Koontown Koffee Klatsch (1904)...J.P.Greenberg

[Steve Harrison]

This is my take on a tune that was recorded by the Ossman/Dudley Trio in 1906.

It's not a facsimile of the Ossman version, I've put it in a different key, Em/Gmajor, and added my own bits and pieces. The melody in the first part sounds as though it could be an eastern European/Jewish folk tune which has then been developed into a lively two step. A klatsch is a German word for a social gathering. The score and midi are in the library...Steve.

Here is the original recording which has been cleaned and de-hissed by Shawn McSweeny..thank you Shawn !

Ian

KOONTOWN KAFFE KLATSCH by Ossman Dudley Trio 1906

[Trapdoor2]

Very kool!

I have only some shreds of the title page for this piece in my stacks. It must have been a popular tune as I see it mentioned often.

Well done again!

[Steve Harrison]

Thanks Marc,...I suppose the English equivalent of a Coffee Klatsh is our rather quaint tea-party where a group of middle aged women get together over tea and begin a systematic character assassination of most of the friends who aren't present!...Can you suggest any other early Ossman recorded tunes that may be worth another look?....Steve

trapdoor2 said:

Very kool!

I have only some shreds of the title page for this piece in my stacks. It must have been a popular tune as I see it mentioned often.

Well done again!

[3iv8pyyhxxoiv]

What's the instrumentation on the Ossman recording?....sounds like Vess is accompanied by a tremolo 2nd banjo and a cello banjo playing the bass line.....anyone know?

[Jody Stecher]

 George Dudley played Harp Guitar. Audley Dudley played mandolin. According to one source the mandolin had triple courses instead of the usual double courses. I am inclined to believe that. According to another it was a banjo-mandolin but I am skeptical of that claim. Another unusual thing is that the strings on the harp guitar were in double courses.

John Field said:

What's the instrumentation on the Ossman recording?....sounds like Vess is accompanied by a tremolo 2nd banjo and a cello banjo playing the bass line.....anyone know?

[3iv8pyyhxxoiv]

Jody....thanks for sorting me out on that.   I think that combo worked very well back in 1906....

[Jody Stecher]

I think it works just as well in 2014 (going 2015).

John Field said:

Jody....thanks for sorting me out on that.   I think that combo worked very well back in 1906....

[Shawn McSweeny]

Thanks Steve for posting.

For those that may want a closer facimile of the Ossman perfomance,  here is my arrangement in Am, transcribed from the Ossman Dudley recording with the assistance of the piano score. Yes,  I updated the politically incorrect title. For many years at the ABF it was also called Southern Kaffee Klatsch. Your choice of dots or tab.

[thereallyniceman]

Thank you very much indeed for that Shawn. I like direct transcriptions as they are useful to help with working out the fingering when playing along with the original recording... "I like to play along-a-Fred", so perhaps now it can  be "Play-Along-a-Vess" too :-)

Shawn also has kindly sent me a de-baconified version of the original recording, so the player at the top of the Discussion now plays a much clearer recording of the piece. The full sound of the ensemble comes through so much better.

I have added Shawn's transcription, with TAB, to the MUSIC LIBRARY entry for the piece.

[Steve Harrison]

Hi Shawn, what music software do you use?..I've been use Finale Printmusic for the past 12 years...Steve. 

Shawn McSweeny said:

Thanks Steve for posting.

For those that may want a closer facimile of the Ossman perfomance,  here is my arrangement in Am, transcribed from the Ossman Dudley recording with the assistance of the piano score. Yes,  I updated the politically incorrect title. For many years at the ABF it was also called Southern Kaffee Klatsch. Your choice of dots or tab.

[Shawn McSweeny]

Hi Steve

I've been using Sibelius for the past few years. It is powerful but prescriptive. Learn how it wants to be used or you won't get very far.

With it, one can set a piece in dots and convert to tab or set in tab and convert to dots.

Finale likely does similar things, but I also use Sibelius with Photoscore, which scans notation into an editable file. Misread notes can be corrected and the score will play as a midi file.  The Photoscore file can be opened in Sibelius for further editing or printout..

[Trapdoor2]

Shawn, how well does Photoscore work? I've worked with a couple of OCR music programs but they all seem to be overly sensitive to the original print quality.

[Shawn McSweeny]

Hi Marc

Photoscore has its limitations. Remember "garbage in, garbage out", from early computer days? The simpler and better the quality of the original, the better the result.

As well, many of the older banjo scores are quite busy visually, which is a problem-think Morley solos crammed onto a single page. I generally spend time in Photoshop cleaning up a score jpg file, erasing scan  noise, left hand fingering numbers, right hand positions etc, paring the score down to the dots and dynamics to minimize distractions for the OCR.  It can be tedious. And the Photoscore file will still have errors needing correction.

I have had better luck with piano accompaniment scores as they are not burdened by a lot of melody notes or fingerings.