Switcheroo

For the MIT contra dances in October, Jonathan is going to swap the piano gigs with the Victor Troll. At the October 11th dance, Victor is going to take Jonathan's place on piano while I stay on vibes. At the following dance, on the 25th, Jonathan will play piano along with Emily leading the band on fiddle. Should be stimulating for each of us to get to play with other folks.

The October Calendar

Apple Crisp AFAQ

We played at FaHaMa today and had a very good day. We seem to get the same questions repeatedly. So I'd like to supply these Answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

1. Yes

2. 40. Oh, you mean him? 13.

3. since he was 7

4. on Thursday nights at the Cambridge VFW.

5. We're both single, but I'm funnier

6. No, Computer Science

7. A Vibraphone
7a. I said, Vi-bra-phone

8. What???

9. Ireland, Appalachia, & Cape Breton, mostly.

10. Sorry, no. Well ... maybe after a couple drinks.

Having an Identity

We're street peformers and folk dance musicians.

Street performing is a solid complement to playing dances. It hones us with a good chunk of performance experience & affords a chance to experiment with things we're readying to play at a dance.

But even as street performers, we are still playing folk dance music (American contra & square dance, to be precise). I've learned it's important for a musical group, or any artistic effort, to have an identity. When we play outdoors, I see people enjoying our music, but not knowing quite what they're hearing. It's so easy to tell them, "the thing tying together all the songs you hear, is that it is folk dance music." I've been in bands before that didn't know why they were together, other than to play something cool. It's very hard to make that work, and the listeners sense it when musically, you don't know who you are.

I think it also adds some cachet to our street show that we're established dance musicians, sharing our performances with the larger world.

Our identity even comes with its own songbook, The Portland Collection, from which we draw most of our material. There are established bands in our field that we can listen to and learn from. And even when we compose our own pieces, we know the genre we're fitting in to. Or if we goof around by briefly slipping in a verse of say, the Muppet Show theme, we make it fit the rhythm and song structure of a contra tune.

Apple Crisp is a young band (in multiple ways...), and will doubtless continue evolving. How reassuring that the course we're taking is guided by this compass.

Another musical group I play with, Kebrada Jazz Trio similarly has a solid identity which serves it well. We play jazz standards. We also have a bible, The Real Book.

Constraint has always been my best muse.

Hoedown on a Street Corner Near You

Ever since Avi started writing about Copeland's Hoedown, I've had it and other pieces of Rodeo stuck in my head. I heard a busking fiddler play some strains similar to Hoedown. As I rushed off to a meeting, I considered turning back to listen and to ask what the piece was. One of these days, I'm going to get the courage to talk to musicians.

MIT contra dances

The band felt excellent, playing the MIT dance last Tuesday; I think it was some of the most solid grooves we've had yet. The MIT dance invites sit-in musicians, so it's up to us to adapt to whomever shows up. The bandstand starts with Apple Crisp (Jonathan & me), and grows from there. Last week's sit-in instruments included electric bass, 2 accordions, pennywhistle, and a baritone sax! (we missed the hammered dulcimer, David). Jonathan has to adapt to playing with a bass, since that interacts most with what he does on the piano. He felt he was improving at that.

The dance caller seemed to particularly appreciate us and expressed interest in booking us for other dances he calls near here. We continue to draw solid compliments, I think beyond the standard obligatory ones. And the turnout was at capacity for the small room.

I end up being the bandleader on these gigs, a role I'm just starting to learn. I choose the tunes, with a lot of input from the band. It also means I spontaneously arrange the medleys by calling the switches from tune to tune, and passing out solos. I'm not as active, yet, as some other bandleaders in my arranging-on-the-fly. I'm still spending a lot of my attention on playing my own instrument and trying to let the band run on autopilot. I'm learning great respect for fiddlers who can manage to keep an eye on the dancers, the caller, direct the band, and oh-by-the-way keep playing as effortlessly as breathing. As the dance progressed, I got better at watching for signals from the caller, which is extra challenging for me because I've got my head down most of the time when I play vibes. I decided to allow the missed notes and play while looking up, instead of at the keys.

Thanks to j for bringing apple crisp - straight from the oven to the Apple Crisp gig.

