Tiger Rag

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The Tiger Rag is a song of early jazz, which is also under the title Hold That Tiger is known. Nick LaRocca is often registered as the composer of the piece, which was published in 1917 ; the text is by Harry DeCosta . The piece, which on one of the first recordings was taken of jazz, developed quickly into a jazz standard and, particularly in the Dixieland jazz , often played today. It is probably the best known jazz title.

History of origin

The authorship of the Tiger Rag is highly controversial. At first, band leader Nick LaRocca stated that he composed the melody . According to La Rocca, the " chords of familiar melodies" laid the foundation for the piece, namely La Paloma , London Bridge is Falling Down and the National Emblem March by John Philip Sousa . Jelly Roll Morton wanted to have composed the title as well; according to him, it was based on the harmonies of a French quadrille . Other book authors attributed it to trombonist and director of the Crescent City Orchestra, Jack Carey . According to recent jazz research , the piece was well known in New Orleans under the title Number Two , the composer of which was Johnny De Droit . The arranger John M. Higgins and copywriter Harry DeCosta are officially registered with the ASCAP for Hold That Tiger .

The tiger rag musically consists of four molded parts that are joined together like in classic ragtime . The D part was captioned with the words “Hold that tiger” and “Where's that tiger?”. A lip glissando or a growl of the trombone can often be heard here. Like almost all ragtime pieces, it has the typical march form, namely three parts with five themes: A – B; CD; E. In the first part, A is eight measures and is repeated, the eight-measure B is not repeated and goes into a recapitulation of A. B and C each have 16 bars , which do not have to be repeated. The third part (E) consists of 32 bars that are repeated four times.

Original Dixieland Jass Band - Tiger Rag (1917)

The title contains the "tiger", the lowest poker card with which you can be able to win a game of poker if you hold the card in your hand until the end of the game ("hold the tiger"). The word "Rag" is a short form of ragtime, the heyday of which was just coming to an end in 1917 when the song was written. The meager lyrics are about the taciturn communication during a poker game, in which someone asks for the card (“Where's that Tiger?”) With the request to first hold it back and then present it (“choke him poke him”).

Publication and Success

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band took the piece - based on one of the first recordings was taken of jazz - the first time on 17 August 1917; this recording was released in September 1917 as Ostrich Walk / Tiger Rag ( Aeolian Vocalion 1206) without making it into the charts . A more effective remake from March 25, 1918 with the line- up Nick LaRocca ( cornet ), Larry Shields (clarinet), Eddie Edwards (trombone), Harry Ragas (piano) and Anthony Sbarbaro (drums) was already released as an original Dixieland Jazz Band on the Victor record label . The new recording was released as Skeleton Jangle / Tiger Rag (Hold that Tiger!) ( Victor Records 18472) in August 1918 and became a number one hit for two weeks . In the next few years the band played the piece over and over again. “In 1923, for example, the tempo was approached more comfortably, the solo parts were more pronounced, the Dixieland original line-up with trumpet, clarinet and trombone was supplemented by the fashion instrument saxophone.” In the 1924 version, Bix Beiderbecke contributed a longer solo.

Due to its cultural and historical significance to the United States , the song Tiger Rag , played by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, was entered into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress on January 27, 2003 . The National Recording Preservation Board explains: "Although it was not the best ensemble of its time, the first recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band initiated an enthusiasm for a new art form - jazz ."

Cover versions

The opening notes of "Tiger Rag" at LaRocca's New Orleans house

According to Hans-Jürgen Schaal , the Tiger Rag "became the epitome of what jazz meant in large parts of the world around 1920: fast, rhythmic, wild, ecstatic dance music with collective improvisation , short riffs and funny breaks ." The Tiger Rag is therefore included 136 recordings after the St. Louis Blues (165 recordings) in second place of the most covered jazz standards. It is still often played , especially in Dixieland Jazz . The version by Frank Groundsell's Original Excentric Band (December 12, 1919; Homokord 15984) noted the term "Jazz" on the label for the first time on the German market and is considered the first German jazz record, published on January 15, 1920; However, the band "plays the music according to notes, without knowing what jazz is and how it should be played." US cover versions included Ethel Waters (recorded in July 1922; # 14), New Orleans Rhythm Kings (30 August 1922), Ted Lewis (January 5, 1923; # 8), Jelly Roll Morton's Kings of Jazz (April 1924), Paul Whiteman (April 11, 1926), Tommy Dorsey (November 10, 1928), Duke Ellington (8 August 1922) January 1929), Louis Armstrong & his Orchestra (May 4, 1930), Ray Noble (October 4, 1933; 6) or Les Paul & Mary Ford (January 1952; 2).

There are only 20 vocal recordings among the cover versions , the text of which was added by Harry DeCosta in 1931. The vocal version of the Mills Brothers (October 12, 1931) stayed at number one for 4 weeks and became a million seller .

During the Nazi dictatorship , the tiger rag , which was still popular with the German public, was Germanized as the "Black Panther" and danced as a foxtrot . It was Willi Stanke's version of the dance band , who only changed the piece in a few notes in 1942 and brought it out under the new name. Another recording of this version was made by the Hans Georg Schütz Orchestra . Even after the end of World War II , the Tiger Rag was performed under the German title. In modern jazz there are only a few interpretations, for example by Charlie Parker (September 10, 1947, as an intro to Shaw Nuff ); however, the pieces Daybreak Express , Hot and Bothered , Slippery Horn and Braggin 'in brass are based on the composition . Pierre Dørge developed the composition for the New Tiger Rag .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Henry Martin, Keith Waters: Essential Jazz: The First 100 Years . P. 53
  2. ^ William Emmett Studwell / Frank Hoffmann / Beulah B. Ramirez, The Popular Song Reader: A Sampler of Well-Known Twentieth Century-Songs , 1994, p. 39
  3. ↑ a b c d e H.-J. Schaal: Jazz-Standards , p. 507 ff.
  4. ↑ Morton wrote, because his claim to authorship was not respected, based on the composition another title, Milenberg Joys , which was recorded by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings , McKinney's Cotton Pickers , Fletcher Henderson and Louis Armstrong , among others . Hans-Jürgen Schaal , Jazz-Standards , 2001, p. 508
  5. ↑ Christian Broecking : No dirty notes required . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 14, 2010
  6. ↑ Carey at Redhot Jazz
  7. ↑ Song portrait jazzstandards.com
  8. ↑ Dietrich Schulz-Köhn : I Got Rhythm: 40 Jazz Evergreens and their History , 1990, p. 340
  9. ↑ The copyright problems in October 1917 prevented the band from bringing out another record with Victor, so they returned to Aeolian Vocalion.
  10. ↑ Tiger Rag in the National Recording Registry. Retrieved on August 10, 2017 (English): "While not the best ensemble of its day, the first recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band initiated a craze for a new art form - jazz."
  11. ↑ According to Rainer E. Lotz, the recording sounds “awful” to jazz fans. Cf. December 12, 1919 - First German jazz record recorded (WDR record date, December 12, 2014). According to Wolfgang Knauer , not only were all votes advertised; "The stiff rhythm and the awkward-looking handling of the syncope" reminded him of the ragtime arrangements of recordings by (American) brass bands at the time. - W. Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 27
  12. ↑ Richard A. Crawford / Jeffrey Magee, Jazz-Standards on Record , 1992, p. 85
  13. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 25
  14. ^ Marc Brüninghaus, Popular Music in the Third Reich , 2010, p. 71
  15. ↑ Michael H. Kater , Daring Game. Jazz in National Socialism , Cologne 1995
  16. ^ David Baker, How to Play Bebop , Volume 3, 1988, p. 4