Random Jazz Clarinet Player
Here’s some new old music for you, Warrigal. A couple of upbeat traditional jazz tracks taken from an old 78 of the University Jazz Four, with my father on clarinet. I believe it was recorded at the 1952 Melbourne Jazz Convention. It was a special trip for my father because it was the first time he had been out of South Australia. Gave him the travel bug.
What could get you up on your feet faster than the Sunset Café Stomp (lyrics below)? And if that leaves you breathless, here’s a swinging Sweet Chariot.
Sunset Café Stomp Lyrics
Sunset stomp got folks jumping’s
Sunset stomp got folks
Jumping’s up and down, all around
They yell, band men play some more
Charleston, Charleston
I’ll say it’s hot
But your black bottom, it’s got ’em
But, oh, that sunset stomp
Lord, it’s going
And the people strain
Created in the crazy house
It sets good folks insane
Gentlemen, ladies too
Push ’em round n round
They loose their head
They outa bed
Doin’ that sunset stomp
I said, doin’ sunset stomp
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Gorrrd! Sweet Chariot!
That song and Oh Shenandoah!
Had to sing it as part of a group of Year 10s. In an end-of-the year school concert. Had to get all costumed up and act it all out and stuff. I still remember the fact that another kid played the squeeze box as accompaniment!
“Dum loquimur invida aetas fugerit” Horace said a long, hostile time ago!
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A clarinet player on a world tour was frisked while going through aiport security. The customs officer found a tube of cork grease in his pocket, intended for the joints of his instrument. Still, he was busted for trying to board a plane with a band substance !!
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Is anyone old enough to have seen, as I did, The Benny Goodman story? It came out in 1955 followed by the Glenn Miller Story the year after. We used to walk the streets of The Hague pretending to blow our instruments like they did in the film. I think it was one my first movies followed by a film climbing Mount Everest.
PS: I can’t open the music no matter how I try, it keeps on with a ‘corruption message. Is it my fault or the computer?
Hopefully this might work;
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I’ve got no idea, gerard; they are standard MP3 files. Can you usually play MP3 files in your browser? Here’s a link to another one for testing purposes:
[audio src="http://ia600301.us.archive.org/6/items/memoirs_holmes_0709_librivox/holmesmemoirs01doyle.mp3" /]
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Gez, As a kid I watched the Benny Goodman story several times and loved every minute of it. Probably led me to liking jazz.
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I remember the ‘Glen Miller Story’ quite well, Gerard; the chap who played Glen Miller looked a lot like the young Lt Ken Jones, of the Salvos, in whose ‘Young People’s Brass Band’ I used to play solo Euphonium, once upon a time… I still love his music and can even play ‘Chattanooga Choo-Choo’ on the guitar! With just the tiniest bit of encouragement I could easily be persuaded to post it here at the PA, providing, of course, that I can solve my recording problem…
🙂
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Your Dad, wades right in at the start. And then just keeps on keeping on. My Uncle Norman (Father’s brother), played the clarinet. He kept it in a beautiful leather case with blue velvet linig. It had a section for the reeds.
He let me have a go, but it made my eardrums ache when I pursed my lips and blew too hard. I stuck to the recorder and the bamboo whistle pipes, bought by the side of the road on the way up to The Punjac.
A lovely sound when played with style. Do you play any instrument Voice?
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I had the obligatory piano lessons but they were wasted on me at the time. About age 10 I remember a music teacher bribing me to learn the notes by putting a devilled cashew in a glass every time I got one right. She succeeded in instilling a lifelong passion for devilled cashews.
I tried to take it up again as a young adult when I developed more of a feeling for music, but I have dainty hands and still could not quite reach a full octave, which kind of put an end to it for me.
Dad could get a tune out of just about anything. He played by ear and didn’t learn to read music until quite late.
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Dainty eh?
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