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 Sound UbuWeb |
Slim Gaillard / Slim & Slam) Part of the UbuWeb Ethnopoetics collection. Bassology (2'39") African Jive (2'39") In filling in the history of experimental
soundings in the modernist "west," attention can now be given to a range
of artists working within jazz and other alternative traditions. From
this perspective a range of performers share in a Dada-like exploration
of wordless and non-sense texts and lyrics with a similar emphasis on
an art of high (or low) comic intensity. (See the entry on Ella Fitzgerald
elsewhere in this site.) Beginning in 1937 guitarist Bulee "Slim"
Gaillard and bassist Leroy "Slam" Stewart worked together for a number
of years under the label of "Slim and Slam." Among works of theirs
that disassembled and reassembled language were "Flat Foot Floogie (with
a floy-floy)" and "Bassology," as presented here.
Gaillard, creator of a variety of jive language that he named 'Vout"
or "Vout Oreenee," continued in this vein over several decades, including
an extended work, Opera in Vout, which premiered in Los Angeles
in 1946. (Compare his one-word self-definition, e.g., to Schwitters'
Merz or Khlebnikov's Zaum.)
stewart, a master bassist, developed a technique of playing his solos
with a bow while humming along simultaneously at an octave higher.
Well aware of his dimensions as an artist, one of his last appearances
was at a poetry festival, "Performing Language" (1987, Binghamton, New
York), which also included work by Jackson Mac Low, Anne Tardos, Carolee
Schneemann, Armand Schwerner, Steve McCaffery, Charles Bernstein, Jerome
Rothenberg, Charles Stein, Flying Words (Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner),
Eleanor Antin, and Barbara Einzig. Addenda. (1) "One night we went to see Slim Gaillard in a little Frisco nightclub. In Frisco great eager crowds of semi-intellectuals sat at his feet and listened to him on the piano, guitar and bongo drums. ... Now Dean approached him, he approached his God; he thought Slim Gaillard was God." (Jack Kerouac, On the Road) (2) ""The elements of poetry are letters, syllables, words, sentences. Poetry arises from the playing off of these elements against each other. Meaning is only essential if it is to be used as one such factor. I play off sense against nonsense. I prefer nonsense, but that is a purely personal matter. I pity nonsense, because until now it has been so neglected in the making of art, and that's why I love it." (Kurt Schwitters. from Merz) (3)
The lyrics of Flat Foot Floogie, rearranged by Fats Waller, follow: Oh, the flat foot floogie with a floy,
floy, Yeah, yeah yeah, byah, oh, baby! Whenever your cares are chronic, Flat foot floogie with a floy, floy, [Shouting and muttering to the band.] Whenever your cares are chronic, Just tell the world, "go hang," Well, all right then; get those
floy-floys straight! Transcribed from vocals by Fats Waller,
recorded August 21, 1938 -- Jerome Rothenberg |