On the calendar coming up:
This Sunday, Jonathan and I will play out at Faneuil Hall, North Market 8. Those gigs will wind down as the weather turns and the tourists fade away.

next Tuesday, 9/27 at the MIT contra, I'll be sitting in on accordion with Victor & Emily Troll (My first attempt on the new instrument).

Hoedown Part III

In which we track the latest findings in Avi's obsession with "Hoedown" from Copland's Rodeo.

Part I, Part II

It seems to be common knowledge on the web that the main theme in Hoedown was taken from the old fiddle tune, Bonaparte's Retreat. As I previously wrote, no one seems to be able to produce a chart for Bonaparte's Retreat that remotely resembles Hoedown. Here's a common chart-



Given claims that Copland lifted the tune "note for note", I just don't see that heritage. So I'm still looking for the tune that the old Kentucky fiddler played in 1937 that he (and only he) called "Bonaparte's Retreat".

Far less widely reported is that one of the other themes comes from "Miss Mcleod's Reel". What's exciting about this discovery is that existing charts for Miss Mcleod's do resemble their quotes in Hoedown.



I look at that & I can hear the trumpet & the snare drum!

Hoedown's Ongoing Evolution

Emerson Lake & Palmer gave Hoedown the synthesizer treatment in 1972 on the album, Trilogy. (I had previously thought it was much later, like late 70's or early 80's). Listening to ELP side by side with Copland, I realize that they added a theme of their own. It's a very sterotypical hoedown-y kinda question & answer. I remember it was one of my favorite parts to play in the version I had in marching band, so now I know that the mallet arrangement I was given came thru ELP.

Yow! Bela Fleck and the Flecktones have a version, on the disc "Outbound", released in 2000. They use ELP's addition as well. Makes you wanna get up dance - not contra dance, but some kind of funky white guy around the living room dance... And while the rhythm & instrumentation aren't particularly useful for how I'd like to recreate hoedown, there were some nice reharmonization ideas in there that I'd borrow.

lastly, some actual folk musicians offer homage -Jay Ungar & Molly Mason include a version on the 1999 disc, "Harvest Home." This is the most intriguing treatment to me, because it suggests how the themes could be used in an actual contra dance. The piece splits its time between being a fiddle/guitar duo, and an orchestra.

(Coming in part IV of this series - thoughts on creating a version of Hoedown for Apple Crisp to play at an actual contra dance.)

And last, some ultra trivia - Kermit Love, the original costume designer for the Ballet, Rodeo is still alive, and lives in New York. He also worked with Muppeteer, Jim Henson and was responsible for designing Snuffy and helping with Big Bird. (no, Kermit the Frog was not named after him, he joined Henson after KtF was created)

Pinewoods Pictures

I've gotten around to processing the pictures from pinewoods & have added them to Jonathan's pinewoods journal.

Apple Crisp with Apple Crisp!

I'm so psyched about Tuesday's MIT dance with Apple Crisp and apple crisp! It's like 21 hours away and already I'm bouncing around just thinking about it.

I hope they play Rodeo. It's been floating around in my head ever since Avi first blogged about it.

Guess I need a hobby ...

Addendum 9/14: Apple Crisp was great. I barely got some of the dessert, but I did get to listen to the band. The sit-ins really added a lot. The baritone saxophone is a great instrument for contradance music! The dueling accordions, whistle, and bass guitar were wonderful. They didn't play Rodeo, but they played several great tunes instead. We're hoping someone will be less shy about playing in public and bring her drum next time.

Avi will play at MIT next on October 11th. Bring a musical instrument!

Origins

(caution: Sappy Dad Alert. Don't say you weren't warned)

Jonathan and I have a history of street performing that predates our going out into Harvard Square as Apple Crisp last summer.

When Jonathan was 5 or 6, he'd join me in Rocking Horse People (RHP), an all Beatles cover band. We played our first outdoor gig in Central Square, Cambridge.


1997?
(click any of these pictures for larger version)


RHP then spent a summer playing in Harvard Square.




Moving further back in time, here's a particularly foretelling moment. This was at the Children's Discovery Museum in Acton. I think it was on his 4th birthday.


1996


And even further back still:


1993


Lest I be accused of embarassing any young man with his baby pictures, I'll take some of my own medicine. We go yet further, to the origins of my mallet percussion obsession. Was I playing Hoedown in this shot?


