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Blues, those Nashville blues. Oh, yeah, I'm ready. Here's the theme.
Hello there, I'm Peter Shickley, and this is Shickley Mix, a program dedicated to the proposition that all musics are created equal. Or, as Duke Ellington put it, if it sounds good, it is good.
And it is good, believe me, to know that our bills are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by the National Association for Public Broadcasting.
And by this fine radio station, where I am given space to do my thing, which thing, having been done, is distributed at large by PRI, Public Radio International.
Pasacaglia and chaconne are two terms that crop up in Baroque music, and there's been a lot written about what distinguishes one from the other. They were both originally dances, Spanish, I believe,
and in the realm of absolute music were associated with continuous variation, but 17th and early 18th century composers were blithely inconsistent in their use of the terms.
I've seen articles about Pasacaglia and Chaconne by modern authors who actually sound a bit put out,
really rather testy, about how sloppy those old guys were when it came to what they called one and what they called the other.
But of course those old guys didn't care about consistency, they just used the terms as they understood them. They didn't go to the library to make sure their use was consistent.
I can just hear some Baroque cat saying, Pasacaglia, man, either you got it or you don't, you know what I mean?
I mean, I don't care, 3-4, 4-4, minor, major, 8 bars, 6 bars, if it doesn't tear you up, it ain't a Pasacaglia, man.
Now to be able to look at it from their point of view, think about the blues. Musically, I mean. What is a blues? It implies a sad song, and yet there are plenty of other blues that can be heard. There are plenty of happy blues.
It's used as the name for a 12-bar harmonic pattern, but there are hundreds of blues that don't fit that pattern. The blues can be slow or fast, major or minor, in duple or triple time.
You want to talk about consistency, why does triple only have one P in it? Why doesn't it have two, like ripple and nipple and cripple? Now I think that most Americans, from the hippest to the squarest,
feel that musically the blues means something, without feeling any necessity to pin it down. We're going to talk about the blues today, but first, let me tell you what we're not going to talk about.
We're not going to talk about the history of the blues, how they went up the river from New Orleans to Beverly Hills. We're not going to talk about who has a right to sing the blues and who doesn't. In fact, we're not even going to deal with the great blues singers,
which, right off the bat, will seem heretical to some. Blues comes from singing. You can't deal with the blues without talking about the singers.
In fact, I guess the credo for a composer working in this area should be, I've got to sing to write the blues. No, we're going to talk about the blues as an influence.
But to do that, we'll have to at least touch on a couple of the most common characteristics of the blues. I'm going to swing over to the authentic instrument here.
Got a new, updated model here. Okay, let's turn it on and put the floppy disk in. Now, let's see, what do we want?
Steinway, Baldwin, Yamaha, Bosendorfer, Kawhi, Mason & Hamlin, Hamburg Steinway, Chickering, International Harvester, Mattel.
Well, let's go with the 9-foot Concert Black & Decker. Okay, now, there are just two basic things I want to cover. Two very common characteristics of the blues.
One is so-called blue notes, like the flatted third. Here's the third. One, two, three. Major third. And then you flat it, and you've got the minor third.
Now, the minor scale has a minor third. But it's sort of implied, this isn't always true, but it's sort of implied,
when you say the flatted third in the blues, that the accompaniment has the major third, and the melody has that minor third. And then you have the minor third against it, so you get a little bit of salsa there.
And then there's the flatted seventh. That's the regular seventh, and here's the flatted seventh.
I don't know why Tchaikovsky didn't think of that. Anyway, with those two altered notes, you've got a blues scale going.
Okay, then you add the flatted fifth. You know, that's one of the main intervals in West Side Story.
Okay, so that's sort of basic blues scales. Now, we've got the blues changes, in other words, the chord pattern. Now, as I say, a lot of blues don't follow this, but if you get together with a bunch of musicians
and say, what should we do? We do the blues in B flat. Everybody's going to be able to play together and be, you know, on the same wavelength. The basic pattern is 12 bars long.
You've got three groups of four bars going there. Now, the first four bars are the tonic, that is based on the main note of the scale.
Then you've got two bars of the subdominant, based on the fourth note of the scale. And two back on the tonic. And then two on the dominant, fifth note of the scale.
And then back to the tonic.
So you've got three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
eleven, twelve.
Ooh, beat me, Daddy, eight to the bar. Okay, now there are a lot of variations there, little chords that get put in between. But that's the basic pattern.
One of the most common variations is to break up that last five chord, the dominant chord, into two. The dominant and going back to the subdominant.
. . .
The little extra notes in there aren't part of the blues pattern. That's due to incompetence. But that's one of the most common variations. And there are a whole bunch of other ones, too. We'll talk about one of the other ones later. But that's it, really.
Let me swing back here. Those two things are most of what you need to know about the blues, technically-wise speaking. That blues chord pattern is so recognizable.
Back in the days when I was doing PDQ Bach concerts with orchestras, . . . . . .
