The Knights are back for spring semester with two of my new arrangements of wonderful classic jazz tunes. Both tunes have Chicago connections. The first, Tea For Two (1924) by Caesar/Youmans, became the hit song for the musical No, No, Nanette. The musical was in Chicago on its pre-broadway wrong, sans its main hit, when Youmans started to develop a new melody. He played the fragment for Irving Caesar, who jotted down some mock lyrics. The pair ended up keeping the scratch lyrics, and it became Youmans’ biggest hit, and the centerpiece duet of No, No, Nanette.
The second tune is relatively little-known and is one of ragtime composer Scott Joplin’s concert waltzes, titled Bethena (1905). It’s a hauntingly beautiful piece, and my arrangement for student string ensemble strips away some of the verses and focuses on the essence. In 1893 Joplin traveled to Chicago for the World’s Fair, the Columbian Exposition. The fair was a seminal event in the history of early jazz, as it brought together a who’s who of jazz, ragtime, blues, marching, and orchestral musicians. They all shared their music and the cross-inspiration was tremendous. Beyond the musicians, 27 million people attended the World’s Fair — equivalent to half the US population at the time. This meant a level of exposure for early jazz music that the major streaming platforms today can only dream of. Attending the fair was a pivotal moment in Joplin’s career, as he realized for the first time that there was a potentially rewarding career opportunity for him as a black musician composing and publishing his own music. He leaned into learning to read and notate music from that point forward, and went on to lead ragtime’s (and jazz in general) move from the margins to the mainstream of American — no, of world music.
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