~1982

Music in my head as a measure of a good band

At a dance a few months ago, I hummed along to the tune the band played because I knew it from Apple Crisp. I'm still a new enough dancer that I don't recognize or remember many of the melodies, so when I do, I feel some excitement. Two of my partners joked with me about hanging around Apple Crisp too much.

After the Concord dance Jonathan played the other week, while I was with one of the dancers the next day, he suddenly blurted, "You have some of the music from last night's dance in your head, don't you?" I'm not exactly sure how he could tell: maybe I was drumming out the melody or humming or something. It cracked us up.

I realized, though, that the day after a dance, if I'm tossing the tunes around in my head, that means I particularly enjoyed the band.

I did that the first time I heard Apple Crisp--and that was my first ever contradance. I found the dancing fun, but very challenging and exhausting. If the music had not have been so incredibly enticing, I might not have returned. Now, I look forward to Apple Crisp's return--they play the MIT contrandace on Tuesday, September 13 at 8 pm in room 407 of the Student Center. Maybe someone will bring some apple crisp to eat ...

Background music: Copeland's Rodeo, of course--in its entirety, replaying the last movement several times.

More on the Copland Circle

As j pointed out to me, to complete my Copland circle the obvious thing is to play Copland's Hoedown (from Rodeo) for contra dancers. (Sound of palm slapping my forehead - of course!) Which raised a question for me - was Hoedown "inspired" by country dance music in some general way, or did Copland simply appropriate the song. And if it's the latter, why not play the original?

a little searching brings me this info: (short answer - it's the latter - "Hoedown" is "Bonaparte's Retreat")

In the Nov/Dec/Jan 96-7 Issue of Sing Out! magazine (Vol. 31. No. 3), Stephen Wade covers the matter in depth. I borrow from his article

"In October 1937, Alan Lomax recorded Kentucky Fiddler, William Stepp's rendition of "Bonaparte's Retreat."[...] In 1941, the Lomaxes included Stepp's arrangement of "Bonaparte's Retreat" in a book titled Our Singing Country. It was this arrangement that Aaron Copland chose as his theme for the hoedown section of Agnes DeMille's ballet, Rodeo. He adopted Stepp's version of "Bonaparte's Retreat" almost note-for-note."

And now, of course, Stepp is immortalized in beef commercials.

But here it gets muddy. If you find Bonaparte's Retreat on folk tune archives, you'll get something that looks nothing like Hoedown. What Stepp recorded is what he called Bonaparte's Retreat. Apparently, on Stepp's recording, someone called attention to the sound of the fiddle, saying, "That's the boney-part, that's the boney-part!"

I can find chart after chart of something called "Bonaparte's Retreat", but no sign of the original country tune that sounds at all like Hoedown. I'm happy to adapt Copland's version for a contra dance, but that's my second choice to using the true original. I guess I could just get the recording of Stepp, which is actually available from Rounder Records.

What better way to celebrate Labor Day than to watch others work hard to entertain those of us with a day off from work?

Although the date is marked with a question mark on the calendar, I heard from Avi that he and Jonathan plan to play at North Market 7 from 1-5 pm on Labor Day, Monday, September 5.

I'm not sure exactly where North Market 7 is, but North Market 8 is their usual spot on the corner closest to Seattle's Best Coffee and a pretzel stand on the left side of the market as you're facing toward I-93.

I think their idea of giving donations to hurricane relief is awesome. I haven't donated yet, so perhaps I'll scrounge around for some bills to drop in their bucket or case or hat or ...

Every time I read this weblog, I feel inspired to play my much neglected keyboard. I think I'm going to go make some noise of my own now. Perhaps I'll see you tomorrow.

Please Help the people in Louisiana

We raised $170 yesterday playing at Faneuil Hall.

That's significantly more than we'd normally get in the tip bucket, especially on a Thursday, so I know that people were inspired to contribute extra to the charitable cause. There was an unusual abundance of $5's in the bucket. I found a twenty in there. Now that was definately from someone who wasn't just a folk music lover! (Folk music lovers usually don't have $20). I think people are happy to give & when you make it so convenient for them, the money flows. Try it - put out a donations bucket at your office to save people the trouble of having to make a call or address an envelope.

This isn't something on the other side of the world, easily put out of one's mind. These people, whose lives were wiped out this week, are our neighbors.

Here's a really easy way to give -

Amazon one-click Red Cross donations