Jazz Performance Saturday! "Down By the Riverside" - Smoking Time Jazz Club

Smoking Time Jazz Club is a Traditional Jazz band based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Their performance of  Down By the Riverside was recorded by Brad Davis right off the streets of the city in 2016. 

Down By the Riverside is an American spiritual that was first published in 1918 by the Rodeheaver Company in a musical collection called "Rodeheaver's Plantation Melodies: A Collection of Modern, Popular and Old-time Negro-Songs of the Southland."

Although Down By the Riverside has been assumed to be a song that originally emanated from the struggle of slaves for their freedom around the Civil War, unfortunately there is no solid evidence in the written record of this.

 

The phrase "down by the riverside" is a fairly common one in slave songs. Also, the way the song was written is similar to other call out songs where one will lead the song and others will repeat. The song has long been included in Baptist hymnals and it has been published under various titles such as, Ain't Gonna Study War No More, Goin' to Lay down My Burden, and Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More among others.

 

It was first recorded by the Fisk Jubilee Quartet as I Ain't Goin' to Study War No More. It has long been played by Traditional jazz bands. Both Bunk Johnson and George Lewis during the traditional jazz resurgence  both recorded the tune as well as many many others.

 

Here the Smoking Time Jazz Club play a spirited version of the tune in the "traditional" or Dixieland jazz vein. They have appeared at many festivals and have released some albums on CD.

 

 

 

Saturday Jazz Performance! - "The Original Dixieland One Step" - New Orleans Stompers

Jazz is alive and well in Japan! My father, George A. Borgman, always said that jazz was for the world and he was right! Today's Jazz Performance of Original Dixieland One Step is by the New Orleans Stompers and was recorded at The Misty West in Yokohama, Japan on March 26 2022.

The Original Dixieland One Step was originally released as the Dixie Jass Band One Step in 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band who composed the tune. It has since become a jazz standard.

The musicians playing are, Kato Sinichi on trumpet; Matumoto Koji on trombone; Goto Masahiro on clarinet; Yamazaki Masanobu on piano; Kodaira Akihiro on banjo; Ito Jyoichi on bass, Yosii Tetuji on drums; and it looks like the second trombone player is Nakajima Jiro. A couple of other players are listed along with the video, but, it doesn't look like they appear in this video.  

Here is the first recording of the tune played by the originators of it, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded on February 26, 1917 in New York, with a nice presentation and audio restoration by Atticus Jazz!

 

Saturday Jazz Performance - "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" - New Orleans Jazz Band of Cologne

On today's Saturday Jazz Performance we will hear Germany's New Orleans Jazz Band of Cologne playing the traditional gospel tune, Just A Closer Walk With Thee. At the time of this video recording the group was called The Maryland Jazz Band of Cologne.

The current members of the band are Bruno van Acoleyen on trumpet; Bart Brouwer on trombone; Benny Daniels on bass; Reinhard Küpper on drums; Hans-Martin "Büli" Schöning plays banjo & guitar; and Georg "Schroeder" Derks on piano. And the mystifying N.N. plays both clarinet and saxophone.

Just A Closer Walk With Thee has a murky past and it is almost impossible to know for sure where this tune was first developed and played. There is little doubt that it was a religious oriented song that was sung as early as the 1800s however, and it was quickly adapted by jazz bands and has been heard played by such bands since the dawn of Dixieland.

This video performance was recorded in 2007 as part of JazzAscona 2007 an annual jazz festival held in Switzerland. The musicians playing are: Jan Wouters - tp Gerhard 'Doggy' Hund - tb Dolf Robertus - cl, ts Hans-Martin 'Büli' Schöning - bjo Georg 'Schroeder' Derks - p Markus 'Benny' Daniels - b Reinhard Küpper - dr.

 

Jazz Performance Saturday! "Sunday" - The Foundation Jazz Band

The Foundation Jazz Band or The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation's Jazz Band video profiled today is from way back on August 2, 2010 when they played at at Nick's at Rockaway Beach in Pacifica, California. Sadly Jim Cullum passed away in 2019.

Sunday was first recorded by Jean Goldkette and His Orchestra on October 15, 1926 the same year it was written and composed by Ned Miller, Chester Conn, Jules Stein, and Bennie Krueger.

The performers in this video are Bill Carter on clarinet; Bill Gould on piano; Bill Reinhart on bass; Bill Cullum on cornet; Bob Schulz on cornet; Dan Barrett on trombone; Scott Anthony on banjo; and Hal Smith on drums.

  

Here is Jean Goldkette's version of Sunday recorded in October of 1926.