Re: [Harp-L] bluegrass at SPAH

[Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sweet Georgia Brown is not a bluegrass tune, per se.  It is a jazz tune.
However, it is not uncommon for bluegrassers to enjoy a good jazz tune every
now and again.  Without that interest, Farewell Blues (Earl Scruggs),
Florida Blues (Chubby Wise), Foggy Mountain Special (Don Reno), and any
number of other jazz and blues tunes would not have become bluegrass
standards.  Some of the jazz/blues standards that can be found at bluegrass
jams are Lady Be Good, Sweet Georgia Brown, Birth of the Blues, St. Louis
Blues, and Summertime.  They aren't claimed as bluegrass.  They are simply
enjoyed amongst the bluegrass.

Since Bill Monroe went out of his way to learn about blues/jazz as it was
played in his part of the world and added it in places to the music he was
marketing, with more and more blues/jazz coming in with new Bluegrass Boys,
who can claim that similar ventures into the same realm of blues/jazz were
wrong?  I find it most interesting that old jazz standards bear some of the
same structures bluegrass tunes do to the extent that the same advice is
given between the two music worlds:  'Get the story started, expand on the
story and explore it, but always come back to the story -- or the story
won't get told.'  (translation: Start with the melody, wander with it in the
middle if you like, but always come back to the melody.)


On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Vern <jevern@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Sweet Georgia Brown has a circle-of-fifths  six-two-five-one chord pattern.
>  The second ending has 4 bars in the related minor key.  The chromatic
> melody includes the sharped first, fourth, and fifth scale degrees.
>
> It doesn't seem to belong to the bluegrass tradition.
> Wikipedia: "In 1925 Ben Bernie and his orchestra did the first recording of
> Sweet Georgia Brown. Bernie was the co-composer of this jazz standard, which
> became the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters."  It is usually jazzy,
> swingy, and syncopated.
>
> However, these guys play it at as bluegrass in F.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff1hSDnCw9c
> That requiresF, F#, Bb, Bn, C and C# all on the same harmonica.  Wouldn't
> that be very challenging (especially at this tempo) on a  diatonic?
>
> Vern
>
> On Jul 19, 2011, at 1:19 PM, Doug H wrote:
>
> > Well, now if you think about it carefully, all of the issues that make
> 'key'
> > so hard to pin down, apply to the concept of 'chord' too.   My definition
> of
> > 'chord' is very likely not the same as yours.  Do you have a good
> > definition?
> >
> > -----Original Message----- From: sheltraw@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 1:47 PM
> > To: harp-l
> > Subject: Re: [Harp-L] bluegrass at SPAH
> >
> > The tune Sweet Georgia Brown is in the AB format. So if somebody familiar
> > with the tune as played in bluegrass jams were to tell me what the first
> > chord of the A section is that would suffice.
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
> >> Providing an appropriate response is a challenge without getting some
> idea
> >> of what your definition of 'key' is.
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: sheltraw@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 12:45 PM
> >> To: harp-l
> >> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] bluegrass at SPAH
> >>
> >> In what "key" is Sweet Georgia Brown usually played at bluegrass? What's
> >> the first chord?
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>