Sunday, April 24, 2016

Jam Session Song of the Week (10): Ja-Da

Here's a song that has everything.  It's short (more or less an A A B A form in 16 bars instead of 32), it's simple, and it's got really stupid lyrics and melody.  That's the recipe for a hit.

This song was written in 1918 by Bob Carleton, and achieved quite a lot of popularity, probably for the reasons above.  That also makes it a perfect jam session song.  The A parts are basically I-VI-II-V-I turnarounds, so that should make it easy to get through... if not, here's your chance to practice those turnarounds.

So here's the song, courtesy of the New Orleans Jambook site:
The Firehouse book has slightly different chords, and suggests making it 18 bars.  That's a fine idea, but we'll keep it simple, like above.


That's about all there is to say about it.  So here are some examples:







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