"For No Reason at All in C" is a 1927 jazz instrumental by

Bix Beiderbecke Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke ( ; March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer. Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical a ...

Frankie Trumbauer Orie Frank Trumbauer (May 30, 1901 – June 11, 1956) was an American jazz saxophonist of the 1920s and 1930s. His main instrument was the C melody saxophone, a now-uncommon instrument between an alto and tenor saxophone in size and pitch. He al ...

, and

Eddie Lang Eddie Lang (born Salvatore Massaro; October 25, 1902 – March 26, 1933) was an American musician who is credited as the father of jazz guitar. During the 1920s, he gave the guitar a prominence it previously lacked as a solo instrument, as p ...

. It was released as a 78 rpm single in 1927 on OKeh Records as by "Tram, Bix and Eddie (In Their Three Piece Band)".

Background

Bix Beiderbecke plays piano and cornet, Frankie Trumbauer plays a C melody saxophone, and Eddie Lang is on acoustic guitar. The piece was composed by Beiderbecke and Trumbauer and recorded in New York on May 13, 1927. Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer had earlier worked together as members of the

Jean Goldkette John Jean Goldkette (March 18, 1893 – March 24, 1962) was a jazz pianist and bandleader. Life Goldkette was reportedly born on March 18, 1893, in Valenciennes, France,Russel B. Nye (1976). Music in the Twenties: The Jean Goldkette Orchestr ...

Orchestra. The recording was originally released as a 78 rpm single on OKeh 40871 (matrix 81085), and subsequently on Columbia 35667, and in the UK on Parlophone R3419. The flip side of the OKeh single was "Trumbology". The work is sometimes erroneously credited to George W. Meyer, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young. They composed a song entitled "For No Reason At All" in 1921. The Bix Beiderbecke/Frankie Trumbauer piece is a different work.

Reception and influence

In "The Birth of the Cool 1927", Len Weinstock showed that Bix Beiderbecke's collaborations with Frankie Trumbauer resulted in the emergence of "cool jazz":

Who was the father of Cool Jazz? Miles Davis? Lester Young? Stan Getz? Gerry Mulligan? The answer, is none of the above. Cool Jazz has its roots as early as 1927 in the wonderful collaborations of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke and C-melody saxman Frank (Tram) Trumbauer! Bix and Tram were closely associated as early as 1925 and developed a tight musical rapport. They both used a linear, relaxed and lyrical style and were the first to offer an alternative to the searing, passionate and extroverted music that characterized the Jazz Age. ...

This really constituted the birth of Cool Jazz. The most important recordings of these groups include Singin' the Blues,
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" is a popular song with music by Turner Layton and lyrics by Henry Creamer. First published in 1922, it was advertised by Creamer and Layton as "A Southern Song, without A Mammy, A Mule, Or A Moon", a dig at some of ...
, I'm Coming Virginia, For No Reason At All in C, Wringin' and Twistin' and Bix's legendary piano solo
In a Mist "In a Mist" is a 1927 composition for piano by Bix Beiderbecke. Background "In a Mist" was first recorded by Beiderbecke as a piano solo on September 9, 1927, in New York and released as OKeh 40916 backed with "Wringin' an' Twistin'" which was r ...
. Somewhat hotter but still very much laid back were Clarinet Marmalade, Ostrich Walk, and Riverboat Shuffle.

These works were not simply recorded and then forgotten, to be rediscovered as an oddity at some later date. These records caused an immediate sensation in the Jazz community and sent a shockwave through Jazz history that can still be felt today.

The composition has also been analyzed as one of the first uses in jazz of

contrafact A contrafact is a musical work based on a prior work. The term comes from classical music and has only since the 1940s been applied to jazz, where it is still not standard. In classical music, contrafacts have been used as early as the parody m ...

techniques, using the chord progressions of another song to create a new song, which became popular in Be-Bop. The song uses chord progressions of the 1926 song "I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (If I Knew I'd Find You)" written by

Lew Brown Lew Brown (born Louis Brownstein; December 10, 1893 – February 5, 1958) was a lyricist for popular songs in the United States. During World War I and the Roaring Twenties, he wrote lyrics for several of the top Tin Pan Alley composers, espec ...

and

Sidney Clare Sidney Clare (August 15, 1892 – August 29, 1972) was an American comedian, dancer and composer. His best-known songs include " On the Good Ship Lollipop" (introduced by Shirley Temple), " You're My Thrill" (recorded by Billie Holiday), and " P ...

Notable recordings

Marty Grosz Martin Oliver Grosz (born February 28, 1930) is a German-born American jazz guitarist, banjoist, vocalist, and composer born in Berlin, Germany, the son of artist George Grosz. He performed with Bob Wilber and wrote arrangements for him. He has a ...

and His Honoras Causa Jazz Band recorded it on the album ''

Hooray for Bix! ''Hooray for Bix!'' is an album by American jazz guitarist Marty Grosz and his Honoris Causa Jazz Band featuring compositions associated with cornetist Bix Beiderbecke recorded in 1957 for the Riverside label.Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

Danny Kaye Playhouse in an arrangement by Dan Levinson during the Bix Beiderbecke centennial.The Tribute to Bix at the JVC Festival by Albert Haim.
/ref> Hal Smith's Swing Central released a version of the piece in 2017 on the album ''Windy City Swing''.

References

*Berton, Ralph. ''Remembering Bix''. Harper & Row, 1974. *Castelli, Vittorio, Evert (Ted) Kaleveld, and Liborio Pusateri. ''The Bix Bands: A Bix Beiderbecke Disco-biography''. Raretone, Milan, 1972. *Collins, David R. ''Bix Beiderbecke: Jazz Age Genius''. Morgan Reynolds, Inc., Greensboro, North Carolina, 1998. *Evans, Philip R. and Linda K. Evans. ''Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story''. Bakersfield, Calif.: Prelike Press, 1998. . *Lastella, Aldo. "La vita e la leggenda di Bix Beiderbecke". Nuovi Equilibri S.R.L., Roma, 1991. *Lion, Jean Pierre. ''Bix: The Definitive Biography of a Jazz Legend''. New York: Continuum, 2005. . *Scheuer, Klaus. ''Bix Beiderbecke: Sein Leben, Seine Musik, Seine Schallplatten''. Waakirken-Schaftlach, Oreos Verlag, Germany, 1995. *Sudhalter, Richard M. and Philip R. Evans with William Dean-Myatt. ''Bix: Man and Legend''. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1974. . *Wareing, Charles H., and George Garlick. ''Bugles for Beiderbecke''. Sidgwick and Jackson Limited, London, 1958.

Footnotes

External links

* ttp://www.redhotjazz.com/coolarticle.html "The Birth of the Cool 1927" by Len Weinstock. Red Hot Jazz. {{authority control 1927 songs Instrumentals Jazz compositions 1920s jazz standards Okeh Records singles