Bye Bye Blues

Bye Bye Blues is an early jazz standard credited to Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown and Chauncey Gray. Lown was a violinist who led a series of dance-oriented jazz bands in the 20's and 30's and Bye Bye became something of a theme song of his. Here's an early recording from Bert Lown and His Biltmore Hotel Orchestra.

Audio Clip: Bert Lown on Bye Bye Blues

Anyone looking at a lead sheet to Bye Bye Blues who thinks they are going to get off easy on account of all those whole notes in the melody is likely in for a rude awakening: it has long been played at much faster tempos than in the clip above. More typical these days is this Cab Calloway arrangement from 1940. I believe this is Chu Berry featured on tenor saxophone.

Audio Clip: Cab Calloway on Bye Bye Blues.

If that still seems quite manageable, maybe you wish you'd been invited to sit in with Oscar Peterson at Montreax in 1977. You, Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie on trumpets, Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis on tenor and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass. Here's what you'd have been in for:

Audio Clip: Oscar Peterson and Co. on Bye Bye Blues

Between the years 1950-54, Les Paul and Mary Ford had 16 top-ten hits. Bye Bye Blues was the title track to one of their albums and made it into the Top Five. Safe to say we are squarely in the realm of what would have passed for "popular" music with a country twang back in those days.

Audio Clip: Les and Mary on Bye Bye Blues

As if that weren't enough diversity, you may be interested to know that this tune has become something of a bluegrass standard too in recent decades. For a classy taste of that approach we turn to Mark Cosgrove, a former National Flatpicking Guitar Championship winner from the Philadelphia area.

Audio Clip of Mark Cosgrove on Bye Bye Blues

The version that inspired me more than any other to get busy learning and arranging this song is by the great Argentinian guitarist, Oscar Aleman. (See his bio here on dawgnet.) Aleman was a contemporary of Django Reinhardt and the two were friends in Paris for a time before the second World War, (though Aleman lived much longer, performing and teaching until his death in 1980). Although Django and Oscar may sound similar to some ears, Aleman had his own distinctive style of playing, using his thumb and fingers to play leads rather than a plectrum, often on a resonator guitar. Our second Level 3 solo borrows occasionally from the solo you hear on this clip. It is taken from a wonderful 2 CD collection of Aleman's work on Acoustic Disc: Swing Guitar Masterpieces.

Audio Clip Oscar Aleman on Bye Bye Blues

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