Tommy Dorsey - Clambake Seven

[AndrewMeronek]

A little while ago I took upon myself to make a few personal transcriptions of Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven. These get lost in the repertoire of Dorsey standards thanks to his more popular stuff that he did with his big band. But some of them are simple and nice. I like Thanks For Everything in particular:



(Interesting how this link particular works here, with the playback coming from archive.org)

I'll also note that this tune can catch you by surprise if you pull it out late in a strenuous set.

This recording is from 1938, and you can tell at this point Dorsey's signature legato style was in full bloom. Amazing playing.

[EriKon]

Wonderful! I love so much about that style. It's so sad there are barely any players around anymore who play like that at least over here. And most of the people who would occasionally play one tune, wouldn't play it appropriately in that style. I would love to play a few Dorsey tunes at some point... We'll see if that is ever gonna happen.

[AndrewMeronek]

Wonderful! I love so much about that style. It's so sad there are barely any players around anymore who play like that at least over here. And most of the people who would occasionally play one tune, wouldn't play it appropriately in that style. I would love to play a few Dorsey tunes at some point... We'll see if that is ever gonna happen.

My general impression is that his kind of vibrato and usage of portamento gets drilled out of a lot of trombonists. The opposite should happen. His style takes a lot of time to dig into, and it's obviously musically effective.

[EriKon]

I mean, sure. You want people to play clean to make their way through the music business. Most often portamento isn't clean and the vibrato is somewhat controlling the player instead of the player controlling the vibrato. I had this with a few of my students. Once they got that vibrato out of their way of playing, you have to carefully build different types of vibratos up again otherwise they won't use any vibrato at all. I remember having a lesson with Jiggs when I was part of the Youth Jazz Orchestra of Germany and it was exclusively about vibrato. It was one of the most important things to him to teach to us.

[harrisonreed]

Isn't this the tune that Steve Martin was finally able to tap his toes to in the movie "The Jerk"?