School of Syncopation - Jazz, Stride, Novelties & the Like

[jellyroll]

I agree as well. Wonderful piece. Thanks so much for sharing

[Rob C.]

Yeamans, Laurel Everett - Kutemoff Blues (1925-blues song).pdf

Yeamans, Laurel Everett -Kutemoff Blues (1925-song) [DRAFT].mid

Hello everyone! (and, you are quite welcome, Jean-Séb and Jellyroll! )

My wife and I found this fantastic humorous blues song in an antique store located in the same city in which it was self-published. Nearly everyone I’ve shared this with has loved it!! I’m generally partial to instrumental pieces, but this a marked exception.

Laurel Everett Yeamans (July 11, 1890—July 4, 1937), was an assistant professor of organ at the time this was published, but became professor of organ shortly before his untimely death. By all accounts, he was also an excellent pianist too.

I found an article in the June 4, 1929 “Oberlin Review,” the student newspaper of Oberlin College & Conservatory, which stated that the college’s glee club was performing the whole operetta from which this was taken, and, that it had been REWRITTEN! (You’ll see in the obituary I’ve included at the end of the file, that shortly after publishing this work, Yeamans studied composition in Paris.) Obviously, he was an excellent composer before visiting Paris during it's golden age of the mid-1920's

Bars 2-5 are “ad lib” and in a free rhythm—one I couldn’t sequence in a midi. I put those bars in 8/4 time. I haven’t proofread this midi yet, but do recall correcting a few errors in the score (such as an 1/8 that should be a ¼, or vice versa). I’d hoped to proof the midi, and note any errors, before posting this, but just haven’t gotten around to it and couldn’t wait any longer to share this with you. Hope you all enjoy this rare gem!

Best,

Rob

PS: For those whom English is not your first language, "Kutemoff" is the words "cut them off" slurred together (it's much easier to say 'em than the proper them). "Kut" is just a humorous spelling of "Cut."

[fhimpsl]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for posting this rare and unusual blues song! I had certainly never heard of Laurel Yeamans, and appreciate your research into his life. The piece is quite good in my opinion, and shows the musical accomplishment of the composer. Not many writers would modulate from Ebm to F#m and then end in Ab in a ragtime blues vocal number, to say the least! I wonder if other selections from "In Bagdad" were published, or perhaps the entire operetta. Self publication must have been a fairly expensive proposition, but there was a great deal of this activity. A supportive network of private typesetting/printing outfits existed at the time, evidenced by advertisements in musical magazines. I believe in many cases a minimum order of 300 copies was required. Two copies went to Washington for the copyright (if filed), leaving 298 copies for the composer to distribute. I would imagine after gifting several to family members, most copies were consigned to the composer's basement thereafter. It would be interesting to know if there are any surviving members of the Yeamans family line. There have been instances over the years when a composer's family was tracked down and remainder copies of their works were subsequently made available. This happened even with tunes published in the mainstream. Many circulating copies of Joseph F. Lamb's rags came from Lamb's basement, as these were given by Joe to Mike Montgomery back in the 1950s (Mike lived with the Lambs for several months following his military service).

A great and wonderful find! Let's hope that Laurel Yeamans left more of his music behind for keen eyes to re-discover.

All Best,

Frank

[thalbergmad]

I say chaps, does anyone have piano version of "Our Fanny's Gone All Yankee" as made famous by George Formby? Even better if it has got the uke chords.

Got me old banjolele out for a while and love this old song.

Thal

[Timtin]

Full GF Experience:-
Oh Dear Mother Pardon Me, Oh You Have No Idea
Our Fanny's Gone All Yankee, Oh Don't The Wind Blow Cold
On The Wigan Boat Express; On The HMS Cowheel
Ordinary People Out In The Middle East
On The Other Side Of The World Pleasure Cruise
On The Beat, When I'm Cleaning Windows!

[Rob C.]

Thomas, George W. - Fish Tail Dance - 1925 (Piano Roll Transcription).pdf

Thomas, George W. - Fish Tail Dance - 1925 [midi of the Piano Roll Transcription].mid

Hi Everyone!

Here's my latest posting, a transcription of George W. Thomas' "Fish Tail Dance." This is transcribed from a piano roll and some of the embellishments are included (only playable ones ) just for fun. Feel free to play this your own way! For more information on the piece and composer see the "Piano Roll Transcriptions" thread.

