1937-05-06 — Page 10

10

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. THURSDAY, MAY 6,

SWING IT, SMITH!

ALL ABOUT JAZZ, FROM THE BEGINNING (Third of four music articles in the SMITH into SUPERMAN series)

T

·

trate manner about Mother, somebody discovered that "June" rhymed with "moon," the whole world was touch- ed by the Infidelities of a million "sweetles," ravished by the charms (to rhyme with "arma") of yet an. other million "cuties."

DANCE musle?

Mr.

Nonsense, Smith! Drawing- room ballads plugged on the whither the world had gone to spend its evenings on de- serting the drawing-room.

dance floor,

The modern "popular song" is dish-

ed up with the instrumentation of

fazz for the convenience of publish- A

of ers and song writers, who find their

market anong dancers.

HE origins of jazz have worried a number people. It sprang, generally speaking, from the negro spiritual, the religious music of a race covering a new religion.

dis-

Smith

is not

Then

201 convinced? think of "It's a sin to tell a lle," play

ed equally as a waltz, a fox-trol,. sung in cabaret, broadcast by cinema

Literature, painting, sculpture, music, and architecture have organs. always, in every civilisation, had their origin in religion.

Gradually, these arts have developed, and secular arts arlsen not in their place but as well.

have

So the negro, when he had been to his camp meeting, went homo to his backyard and sang about his girl friend. He si simply, to the accompaniment of a guitar, simple words in this

form

My gal done left me, left me all alone to cry,

(I said) My gal done wit me, left me all alone to cr}}, And if she don't come bark

I'm gonna lay me down an' die.

The tune varied only a little, the form remained, still re- Imains, and is known as the "blues,"

The negro, however, is not 'always melancholy. A couple of generations removed from the jungle, the American negro brought a great deal of his natural rhythmic vitality even into his spirituals.

(Smith TTtiny remember Paul

Robeson singing "Joshua

A de

battle ob Jericho and noticed Rs. likeness to the "Charleston."},

This rhythm, naturally came into

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AMOY

an

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V. M, GRAYHUNN, n..

BANGKOK

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The Business of the above Bank la con!

dat

SWING GLOSSARY

DEEP.-Excellent.

LAY IT-Let yourself go, SEND (verb).-Musie sends" you when it excites you a fot. RIDE To take a swing sale. BARRELHOUSE-When no- body knows what the next man 14

Unsophisticated,

GO TO TOWN. When the whole band swings as one man. GUTBUCKET.-Cride jazz, generally loud and fast,

JAM-To improvise.

MR. CHARLIE. Coloured

man.

HOT-Exciting.

ON DOWN. When every- thing, is just right.

may be popular music," but it's not jazz. Jazz is dance music first and last, It can have no real exist- ence as anything else.

Now to "swing"

All the time the tunes and senti-

ments of popular songs have been ar

feally animated to resemble Jazz,

the true jazz of the American negeɔ has been

going along on its own

way.

Because the dancing publie craved. ballads and musical comedy "num- bers," Jazz was hounded underground, into Hurien, into New Orleans "gin- mills and Chicago speakersies.

I emerged shyly on Ham

phone records for the few,

for musicians and enthusiasts

who knew the names of every play- er on every record.

The names of the players in jazz are important.

Jazz is still, as it has always been. Improvised music; each instrumental- ist is

is a composer in a small way, and therefore deserves a credit for his work.

Gradually jazz came out into the

To distinguish it from "popu open. Iar mugle" commonly, and wrongly, called jazz, the genuine thing was dubbed "hot Jazz.”

Now Smith will agree that all dance music-Strauss walizes, reels. Jigs, and the rest-must be played with "a sving," If it's going to do gcod.

any

In Harlem they knew this, too, so that whenever a player came to his would admonish solo his colleagues him to "Swing it!"

Once "swing" enught the public's it naturally wasn't long before fancy ||||||||-|-|-||-|HHHHH the same white Americans started to his non-religious music, too; and exploit the fashion as they did twenty-

Ive years ago. where there's rhythm somebody is bound to start dancing.

