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The Sheik of Araby - Snyder, arr. Grimshaw
This is a well-known early jazz standard which was originally a Tin Pan Alley hit. The song was cleverly released to take capitalise on the success of "The Sheik", but it was not long before the song was jazzed up and spoofed into oblivion, probably due to the fact that the original lyrics are unintentionally hilarious -- who can take the song seriously when all you can imagine is some pantomime sheik chasing a woman through the desert, telling her he'll creep into her tent at night?
Most modern renditions usually omit the minor verse and skip right into the major chorus; this arrangement for Classic Banjo by Emile Grimshaw maintains the original verse in a minor key, which is an interesting touch, but transposes it three steps down.
It also includes some bars left emtpy for a piano intro; since I didn't have the piano part, I imitated the introduction from the brilliant Zez Confrey piano roll version on the banjo.
Views: 106
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Comment by German David Patarroyo on November 4, 2012 at 16:46
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Nice work Mike! It sounds great!!. Definitely, the pantomime sheik will be satisfied with your playing!.
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Comment by thereallyniceman on November 4, 2012 at 18:40
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I just love these old tunes. I think that I was born at the wrong time!
Brilliant Mike, that is a MUST play for me.
Thank you.
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Comment by Mike Moss on November 4, 2012 at 18:53
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Yeah, it's a great one! It's a shame most jazz versions omit the verse as it does create an interesting contrast with the chorus...
I think this one deserves a better banjo arrangement, I get the feeling that Grimshaw got a bit lazy when working on "The Sheik". An interesting project could be to try to give the tune the "Van Eps" treatment w/ finger tremolo, more interesting voicings/harmonies, the verse/chorus in the original key and better ornamentation.
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Comment by Trapdoor2 on November 5, 2012 at 0:53
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I have a couple of 78's of this tune...a cool piece indeed. My favorite version is from The New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra...from the 1980's..and includes the verse, etc.
BTW, I got to watch the original silent movie last year...really an eye-opener; nothing like what I expected...more like an early attempt to portray Stockholm Syndrome.
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