Billy Madison Cawthorn

 I haven't reached rock music in my study of American popular music history.  Necessarily I had to go back decades before American rock music to find out what was happening.  Not many have a clear progression of the lineage of American music history.  It would be nice to take a college course and see what they are offering.  Just the first two decades of the twentieth century are enough to chew on for a good while.  Because my first favorite European composer was Igor Stravinsky, it stands to reason there was a lot going on during this time.  It is like a time capsule looking back into the Roaring Twenties.  I have yet to emotionally connect with this era.  The jazz is unique, sophisticated, and quizzical.  The bottom line is, and this is a monumental discovery in the field of jazz, Early Jass is based on the incumbent rhythm of the banjo.  It is a four stringed banjo and does not have a drone string.  This piece of information of itself is a revelation.  Has anyone ever heard of a four stringed banjo without a drone?  Isn't it just a ukelele?  My father could play this instrument as could Tiny Tim.  Thinking about the four stringed banjo it becomes apparent that is a more simplistic stringed instrument.  It was smaller and more compact than banjos as we know them.  With only four strings it stands to reason only four chord tones are available at one time.  That means four note chords only.  Chord extensions were not possible unless you only played the third and fifth of a chord with two extensions.  The harmony of Early Jass was simple, but that can be quantified by saying the harmony of music of the Classic Period was simple.  It was, mostly V-I action, an authentic cadence.  The Blues also was emerging as a musical force, so blues harmony became omnipresent.  (basically the presence of both a major and minor thrid degree of the scale) This seemingly simple concept was the basis for much American music that began to represent the African-American experience in America.  Blues notes.  In Early Jass there were no flatted ninths or augmented fourths.  It was simple diatonic harmony, and the challenge was to arrange these chords in an interesting progression with a sprinkling of secondary dominant chords.  The banjo player often played the bass line of these mostly arranged compositions.  This is the second revelation of jazz music from the teens and twenties.  It was highly arranged music, written down and read by jazz musicians.  To understand these musicians were reading this complicated music is a tribute to them.  They were highly trained, educated, sophisticated people.  I was on a quest to uncover the grass roots of jazz music, which in my mind meant some closet genius who was born with musical genius.  There may have been those, but almost all of the notable early jazz musicians were highly educated, motivated, and competitive.  Black musicians in particular knew their lives depended upon it.  Perhaps this is why they tried so hard and were so accomplished.  Desperation.  What is the incumbent or inherent rhythm of the banjo?  It doesn't take much to figure it out.  Banjo is banjo, and most of us know what it sounds like.  "A banjo on my knee."  It was a major part of early American music before jazz developed in New Orleans.  Riverboat music could suggest the proper idiom.  Jazz instrumentalists in NOLA began to play with the banjo, and necessarily they had to use its rhythmic concept.  Early Jass utilized swing sixteenth notes that were tightly spaced together to provide fire or heat.  Alcohol may have had something to do with this feeling.  Articulation also was a large part of the rhythmic concept.  In retrospect I would call this music "Ricky Tick," which is a disparaging term.  Onomatopoeia serves as the rationale for this description.  (by the way, that is a difficult world to spell.  Give vowels in a row at the end of a word.  Go figure.)  To play Early Jass you must play swing sixteenth notes, not swing eighth notes.  That could be challenging to some musicians tightening up their rhythm to such a degree.  I don't enjoy doing this, and the first time I encountered this requirement was on Carnival's Funship Victory.  We had to play a "Dixieland" set on the second day of the cruise at noon.  It was the most difficult task ever I had on a ship.  There were other difficult shows with mostly classical music which required accurate note reading.  This music was challenging.  It was brisk.  It was complicated, and it was indiscernible to me because of its swing sixteenth notes.  I tried my best fo fit into the groove, but didn't have it in my consciousness at the time to play this music.  Instead I played stride piano and early swing.  After I studied this Early Jass last year, I began to hear that early pianists didn't play swing sixteenths either.  Bennie Moten, Jelly Roll Morton, and Fletcher Henderson didn't play piano like a banjo.  Instead when they played, they turned this New Orleans based music into their own thing.  It is a combination of ragtime, blues, marches, American popular songs, music of the black church, work songs, and more.  The operative idea here is it was composed music.  It was not improvised like many of us believe.  Ragtime was composed piano music that gained widespread favor all over the country, thus it was orchestrated for small ensembles who played for society functions.  Jelly Roll Morton is one of the most odd, sophisticated, expressive pianists in history, and his playing was a juxtaposition of classical training, the "Latin Tinge," Blues, and ragtime.  By himself he invented a whole new category of American popular music.  It was deep and diverse and often lewd.  His touch on piano was elegant and musical, unlike many of the pianists who were forced to compete in volume with a band.  I didn't plan on talking about Early Jass in this blog entry, but it came out.  What I wanted to talk about was the youngest elected politician in Washington, DC from North Carolina.  Here is what he said on the evening news when reporting about door to door vaccinations.  "First they come with needles, and then they come to take your guns."  I was unaware Mr. Cawthorn was confined to a wheel chair, until I read his Wikipedia entry.  Then I connected the dots.  He was one of the major purveyors of Donald Trump's attempted siege of the United States Capital.  Damn!  North Carolina, again.  My initial response to his words was disbelief.  His age was showing itself.  He was afraid the United States government was going to come for his guns.  Truly he was afraid, and I feel that may be because he is disabled.  To set the record straight, the entire reason why American's are afforded the right to bear arms is to defeat a tyrannous government.  In honest brutal terms, IF the United States government did come to take your guns, your Constitutional right is to defend yourself, your family, and your home.  It is a Constitutional right.  You have the right to bear arms against anyone, specifically what you may believe to be a tyrannous government.  That is why you have the guns.  You must stand up and fight.  With Mr. Cawthorn that is not possible, and that is a tragedy.  In our lifetimes this has not become necessary.  A civil war has not erupted yet, but let's quit using the catch phrase," They are coming for our guns."  It is irrational, paranoid, and stupid.  To think such a thing means you are not in touch with reality or possibly mentally challenged.  That is plausible understanding the current Conditions of America.  All of us are emotionally and psychologically challenged.  We have just endured the worst assault in modern American history, and still we do not know its perpetrators.  We do not know who has attacked us.  Paranoia may not be inappropriate.  To continue to smear the democratic party with muckraking is fruitless and futile.  Only it creates a real and concrete record of lawlessness, irresponsibility, and evil.  America is not tribal.  It has not been extreme until now when far right Republicans began this campaign of rape and pillage.  America is not having it, and she will survive.  Our country is the most visible torch of freedom for many, and the world cannot afford to loose us.