# Help! 1920s jazz



## Scott Cairns (Apr 28, 2006)

I need to quickly knock out a jazz track in the style of the 1920s.

Can anyone give me some pointers on scales to use, chords, instrumentation?


Thanks!

Im thinking; fretless bass, clarinet, trumpet, brush drums.. piano... for the instrumentation. Anything else?


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## Christian Marcussen (Apr 28, 2006)

This is absolutely no help at all - but damn I fear I one day would have a gig which required such a track :D


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## Evan Gamble (Apr 28, 2006)

Muted trumps-use a bunch of m7th chords and walking bass lines. 

That'll make a basic enough jazz track.


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## Waywyn (Apr 28, 2006)

hi scott,

well you could always go back to traditional II-V-I 7th chord progressions. (depends if it has to be easy or more hefty)

also i would bring in maybe some bluesy character but it depends again where the game/project takes place.

maybe this also helps: http://www.jazzbasen.no/jazzhistorie_19 ... html#n1923


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## Waywyn (Apr 28, 2006)

oh, by the way:

and on the turnarounds back to the major 7 chord you could always use the altered scale which is the last mode of melodic minor. this always sounds slamming 

altered scale in C would be: C - Dd - Eb - Fb - Gb - Ab - Bb - C

it is also sometimes called SuperLocrian


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## Scott Cairns (Apr 28, 2006)

Thanks Guys.  I thought 7ths were pretty common in Jazz. Its the one genre that Ive truly had no experience with. I wouldve chosen acid, techno, hard rock. trance or orchestral before attempting jazz. :mrgreen:


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## Waywyn (Apr 28, 2006)

Yeh you could use 7th chords all the way.

I would invest the time to study some jazz stuff etc. i think when you understand jazz and blues you can get a lot info about other styles.

you could compare it like, if you would learn latin, you can understand at least a little bit of italian and other romanian languages.


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## Daryl (Apr 28, 2006)

Maybe listen to Gershwin's own piano arrangements of his songs. I think that these were done in the 20s (or possibly early 30s).

D


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## Evan Gamble (Apr 28, 2006)

oh yes most important of all...


Make dat shit Swing Baby!


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## Synesthesia (Apr 28, 2006)

Scott Cairns @ Fri Apr 28 said:


> I need to quickly knock out a jazz track in the style of the 1920s.
> 
> Can anyone give me some pointers on scales to use, chords, instrumentation?
> 
> ...



Scott,

Get on Itunes or your music store and find the soundtrack album to a UK TV series called 'Jeeves and Wooster' (the PG Wodehouse) by Anne Dudley.

It is absolutely genius writing and shows perfectly how to 1920's up your soundtrack a treat!

Cheers and good luck

Paul


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## Thonex (Apr 28, 2006)

1920's jazz may be a misnomer. The roaring 20's sound is the "clapper" era and almost has more of a dixieland vibe. Boogie Woogie too.

Just a thought

T


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## hv (Apr 28, 2006)

Hi, Scott. Feel free to hit my midi site index at http://www.rtpress.com/titles.htm and search for the string "192". They're all midis so if you hear the type of thing you're looking for, you can inspect the chord voicings used. Just a warning. They're pretty much all live performance midis, not notation midis. The 20's titles you'll find there are all piano and mostly blues, stride, old-time, novelty, and a little dixieland and early boogie. 

Howard

ps: It's a little earlier but don't overlook "That's a Plenty".


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## Scott Cairns (Apr 28, 2006)

Hi Guys, thanks so much for the help, Ive just banged out a 30 second progression and sent it to the client for their feedback.

Cant believe how clueless I am when it comes to Jazz (and lots other things for that matter)


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## Waywyn (Apr 28, 2006)

hehe, yeh, know the feeling.
sometimes i wish my knowledge would be bigger than my "cluelessledge"


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## Craig Sharmat (Apr 28, 2006)

Like anything else there was a wide variety of jazz in the 20's. You could be talking Louie, to King Oliver, to early full big band dance arrangements by Spud Murphy, Fletcher Henderson and others. Small enesmbles and stride pianists, though those had already seen popularity by the teens. The easiest way to get to the 20's sound in a progression is to use "rythym changes". Though it is not the best way, you will find that permutations of it are possibly the most popular.


I was once asked to do a big band 30's swing piece for Fox, so i went to Spud Murphy and asked him what to do. He responded make it sound like something from that era, don't get to particular, they won't know the difference


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## Waywyn (Apr 28, 2006)

Hey Craig,

yes, thats a good point, what Spud mentioned. Sometimes we get too much concerned about making the sound/mood/style as perfect as we can.

"Look producer, you wanted a really wide and open sounding shakuhachi during that track, so i booked a flight to japan, crawled the highest mountain and recorded it with 5 neumann mics to have it even available in surround."

surely it is important to deliver good sounding and convincing work, but most of the time when e.g. a producer says that he would like to have an ethnic vibe, then it is enough to bring in some flutes or percussions or like in this case, he wanted some early jazz music, so it should be enough to be aware of general mood, the instruments and just rock on


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## Patrick de Caumette (Apr 28, 2006)

Hi Scott,

I doubt the clients will tell the difference but I wouldn't use a fretless.
An upright is the way to go for this one...
Also if you're gonna quantize some of your lines, make sure to set the Q to triplets! :wink: 

Good luck with the gig!


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## José Herring (Apr 28, 2006)

Scott Cairns @ Fri Apr 28 said:


> Thanks Guys.  I thought 7ths were pretty common in Jazz. Its the one genre that Ive truly had no experience with. I wouldve chosen acid, techno, hard rock. trance or orchestral before attempting jazz. :mrgreen:



No, no be carefull. 7ths are common in later Jazz but not really in 1920's jazz. You'll have to rap your wits around flat 9 chords and 13 chords. You can add the 7th but a straight 7th to my ears is pretty uncharacteristic of early jazz. Straight flat or major 7ths are like pop and rock chords and musical theater.

For 1920's listen to a lot of swing and jive music.


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## Scott Rogers (Apr 28, 2006)

..........


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## Scott Cairns (Apr 28, 2006)

Thanks very much for the replies everyone. Belive it or not, the client loved it!

Craig, I think you were right - i didnt make the piece too specific and as far as the client is concerned I think to them it sounds generally "old" and "jazzy".

Patrick - thanks for the pickup on using an upright bass mate. I actually did use an upright anyway, for some weird reason I typed fretless. :smile: 

Thanks again everybody.


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## Patrick de Caumette (Apr 29, 2006)

Scott Cairns @ Fri Apr 28 said:


> Thanks very much for the replies everyone. Belive it or not, the client loved it!
> 
> Craig, I think you were right - i didnt make the piece too specific and as far as the client is concerned I think to them it sounds generally "old" and "jazzy".
> 
> ...



You're very welcomed Scott.

I PM'ed you my bank account's specifics so that you can wire me 10 % of the proceeds. Don't hesitate to ask any time you have an issue with something.
It's great doing business with you!  :wink:


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## Roland Mac (May 27, 2006)

I would consider using quite a few secondary dominants and short tonicizations. From what Iv seen of jazz music, it appears to be built around mostly around the principles of 19th century chromatic harmony. So I, IV, V, I progressions with creative use of harmonic substitutes, secondary dominants, altered dominents etc should far you well.

Also, I find that the Dorian, Mixolydian modes to be useful along with the good ole blues scale!

Oh, and brushed kits in swing rhythm are useful to. Heavy on the syncopation.

RM


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