. . .
musician, usually a bass player, has started to smile. And when the dominant-subdominant thing happens in bars 9 and 10, everybody realizes that the Brandenburg Castle has been invaded by the
blues. The beginning of the last movement of PDQ Bach's Royal Firewater music. I mentioned that it
was usually a bass player who was the first to smile. Why is that? Well, I think it's because bass players are quite likely to play other kinds of gigs in addition to the symphony orchestra.
And if they do play jazz, they've got to be very aware of the chord structure because they're laying it down all the time. Now here's a pair of piano blues. The first straight out of the blues
tradition, and the second a classical piece marked in a slow blues tempo. They both employ the traditional chord structure of the piano. The first is a slow blues tempo. The second is a
chord pattern. Although the opening number uses another common variation, just quickly breaking up the first four bars of tonic by going tonic, subdominant, tonic, tonic. Trust me. The second
number doesn't always move when you think it's going to. It's very slow, and there's no bass and drums keeping the beat audible. But if you check it out, you'll hear that it's following the changes.
Two blues. I'll be back in less than eight minutes.
Two blues. Both of them following the traditional pattern, but taking a few liberties here and there.
After Hours was the first with Avery Parrish, backed by Erskine Hawkins and his orchestra. And the second of Samuel Barber's excursions for piano, played by Jeffrey Jacob.
The part of the announcer is being played by Peter Shickley, and the show being announced is Shickley Mix from PRI, Public Radio International. Today's show is called
I've Got a Right to be Influenced by the Blues, and I consider that an inalienable right. Here's another pair of pieces. This time they're both classical. They're both influenced by the
blues, but in very different ways. The first, by the feeling of the blues. The second, by the form. The first piece doesn't follow the standard chord pattern at all, but it does have some bluesy notes
and a sort of a sad feeling. Not very sad, actually. More like wistful. In the second piece,
although the chords are considerably altered, the basic 12-bar pattern is followed almost till the end. Even when single-line melodic writing takes over, the chords are still in the same place.
The chords are implied. I call this sweetlet, The Feeling, The Form, and it lasts about five and a half minutes.
The Feeling, The Form. The first was the second of Aaron Copland's Four Piano Blues, played by Eric Parkin, followed by the Audubon Quartet playing an
excerpt from the String Quartet No. 1, American Dreams, by one of the most prominent composers ever to come out of Fargo, North Dakota, Peter Shickley. That's the last of the four studies
that make up the second movement. And it's tidbit time here at the old Bar 12 Ranch. Everybody talks about having the blues. Well, what if I woke up this morning whistling a happy
feeling, drinking brand new water, breathing like I'd never breathed? What do you call that?
Up this morning, whistling a happy feeling, drinking brand new water, breathing like I'd never breathe.
Everything was orange, orange like a daisy, orange like an orange popsicle, yeah.
I like that, that's how I let the cat out of the bag, now that's when I left the birdcage open.
That's why I walk the dog round the pot, throw away the leash, cause I got the oranges.
I had the blues, but that was yesterday, those blues might come right back tomorrow. But something tells me it doesn't work like that, step right up and you got the oranges.
Orange, it doesn't run with anything, I've heard that since I was eleven. But that, it never stopped me revving up and getting down down, cause I got the oranges.
It's my favorite color, comes from right off the pin, your door, grocery store. You can have it all the time.
I have this feeling, give it to your girlfriend, you can say I love you, orange love.
I could trade it for anything, I'd change it just an iota, I'd mail it round the world in eighty days. Especially delivered cause you got the oranges.
Orange, there's two ways of pronouncing it, orange, can't add it with an apple. Orange, you're glad I didn't say banana, welcome to fruition, now you got the oranges.
I am an animal too now, the kind who'd peddle in an orange grove. That's me, the fellow with the clothes on, I'll go down down cause I got the oranges.
Make this music now, you can make reaction, maybe get some action.
Mardi Gras, Florida, orange for a day now, orange is the day now.
Orange like an orange tricycle, I think so we could go swimming in my neighborhood. We'll fly around to all the rooftops. We'll fly around to all the rooftops.
We'll go into someone's living room and borrow cups of sugar cause we got the oranges. I have the fattest idea now, I've got the foggiest of notions. I'll take the feel good medicine, nothing to it when you got the oranges.
I had the blues for a little while, those blues, they didn't get me anywhere. I'd walk a mile for your camera, but I'll put me down now cause I got the oranges.
I am an animal too now, I've been ridden on the racetrack. Down for the count. Down. Down and coming back so put me down. Sign me up cause I got the oranges.
I'll take the rest of the afternoon, I'll seize the means of production. I've got the music in me spilling out but anything can happen when you got the oranges.
The oranges, Brian Woodbury and his popular music group, very nice cut, great words. Orange it doesn't rhyme with anything.
