Bluin' The Blues - with Bart Cubrich and his Pompous Plaid Piccolos
6And now for the latest jazz song craze!
About This Song:
I don't often play the blues, so I was excited to find this arrangement of the Henry Ragas classic "Bluin' the Blues". Ragas was with the Original Dixieland through their first 21 recordings. The ODJB is considered a controversial group because they were not, in fact, the original Dixieland band, thought they did do a lot of the early recordings in this style. In fact, I had listened to four or five versions of this song before I made this, all of which were instrumentals, but I recently heard a version of this song that had very racist lyrics. I could not find out whether those lyrics were in the original song or not, but either way I do not condone any racism. It is a constant challenge of playing music from this era. On a musical note, the hardest part of the piece was clarinet.
**EDIT**: I found the original score and the original lyrics were..not great. I guess the overall message about the musician the song is about is positive, but he is referred to by what is now considered a highly offensive racial slur. Just an FYI! There are probably better blues you can play out there than this one. Basically the song is about a black musician who can play any blues you can think of. He is a real monster on the piano, and when you hear you you have to dance.
Original Score:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Bluin'_the_Blues_(Ragas%2C_Henry)
See a play along of the score with this video here:
https://musescore.com/user/7202336/scores/7067601?share=copy_link
About This Recording:
I recorded each part continuously at this tempo, but I did apply a few light effects afterwards.
Recording Tempo: 142 BPM
Ideal Instrumental Tempo: 155-165 BPM
Arrangement: Leo Feist
Band: also known as Bart Cubrich and his All Star Acoustic Guitar Ensemble
About the Instruments:
Banjo: Kenmore Ludwig Plectrum ca. 1927
Trumpet Guitar: Saga Gitane John Jorgenson Model
Guitar Accompaniment and Trombone: Godin Fifth Avenue with Very heavy Strings (0.062?)
Clarinet: Godin Fifth Avenue Flame Maple with medium strings
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