King Porter Stomp

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King Porter Stomp is the title of an early jazz composition by Jelly Roll Morton . The piece of music was recorded on record by its composer Jelly Roll Morton in 1923 and developed into the jazz standard in the swing era . In addition, many musicians used the harmony sequences to create new songs. Sonny Burke and Sid Robin wrote the seldom sung text years after the composition was published.

History of origin

Jelly Roll Morton - King Porter Stomp

Morton said he had the first idea for the composition as early as 1905, but the specialist literature mostly dates the year of creation between 1906 and 1910, when Morton first met the man after whom the song is named. Morton tells the genesis at the end of his official Library of Congress recording: “Porter King was a deceased pianist from Florida with a good musical education. ... He particularly liked one of my pieces, so I named it after him. ”Regarding the name, he went on to explain:“ There was no other meaning for 'stomping' than people stamping their feet. ”

Stomp is a term invented by Morton to describe the foot stomping ("stamp") caused by the rhythm. The word creation appeared for the first time on record by Morton and was subsequently adopted into jazz language ("Stompin 'at the Savoy" by Chick Webb ’s Harlem Stompers , recorded on May 18, 1934) and found its way into the general language as a rhythm designation. Since then, “ stomp ” has been the expression for a heavy beat.

Morton initially saw no reason to publish the King Porter Stomp , since he could use the number in piano battles without the competing pianist knowing the details of the piece and thus being able to react appropriately; in addition, publishers only paid between fifteen and twenty dollars for a composition.

Features of the composition and first recordings

The King Porter Stomp, to be played at a moderate tempo , corresponds in its musical structure with trio parts to a typical ragtime , but is not set to the march form, but rather in the form AABBXCCC'T. The left hand played the typical rhythmic role, while the right hand was throwing in syncopated patterns against the pulse of the piece. The strains each comprise 16 bars, with the right hand playing patterns over the motifs of the Maple Leaf Rag in the second strain . In later versions of the King Porter Stomp , the B parts are left out and additional trio parts are added, but these increasingly retain the quality of a stomp .

Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton had recorded his first four tracks for Paramount Records in June 1923 . Shortly afterwards he moved to Gennett Records , where he recorded the piano solo King Porter (A Stomp) on July 17, 1923 . It was combined with the Wolverine Blues , composed on July 18, 1923, and released in November 1923 as the latter's first single (Gennett 5289). Since 1923 Morton was under contract with the Melrose brothers in Chicago, who ran a music publishing company with the Melrose Music Corporation . That year he registered his London (café) blues here . The copyright to the King Porter Stomp was not registered until December 6, 1924. On December 24, 1924 he played an instrumental duet with cornetist Joe "King" Oliver , which was published in combination with the Tom Cat Blues (autograph 617). Since the two musicians were not played against each other, Oliver limited himself to emphasizing the piano parts in his playing.

Cover versions

Erskine Hawkins - King Porter Stomp

The first cover version appears to be from Al Turk's Princess Orchestra , recorded in October 1924 (Olympic 1463). On April 20, 1926, Morton and his orchestra were in the recording studio ( Vocalion Records 1020). After a discarded recording (1925) Fletcher Henderson was with his orchestra on March 14, 1928 for Columbia Records (1543) in the studio to record the King Porter Stomp in their own head arrangement ; the heavily swinging number was already a “harbinger of the swing era”. Henderson played another version in 1932; in the same year Cab Calloway also recorded the song. Claude Hopkins followed on September 14, 1934 with a solo by Edmond Hall , which he later continued in a further recording with Zutty Singleton .

When Benny Goodman took up the piece, arranged by Fletcher Henderson and provided with one of Bunny Berigan's most famous trumpet solos , on July 1, 1935 ( Victor Records 25090), a classic of the big band era was created. Shortly after its studio recording in the Palomar Ballroom (Los Angeles) he presented the stomp live on August 21, 1935; That evening at the latest , according to jazz historian Marshall Stearns , the swing era was born. Not only the two versions that Henderson released with his orchestra were successful hits in the USA (1928 at rank 11, 1933 at rank 20), but also the version by Benny Goodman (1935, rank 10).