Thalbergmad, sorry that I don't have a copy of "Our Fanny's Gone All Yankee." It's always good to ask, though, because you never know!

Best to all,

Rob

[fhimpsl]

Dear Rob,

Outstanding...your transcription of GWT's "Fish Tail Dance" is one of the most scholarly presentations I've seen done on Thomas, and is an important document to jazz history in general. I'm inspired by your wonderful effort here, and am honored to have had a part in it. It has taken quite some doing, but I located the manuscript and published sheet music copies of all the Thomas material that I obtained at the LOC the better part of 40 years ago. We have moved several times over the years, and most of my music is boxed and in cases rather tragically in disarray. But I will work on scanning these and post in this forum within the coming days.

I seem to remember seeing Thomas' memorial song to his young brother, but for some reason that is not among the group. There are many of them, and the first posted will be "Fish Tail Dance" in honor of your transcription. This exists only as a manuscript at the LOC. Interestingly enough, it was published as a song. I cannot remember if the piano roll has printed lyrics, but recall offhand that it is only an instrumental.

On the unknown rags posted on another thread, thank you Nathan for identifying CLJ's "Beedle-Um-Bo." The "New Hippodrome Rag" dates about 10 years later than the approximate date of the coin-op roll in discussion, so it is likely that the "unknown" earlier piece on roll might have inspired Herman E. Schultz and hence the similarities. I've idenitifed 2 of the other unknown rolls, only via miraculous happenstance, and will share the information in the rags thread. Also, Nathan my Original Home of Jazz folder is as yet missing, but I have not forgotten your request for the Lloyd Smith manuscripts. When found, they will be posted here for all.

All Best,

Frank

Thomas, George W - Fish Tail Dance (1925, ms).pdf

[Rob C.]

Dear Frank,

So glad you liked my latest project! Your kind words and encouragement mean a lot!

Thanks so much for the manuscript of "Fish Tail Dance"!!! I didn't realize that you had photocopied GWT's copyright deposits. The 2 strains on the roll are definitely from this song (which I suspected, but had no way of proving before). I'll update my FTD notes that accompany the score with this new information!

Since downloading the manuscript, I discovered that there's a June 1925 recording of Thomas' daughter, Hociel, singing FTD!! She's accompanied by her Uncle Hersal (who's 2 years younger) on the piano. Here's a link (if it doesn't come up immediately, it's the sixth one on the list) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaJgSwg ... rzlS3wj7uq. Hociel sings the first verse and chorus, but not the second verse. You'll notice that during the piano introduction (from 22 seconds to 24 seconds) Hersal sounds like the roll (see measure 7 of the score). If anyone's able to post an MP3 of this recording, I would be most grateful (it's taken from "Roots of Piano Blues, Vol. 3").

Frank, do you also have the published version of the song? (I've already entered the manuscript and the lyrics into Finale, so we can all have a nice copy when I'm finished proofreading, etc.) It's interesting that Hociel names the dancer in the song "Rosie" (which rhymes with "posey") instead of the "Rosa," written in the manuscript.

Best,

Rob

[fhimpsl]

Hi Rob,

As far as I'm aware, Thomas' "Fish Tail Dance" only exists on the Kimball piano roll, the LOC manuscript, and the 78rpm you mention (probably an Okeh). I've never seen a copy of the published score, although it might exist. In most instances when GWT published a song, he sent a published copy to the library in addition to the manuscript. But nobody really knows what might turn up "out there." Certainly many ragtime pieces have turned up which were never even originally filed for copyright. Here are several more of the Thomas manuscripts and published sheets, with more to follow.

All Best,

Frank

Thomas, George W - Adam And Eve Had The Blues (1925, ms).pdf

Thomas, George W - Adam And Eve Had The Blues (1925, publ).pdf

Thomas, George W - At Sundown (ms).pdf

Thomas, George W - Bed Room Blues (1926, ms).pdf

[fhimpsl]

More from George W. Thomas:

Thomas, George W - Boot It Boy, Boot It ( ms).pdf

Thomas, George W - Don't Say Nothing (1916, publ).pdf

Thomas, George W - Gert Anna Waltz (1920, ms).pdf

Thomas, George W - Gut Struggle Blues (1926, ms).pdf