"Black Bottom Stomp" is a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 composition. It was composed by Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....

 in 1925 and was originally entitled "Queen of Spades". It was recorded in Chicago by Morton and His Red Hot Peppers

Red Hot Peppers

Red Hot Peppers was a recording jazz band led by Jelly Roll Morton from 1926-1930. It was a seven- or eight-piece band formed in Chicago that recorded for Victor and featured the best New Orleans-style freelance musicians available, including cornetist George Mitchell, trombonist Kid Ory,...

, for Victor Records on September 15, 1926.

Technique

The recording has many features that are typical of the New Orleans style

Dixieland

Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...

:

• the frontline of trumpet, clarinet and trombone and rhythm section comprising piano, banjo, double bass and drum kit
• the structure, derived from multi-thematic ragtime
  Ragtime
  Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
  
   structures, with a transitional interlude leading to a new key
• collective improvisation ensemble sections, the main melody woven together with a counter-melody and the accompaniment
• the counter-melody relies upon scalar patterns and arpeggio
  Arpeggio
  An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
  
  s
• the instrumental performance techniques such as the trombone counter-melody glissando
  Glissando
  In music, a glissando is a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, to glide. In some contexts it is distinguished from the continuous portamento...
  
  s, sometimes known as "tailgating"
• the percussive "slapped" bass used to help keep time in the rhythm section.

Structure

John Szwed notes that in "Black Bottom Stomp," "Morton practiced what he preached, managing to incorporate in one short piece the 'Spanish tinge,' stomps, breaks, stoptime, backbeat, two-beat, four-beat, a complete suspension of the rhythm section during the piano solo, riffs, rich variations of melody, and dynamics of volume, all of the elements of jazz as he understood it."

1. Intro: B♭ major, 8 bars, full ensemble
2. A section in B♭. Three 16 bar choruses: (i) full ensemble; (ii) trumpet calls with ensemble response; (iii) clarinet solo
3. Interlude: 4 bars, for full ensemble
4. B section in E♭: Seven 20 bar choruses: (i) Full ensemble with trumpet and trombone break; (ii) clarinet solo (iii) piano solo; (iv) trumpet solo stop-time
   Stop-time
   In tap dancing, jazz, and blues, stop-time is an accompaniment pattern interrupting, or stopping, the normal time and featuring regular accented attacks on the first beat of each or every other measure alternating with silence or solos. Stop-time appears infrequently in ragtime music...
   
   chorus; (v) banjo solo; (vi) full ensemble with drum break; (vii) full ensemble with trombone break
5. Coda in E♭ for full ensemble

The harmonic basis is relatively simple, using standard II - V - I progressions. During the A section chorus, the chord progression passes through the relative minor.

With only seven instruments in the ensemble, Morton produces five distinct textures:

1. trumpet and rhythm section
2. clarinet
3. banjo and rhythm section
4. clarinet and rhythm section
5. piano solo

The piece displays traits of Morton's compositional style:

• built-in breaks
• stop-time phrases
• rhythmically lively themes
• frequent contrasts of sustained semibreve phrases with syncopated semibreve patterns
• a stomping "trio" section

Some distinct rhythmic features of New Orleans jazz

New Orleans Jazz

New Orleans Jazz may refer to:*Dixieland, a style of jazz music*New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park*Utah Jazz, a professional National Basketball Association franchise that was previously based in New Orleans and known as the New Orleans Jazz, in recognition of the jazz music of New Orleans*A...

 appear throughout:

• 2-beat mixed with 4-beat time
• stop-time
  Stop-time
  In tap dancing, jazz, and blues, stop-time is an accompaniment pattern interrupting, or stopping, the normal time and featuring regular accented attacks on the first beat of each or every other measure alternating with silence or solos. Stop-time appears infrequently in ragtime music...
  
  
• Charleston rhythm

Performers

The performers on the original recording were:

• Clarinet: Omer Simeon
  Omer Simeon
  Omer Victor Simeon was an American jazz clarinetist. He also played soprano, alto, and baritone saxophone and bass clarinet....
  
  
• Trumpet: George Mitchell
  George Mitchell (jazz musician)
  George Mitchell was a cornet player active in the 1920s.In 1926 he recorded with the New Orleans Wanderers and New Orleans Bootblacks , taking the place of the unavailable Louis Armstrong, and shortly afterwards recorded with Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers...
  
  
• Trombone: Kid Ory
  Kid Ory
  Edward "Kid" Ory was a jazz trombonist and bandleader. He was born in Woodland Plantation near LaPlace, Louisiana.-Biography:...
  
  
• Piano: Jelly Roll Morton
• Banjo: Johnny St. Cyr
  Johnny St. Cyr
  Johnny St. Cyr was an American jazz banjoist and guitarist.St. Cyr was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is most commonly remembered as a member of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven bands....
  
  
• Double Bass: John Lindsay
• Drums: Andrew Hilaire
  Andrew Hilaire
  Andrew Henry Hilaire was a jazz drummer active from the 1910s to early 1930s, highly regarded by his fellow musicians....