong, New Orleans/Dixieland, 1920s (not 12 bar, lengthy trumpet solo, uses lots of stop time)

Hotter than That

Louis Armstrong, New Orleans/Dixieland, 1920s (Scat Solo, cadenza w/ scat and guitar, guitar at end of song

West end blues

Louis Armstrong, New Orleans, 1920s (solo trumpet cadenza, 12 bar blues, slower)

I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues

Louis Armstrong, New Orleans/Dixieland 1930s

You’ve Got to be Modernistic

James P. Johnson, Stride, 1920s (showier than other solo piano songs and more harmonically daring, faster)

Christopher Columbus

Fats Waller, swing, 1930s (heavier stride piano, humorous lyrics)

Singin’ the Blues

Bix Beiderbecke, Pop/Early Big Band, 1920s (Saxophone melody at outset, Bix on trumpet and New Orleans polyphony- trumpet, clarinet, and trombone with sax)

The Stampede

Fletcher Henderson, Early Big Band, 1920s (Clarinet Trio)

Black and Tan Fantasy

Duke Ellington, Early Big Band, 1920s (“jungle band” sound, feature Bubber Miley on Trumpet and Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton on Trombone playing Growly solos)

Walkin’ and Swingin’

Andy Kirk, Mary Lou Williams, Swing, 1930s (not 12 bar blues, williams arranges and composed and plays piano)

One O’Clock Jump

Count Basie, Swing, 1930s (Faster 12-bar blues, Lester young soloing, Buck Clayton trumpet solo quotes “when the saints go marching in”)

A Sailboat In the Moonlight

Billie Holiday, Swing, 1930s (Lester Young filling in tenor sax solos as background around her vocals)

Blue Skies

Ella Fitzgerald, Swing, 1950s (later recording, large big band, scatting)

Honky Tonk Train Blues

Meade "Lux" Lewis, Boogie-Woogie, 1920s (12-bar blues, very repetitive, riffing rhythmically)

Body and Soul

Coleman Hawkins, swing, 1930s (Tenor sax soloing the entire time, slow ballad)