Today's selection, "Tres Danzas" ("Three Dances") comes from piano sheet music published in Mexico, 1892. The composer, Genaro Codina (1852-1901), is best known for his anthem "Marcha De Zacatecas," named for the state from where he originated as well as for the indigenous people who were there first.
The piece unfolds in three dances, "Lola," "Ensueños" ("Dreams") and "Sonrisa y Llantos" (“Smiling and Weeping"), each with two strains that repeat. And while this is not specifically music intended for Dia de los Muertos, I figured November 1st was a good day to send you some Mexican melodies.

I had scheduled studio time for October 13th then it turned out that banjoman Mark Rubin wasn't able to make the date. We are fortunate in this band that we have a "deep bench" and, when Mark can't make it, I call Panorama's "Banjo Emeritus," Patrick Mackey. When Patrick isn't teaching school, he pursues his love of Ragtime and other pre-recording era popular piano music which he arranges for his Silver Swan Ragtime Interpreters. He had already done a mark up of "Tres Danzas" and shown it to me some time ago so, when this session came up, we seized the opportunity to put it on the docket and got to work finalizing the arrangement.

Think about it. Before the advent of sound recording, most music was shared person-to-person, either vocally or instrumentally and (except for mechanical devices like player pianos and music boxes) commercial music was conveyed by the sale of sheet music.

While we in Panorama learn most of our material from recordings, we've sent you tracks on three occasions that did come from piano sheet music. There was "Pleasant Moments" (April 2017), a Scott Joplin Waltz, plus two Erik Satie pieces, "Je Te Veux" (April 2018) and "Première Gnossienne" (March 2019). In the case of "Pleasant Moments," I literally took Joplin's notes from the piano staff and distributed them verbatim onto a score for the Jazz Band. Everybody read down their parts in the studio and what you hear is the result. "Je Te Veux" began the same way but I added some accordion chord-pads and I believe the players took a few more liberties on the day-of. That one feels a bit more playful. In both cases, the drummers made up their own parts. With "Première Gnossienne" I used the piano music as a point of departure then created an arrangement set to a traditional Arabic drum pattern.

If you have a minute, go back and listen to those three.

In addition, Patrick had discovered several years ago that our very first song-of-the-month, the Creole biguine "Serpent Maigre" (May 2014) also began life as a ragtime piano piece: "Tickled To Death," written by Charles Hunter and published in 1899. Apparently, somebody in Martinique was taken with the tune and turned it into a jumpin' dance number. Patrick and I learned that one from a recording, worked out the arrangement together and Panorama has played it at damn near every gig for the past 15 years or so.

Similar to "Serpent Maigre," we wanted "Tres Danzas" to NOT sound like it had come from piano sheet music but, instead, like a jumpin' dance number we'd been playing for parties for a long time. We went back and forth on this chart trying to decide which elements to keep, which to let go of and what might make it sound more like a Panorama party. In the studio, Matt (tuba) and Doug (drums) worked out an energetic pocket based on the habañera rhythm that gives the whole thing a catchy dance feel, then Doug added bongos and I dropped on some shaker in a couple sections.

Hey! Please welcome to the bandstand accordionist Simon Moushabeck in his first appearance on your Good Music For You club. Simon had been subbing for Michael Ward-Bergeman for a few years so, when Michael moved to Minnesota, Simon was the logical call and the rest of us are delighted we get to play with him.

We hope you enjoy the music. Thanks for all your support, tell your friends and we'll send you our new holiday track on December 1st.

At your service,
Ben Schenck
Panorama Jazz Band / Panorama BRASS Band
New Orleans, LA