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| The High Society Orchestra | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() The High Society Orchestra was founded in 1976. We are dedicated in playing the original songs and arrangements from the 1920's era of "Hot Jazz." Everything from "The Charleston" to "Are You Lonesome To-Nite" can be found in our repertoire. The Orchestra is what is known as a "dectet," and has 10 musicians in the group. The original instrumentation of 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 3 saxes, and piano, traps, banjo, and tuba are employed to (re)create the original sounds of the original Orchestra's of the 1920's and 1930's. Please feel free to browse our website! VISIT US AT: www.gabelmusic.com !! Last updated: April, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| History of the Music
JAZZ: The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What differentiated Jazz from these earlier styles was the widespread use of improvisation, often by more than one player at a time. Jazz represented a break from Western musical traditions, where the composer wrote a piece of music on paper and the musicians then tried their best to play exactly what was in the score. In a Jazz piece, the song is often just a starting point or frame of reference for the musicians to improvise around. The song might have been a popular ditty or blues that they didn't compose, but by the time they were finished with it they had composed a new piece that often bore little resemblance to the original song. Many of these virtuoso musicians were not good sight readers and some could not read music at all, nevertheless their playing thrilled audiences and the spontaneous music they created captured a joy and sense of adventure that was an exciting and radical departure from the music of that time. The first Jazz was played by African-American and Creole musicians in New Orleans. The cornet player, Buddy Bolden is generally considered to be the first real Jazz musician. Other early players included Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson and Clarence Williams. Although these musicians names are unknown to most people, then and now, their ideas are still being elaborated on to this day. Most of these men could not make a living with their music and were forced to work menial jobs to get by. The second wave of New Orleans Jazz musicians like Joe "King" Oliver, Kid Ory and Jelly Roll Morton formed small bands that took the music of these older men and increased the complexity and dynamic of their music, as well as gaining greater commercial success. This music became known as "Hot Jazz", because of the often breakneck speeds and amazing improvised polyphony that these bands produced. A young virtuoso cornet player named Louis Armstrong was discovered in New Orleans by King Oliver. Armstrong soon grew to become the greatest Jazz musician of his era and eventually one of the biggest stars in the world. The impact of Armstrong and other Jazz musicians altered the course of both popular and Classical music. African-American musical styles became the dominant force in 20th century music. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sample Songlist [as played by] The Charleston My Pretty Girl [Gene Goldkette] The Mooche [Duke Ellington] I Found a New Baby Sugar Foot Stomp (a.k.a. Dippermouth Blues) Limehouse Blues Doctor Jazz Hard-Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah) Manhattan [The California Ramblers] Black and Tan Fantasy [Duke Ellington] Angry Ain't Misbehavin' Honeysuckle-Rose Whispering East of the Sun (and West of the Moon) When my Baby Smiles at Me [Ted Lewis] Pennies From Heaven [Jack Hylton] Paridise Waltz Who? [George Olsen] Jazznocracy [Jimmy Lunceford] Three Little Words Clementine (from New Orleans) [Bix Beiderbecke] AND of course... High Society Soon to be a complete songlist download Songlist
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Dedications and Thank-You's
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| THE HIGH SOCIETY ORCHESTRA 25 Normandy Ave. Webster, MA 01570 phone: 508-949-1748 |
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| 970 Visitors |