With the result that the air is full to of fake jazz and people talk glibly the about "swing" this and that, as they the plans, formerly talked of "Jazz" when they

meant "popular music.

Gradually the negro learned play instruments-the trumpet, trombone, the clarinet. and, long afterwards, the saxophone, and this new dance music hivaded the ballroom.

1

* THEY

a

EY called it jazz. synonym for several things

Tests to brush up

1937.

Smith's earlier work

1. Why do we hang legal notices of all kinds on church doors rather than on any other public place?

One of the few remaining relies of the days when the Church was the real centre of community life, when inquests were held there, all records kept there (even the standards of length and of weight), and when faics were held in the church yard.

2. Find out, by looking carefully at the fly-leaves, where any twelve of your-books were printed. What proportion of them were printed in or near Flect-street?. Can you think of any reason with so much printing is carried on there?

The first

first cheap and popular books in England were printed and sold by Wynkyn de Worde, who set up a press in Fleet-treet in 1500, Caxton's books were expensive; a Bible would cost the equivalent

of £30 to £40.

3. Have you noticed that all old spiral staircases wind up in the same direction? Why should they?

Old spiral staircases always wind in such a way that a man standing on them and looking down is able to swing his right arm.

This would give the defenders of a house or tower n grent advantage over the attackers, and throws light on the insecurity of life in the early Middle Ages.

A fortnightly

fortnightly pedicure

pedicure will

keep your feet in good condition

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Via Sitanghal, Kobe, Yokohama, Honolulu, San Francisco, Panama Canal and Havana,

Pres. Lincoln Pres. Coolidge : Pres. Wilson Pres. Hoover Pres. Cleveland Pres. Coolidge

·TO SEATTLE, VICTORIA "THE EXPRESS ROUTE”.

Via Shanghai, Kobe and Yoko- kama.

⚫ 8.00 a.m. May 10 Pres. McKinley

Noon Juno 3 Pres. Grant 8.00 p.m. June 16 Pres. Jackson Noon June 20 Pres. Jefferson Midnight July 13 Pres. McKinley Noon July 24 Pres. Grant

EUROPE, NEW YORK AND BOSTON

Vla Manila, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Bombar, Suren Canal, Naples, Genoa and Marseilles, Pres. Pierce

9.00 am. May Pres. Van Buren

Pres. Garfield

says Jane Gordon, and when Pres. nyes

beach days come there will be

No Need

to

Hide

your Toes

J

UST because your feet are out of sight it seems mean to keep them out of mind until they bring them- selves to your notice in some more or less painful

fashion.

They may be perfectly well- particular attention to the corners of Be careful not make the large toe-nails. behaved feet or they may themselves felt by corns, a lump on to dig or push the nall. Next dip the rubber nall-brush into' soapy the back of the heel, or a bunion.

In any case they should be treated water and scrub off each nail. Dry. Put nie of the indine oil on to to a regular fortnightly pedicure, and

If you do not already have pedicure cotton-wool and rub over each nail you should begin right away to en- and cuticle. sute against being ashamed of your toes when the summer comes and you run round in open sandals, or expose your feet on the beach.

Take your Bitle "cull-brush," go

the soapy: with

water. Dry round each cuticle again, scrub off

thoroughly.

Now take your cotton-woo! and You will need a good pair of clip- pers, which you, can get for a few place a good thick wad between each shillings from your chemist or the toe so as to make all the toes stand surgical department of any store; out apart from each other. Paint. board; orange stick; cuti- on your natt varnish, arst on one for those who like Jazz, is the differ-brush; white lodine in oil; a little foot, then on the other, then if the

first coating is dry give

a second ence between rhythm and tempo:

peroxide; plenty of cotton wool coating to the first foot and a second little bowl soapy water, and a rub

coating to the other foot, Leave the ber nali brush.

cotton-wool in place unth the var nish is absolutely dry.

"Swing," Smith can tell his friends

A Beethoven symphony under one conductor may be played very cor- rectly at the right tempo and sound dull as dishwater under another

same tempo) rhythm will have (at the sam

in the fragunge of the South matter, if Smith likes, of life and ern negro, but generally believed to death! Rhythm, like life, isn't learn-

you're born with it. refer to a famous "Charles," or edi

One "Chaz," who played in New Orleans

point Sm

Smith may like to make That's just another theory.

