Re: Jazz/Jump-what is it?

["Scorcher" <s_c_o_r_c_h_e_r@xxxxxxx>]

Rick, it sounds like you know a lot more than I do about this - that
you're very scholarly, in fact, so I know I shouldn't disagree with
you, but I guess I'm just living in a different reality.

> Rick Dempster said:
>        I think 'Jump' is one of those long abandoned terms like like
'race' and 'sepia' and perhaps, in disco-'seventies' 'laid-back', a
useless term that came into use for a while.

AFAIK, "Jump" (esp "Jump BLues") is a currently used (and usefull)
term with real meaning. So is "race" (several meanings) sepia (a
color) seventies (a decade), and laid-back (a mellow state-of-mind),
at least, as far as the language (well, one of them, anyway) we speak
in Southern California is concerned.

>        As I understand it, a 'jump band' referred to a smaller
combo, from, say five to eight pieces, playing an R'n'B based
repertoire, with perhaps a smattering of standard show tunes & pop
tunes.

Jump Blues, as I understand it, is basically danceable blues. Sort of
halfway between Blues and Rockabilly.

>        It was intended, as the name implies, for dancing.
>        I have read of Louis Jordans Tympany Five (which if I recall
always had more than five) being referred by this term, as well as Joe
and Jimmie Liggins bands, Buddy Johnson's Orch., Jay McShanns smaller
outfits and so on.

William Clarke and Rod Piazza also offer (or offerred, in Mr. Clarke's
case) up a version of this style, often referred to as West Coast
Blues. In fact, this style is VERY popular among chromatic blues
players.

>        These bands represent a fair amount of variation between
them, but I think they give you a fair indication of what the term was
applied to.
>         You could easily throw the recordings of Wynonie Harris, Big
Joe Turner and Roy Brown, except these guys were singers rather than
band leaders.
>         The term seems to have been in use from about the
mid-forties to the mid-fifties.

We still use the term here, AFAIK.
- -Scorcher