Claudia and
Some Familiar Faces
Locally sourced and locally grown swing music (that is, original tunes and American Jazz Standards) for listening and dancing.
The (Nearly) Complete Stuff Smith Verve Sessions, Vol 1, Transcriptions by Claudia Landell
Stuff Smith was a contemporary of Stephane Grappelli and Joe Venuti, but his name and the music he created did not get the same recognition as theirs. I had never even heard of Stuff until 2021. He amazed me. I looked everywhere for transcriptions of his tunes, but could not find any, so I started transcribing them myself.
I focused on the Verve Sessions, Vol 1, because Stuff wrote (or co-wrote) all but two of the tunes on that recording. Coming Through the Rye is a traditional song, and Ja Da was written by Bob Carleton. I also left out Midway and What I Say because they are more improvisational. You hear more of Oscar Peterson’s wonderful piano playing, but I wasn’t up for transcribing piano solos and complex arrangements. Finally, I transcribed only two verses for each tune—the head and the first variation—except for Minuet in Swing, because it’s short and seemed to need them all.
I hope you enjoy working through these tunes as much as I did.
To hear Stuff Smith play these tunes, go to the Complete Verve Stuff Smith Session, Volume 1 [1999] on YouTube.