I've heard that since I was 11 but that had never stopped me revving up and getting to down because I got the oranges. A worthy addition to the lexicon of phrases. So anyway, let's get
back to the blues. Who was it I saw on TV saying that hundreds of years from now, when they look back, they'll say that America's three great contributions to the world were the U.S. Constitution,
jazz, and baseball. Like jazz in general, the blues had an African mother and a European father.
The blues probably takes after her mother more than jazz in general does, but she's quintessentially
American. As American as American can be. And I suspect that I'm not the only American who finds
this next selection a little, well, weird. You know, come to think of it, maybe this is what it's like for an Italian to hear grand opera sung in English.
Tomani non pioto si partirà. Trova una scusa. Non stare sempre chiusa. Ma che sono?
Ma che sono? Ton padre non capisce e poi lo sa già. Che aspetti un figlio, ma era poco
chiuso. Trova una scusa. Di crescere in pre.
Non lasciare andare in piccola. Lascia il mondo sembrare un uomo.
L'ombra si cresce. La gente che cosa fa?
Questo mi faccia sparare un blues.
Ieri di piccola.
Ok. Pino Daniele singing as a song, un uomo in blues. A man with the blues, I assume that means. I bought a car. I bought a car. I bought a car. I bought a car. I bought a car. I bought a car.
Bought this CD in Venice, and I don't speak much Italian. Pino is a handsome man here with a sort of scraggly beard and long salt-and-pepper hair flowing down way below his shoulders.
Credits on this album are interesting. You've got music and lyrics, musicians, special guests, sound programming, additional keyboards, background vocals, recorded at Logic Studios in Milano
and mixed by Greg Allman, Cutting Abbey Studios, London. And then you've got Thanks to Hair by Rossano D'Aios for Olimpio Hairmania, Roma.
This may be the first album I've seen that has a hair credit. The credits for this show run like this. I'm Peter Shickley. The program is Shickley Mix from PRI, Public Radio International.
I've got a right to be influenced by the blues, and so does Pino Daniele in Italy, and so does Maurice Ravel. In fact, I'm a fan of the blues. The second movement of Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Piano
is called Blues. The American input is strongly felt, but the piece makes the freest use of blues influences of anything on this show. Well, except, of course, the Brian Woodbury song.
But that's not a blues. That's an oranges. Did the composer of the Violin Piano Sonata we're considering here, did he feel a little defensive about it? He said that in spite of the movement's American influence,
it's not a blues in character, it is French music, by Ravel. Hey, no problem. I see no reason to argue with that. If you're looking for a guy with the purest attitudes about what's the blues and what isn't,
or what's French and what's American, you've got the wrong guy. So you can let go of my lapels. I'm cool. Man, he may look like an iceberg, but he's got quite a temper on him.
Anyway, it had to happen. The blues in French. I'll see you in ten minutes.
All right, indeed.
The middle movement of Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Piano, played by Régis Pasquier and Brigitte Angéret, I hope that pronunciation is close,
followed by some Cajun blues by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Tous les temps en temps. Okay, well, looks like we've got time for another tidbit here.
We've followed the blues from America to Italy and to France and back to America again. Let's hop across the ocean once again.
Yes.
I feel like singing the blues. Could a player of blues, of 12 bar or however many, sing a period of blues?
Yes, I think so.
No, because I do love them. I've followed Dizzy Armstrong and Lord Ellington for years and I know exactly how to sort of sing. So if you could ask the boys...
Yes.
I don't know, drinks off and everything. Okay. I'll just follow. I'll just follow them and they just do whatever they want. Would you do that?
Yes, of course I would.
There. There they are.
That absolute binder
He's still in that gallop
Yes, my boo-boo has slipped off With that tiny as well
Oh, dashed rotten wigger
Oh, faked so unkind
One's only one has slipped off
With whom one thought one's best friend I've smalled a thousand bones
To bring their caper to an end Yes, I took him to the hut
I introduced him to the crowd I failed to do that
To spot his foxy words
My head was in a cloud
Oh, damn you hot potato
I've learned my lesson now
And how I hashish singing
I'm going to freak a twip I've had my fill of Westville
And I've really got the pimp Switch on your radio Hi-Fi speaker And pause my tambourine
Yes, take care, Harry Quibnall For I've arrived Oh, I feel better now
And I can shout all the blues In T-shirt and jeans
And I've become a
There's only one If foolish as I am
I'll finish
Don't worry about boo-boo Reggie
I'm here
Peter Sellers
Singing the Eaton Square Blues For musicians only Brings Sickly Mix to a close this week Our program is made possible With funds provided by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
By the National Endowment for the Arts And by this radio station And its members Thank you, members And not only that Our program If it is deemed to have achieved
A minimum level of competence Is distributed by PRI Public Radio International We'll tell you in a moment How you can get an official playlist Of all the music on today's program
With album numbers and everything Just refer to the program number This is program number 98 And this is Peter Sickley Saying goodbye and reminding you That it don't mean a thing
If it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi-ne-pas You're looking good See you next week
If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned
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