All the famous big bands of that time have since picked up the song and performed it with varied arrangements. On Chick Webb with Ella Fitzgerald (vocals; February 1936; Polydor 423 248) followed, for example, Count Basie (10 January 1937), Erskine Hawkins on 12 September 1938 (Bluebird 7839), Glenn Miller on September 27, 1938 (Bluebird 7853) and Harry James on April 6, 1939 ( Brunswick Records 8366). The Metronome All-Stars were in the studio (Columbia 36389) on February 7, 1940, to improvise on the Henderson arrangement; Bob Crosby followed on January 27, 1942 ( Decca Records 4390).

Between 1923 and 1942 alone there were 36 cover versions, including five remakes by Morton. After that, numerous other versions were published. For example, the King Porter Stomp has been performed repeatedly by Sun Ra and his Arkestra since the 1970s . Gil Evans wrote an arrangement for his album New Bottle, Old Wine (1958) that was reminiscent of the first versions of the piece (and was also presented by the National Jazz Ensemble under Chuck Israels in 1976). Jon Hendricks wrote a new text for the version of Manhattan Transfer . The Chicago creative music trio Air also dealt with Morton's classics in 1979.

Derived songs

In particular, the last part (C ') of the original composition, the actual stomp , found its way into numerous compositions by other musicians as early as the swing era: Benny Carter based his piece Everybody Shuffle (1934) on it. Similar ideas followed in the next few years Harry James ( Call the Porter , Jump Town ), Cab Calloway ( At the Clambake Carnival ) or Goodman ( Slipped Disk ) were also based on it. Duke Ellington's Bojangles (A Portrait of Bill Robinson ) also took a loan here. John Lewis later used Morton's composition as bebop head and built the themes of Golden Striker and Odds Against Tomorrow on its harmonies .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ J. Magee, King Porter Stomp and the Jazz Tradition , in: Current Musicology 71-72, 2001/2002, pp. 22–53, here p. 22
  2. ↑ a b c Portrait of the standard at jazzstandards.com
  3. ^ Alan Lomax, Mister Jelly Roll , 1973, p. 121
  4. ↑ James Dapogny , Jelly Roll Morton: The Collected Piano Music , 1982, p. 125
  5. ↑ J. Magee, King Porter Stomp and the Jazz Tradition , in: Current Musicology 71-72, 2001/2002, pp. 22-53, here p. 25
  6. ^ Gunther Schuller , Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development , 1968, p. 382
  7. ↑ See J. Magee, King Porter Stomp and the Jazz Tradition , in: Current Musicology 71-72, 2001/2002, pp. 22–53, here p. 25
  8. ↑ cf. Carlo Bohländer u. a. Reclams Jazzführer Stuttgart 1970, p. 894
  9. ^ Max Harrison , Charles Fox, Eric Thacker The Essential Jazz Records: Ragtime to Swing , p. 91
  10. ↑ See J. Magee, King Porter Stomp and the Jazz Tradition , in: Current Musicology 71-72, 2001/2002, here p. 27ff.
  11. ↑ See J. Magee, King Porter Stomp and the Jazz Tradition , in: Current Musicology 71-72, 2001/2002, here p. 35
  12. ^ M. Harrison, Ch. Fox, E. Thacker The Essential Jazz Records: Ragtime to Swing , p. 93
  13. ^ M. Harrison, Ch. Fox, E. Thacker The Essential Jazz Records: Ragtime to Swing , p. 189
  14. ^ M. Harrison, Ch. Fox, E. Thacker The Essential Jazz Records: Ragtime to Swing , p. 274
  15. ^ Marshall Stearns, The Story of Jazz , 1956, p. 211
  16. ↑ See J. Magee, King Porter Stomp and the Jazz Tradition , in: Current Musicology 71-72, 2001/2002, here p. 47f.
  17. ^ Ted Gioia The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire. Oxford University Press 2012, p. 222
  18. ↑ See J. Magee, King Porter Stomp and the Jazz Tradition , in: Current Musicology 71-72, 2001/2002, here p. 46
  19. ↑ See J. Magee, King Porter Stomp and the Jazz Tradition , in: Current Musicology 71-72, 2001/2002, here p. 47