How, if Ist

"popular song" is not a band make a "swing cat 1 Jazz, however, was never written jazz. down.. Tunes just, came to be, as number" of it? falk-tunes do; or they were im- The answer to this is that precious ducted by the Huskong and Shanchal Batste provised on the spot, generally on little of the "popular song remains it the harmonie foundation of the it is going to be jazz. The melody and harmony are used as an excuse, Then the white people started to as pegs to hang an improvisation on. organise Jazz and exploit it. Jews, The tille and the statement of the of attracting the Russians, Irish, Germans and the rest tune are a means of the races that are America took public-like Hollywood making a film It up in a big way. and devised of a best-seller. something quite different-modern The author gets a credit, the public popular music.

is attracted, and then a lot of people

for Corporation. Rules may be obtained on application.

FOR THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAL

DANCING CORPORATION.

VM, GRAYBURN,

Chile Manager.

Hongkong. et March, 1977.

THE CILARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA.

Incorperated by Dayal Charter 1853 IEAD OFFICE-LONDON,

Taid-up Capital *********ARLETTER

£3,000,000

hlung"

Dy 1910, Smith must remember, get together and turn it into some- the drawing-room ballad had begun thing quite different. to lose favour, so America revived it The result

may annoy the author

Reserva Liability of Proprietors .. 23,000,000 by calling it something else and let or the song writer, but Smith may 23,000,000ting it loose in the dance hall. get a goud pleture or some good jazz.

Songs were written in a semi-ili- it all depends.

Reserve Fund

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TRY THESE TESTS

-they will teach you something about hearing and seeing

THE

a handkerchief over your eyes. Then get a friend to click a couple of coins at varying distances from your ears, and in different positions round your head. Then try to locate the source of the sound, pointing your finger at the spot from which you think it came. Keep a note of the results and sum them up by a simple rule.

You will have found that the ears are not at all' "directional" regarding sounds coming from places whare the eyes could see. You will have been muddied between front and back, top and bottom of the head. But you will easily have found the source of the sound when it was situated to the right and left of the *head; that is, whenever the Intensity of the sound reaching one ear is noticeably greater than that reaching the other. Whenever equal intensities reach both ears, there is no way of locating the sound source.

.

2. Use a piece of white paper to cover: (i) the top half of a line of print in this paper; (2) the bottom half of another line of print.

to read the lines. What do you learn from this about

the process of reading?

You will have found it easy to read when only the top half of the letters is visible. The conclusion is that in reading we notice mainly the tops of the letters.

emery

If you want to have a luxurious pedicure you will add tale powder

Spray your feet with the eau-de- or deodorant powder, and a small

Allow this to dry. Dust scent spray nlled with good cau-de- Cologne. Cologne, the same varnish you use over the tale powder or deodorant for your finger nails, or else a powder. natural rarnish and an olly varnish

remover,

EMEMBER that it always

nys

exactly how

RE to get your corns PROFESSIONAL. pedicure is properly treated by a trained chiro-

out follows, podist. They know

11 Shake some varnish remover on a much callous can safely be removed. They keep special scalpels pro- small pad of cotton-wool and re- move every scrap of varnish from Perly sterilised. After the corn or callous is removed, they dab on ench loc noll.

jodine and wrap the toe around with Take the clippers and clip the toe lamb's wool, or put on a corn plaster nails straight acrosa. Do not shape to relieve pressure.

If -fting shoes have given you them down at the sides in the same way that the nails are shaped, but lumps on the backs of your heels, round off the actual point at the get some lodex from your chemist. sides so that it does not grow into fub this well into the lump every the skin.

day after you have had your bath. Next take your emery-board and Cut a piece of white surgeon's lint lightly ale off any roughened edges. to cover it, and strap on with a plece

Next twist a tiny serap of cotton of strapping. wool round the end of your nail Be careful not to get the Iodex an stick, dip it into the peroxide and your stockings or the sheets at night, Hightly clean under the nalls, paying as it is black and stains.

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