Bandleader, Cornetist Jim Cullum 2007 Photo Riverwalk Jazz 2007

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Every week on Riverwalk Jazz, The Jim Cullum Jazz Band performs jazz with the authentic sound as it was played in the first half of the 20th century, before WWII. One of the reasons this sound differs from more modern-style jazz is that Jim and the Band favor period instruments such as the clarinet, banjo, Chinese drum, slapped double bass with gut strings, and, above all—the cornet.

Long before jazz was born, the cornet reigned supreme as the soprano brass solo instrument of choice. Late 19th-century virtuosos like Herbert L. Clarke with the John Phillip Sousa US Marine Band dazzled mass audiences with their seemingly superhuman performances of showcase pieces like "Variations on the Carnival of Venice" and "Maid of the Mist."

Early 20th-century jazz inherited this widespread culture of the cornet. But pioneers of jazz cornet like Buddy Bolden, Freddy Keppard and Joe "King" Oliver played with a strong, swinging voice that sang the blues.

Louis Armstrong—Oliver's prize student—brought jazz cornet to new heights with his fiery, spectacular Hot 5 and Hot 7 recordings of the 1920s. Bix Beiderbecke contributed a more lyrical cornet sound. But by the '30s, Armstrong switched to the more piercing but less flexible trumpet, to help him project his sound all the way to the back row of large theaters, like the Vendome on Chicago's Southside.

Armstrong's influence was so great that the trumpet has virtually supplanted the cornet in jazz. Among modern players, only Nat Adderly chose the cornet as his main instrument.

But, back in the 1920s, there was a heated battle between proponents of cornet vs. trumpet over which instrument was the best. In a 1921 letter to Elden Benge, Clarke writes:

...would not advise you to change from Cornet to Trumpet, as the latter instrument is only a foreign fad for the time present, and is only used properly in large orchestras of 60 or more, for dynamic effects, and was never intended as a solo instrument.

I never heard of a real soloist playing before the public on a Trumpet. One cannot play a decent song even, properly, on it, and it has sprung up in the last few years like "jazz" music, which is the nearest Hell, or the Devil, in music. It pollutes the art of Music.

The cornet and trumpet play the same notes and look very similar. The difference is in the shape of the tubing—cone vs. cylinder—which produces a difference in the sound quality, or timbre. Think of cones as omni-directional "woofers" and cylinders as highly focused, directional "tweeters." Brass instruments are on a continuum between the two shapes. The most conical brass is the French horn and the most cylindrical is the trombone. When a modern-style jazz player like Clark Terry wants a mellower, "woofy" sound, he will typically go with the flugelhorn, which is even more conical than the cornet.

Jim Cullum specializes in the cornet. Lately, Jim has gone back to his old standby Getzen, but in recent years has explored the Conn Victor, the same model used by Bix Beiderbecke and Max Kaminsky, among many others. Jim also has a collection of antique cornets, some dating from the late 19th century.

This week, Bay Area cornetist and trumpeter Leon Oakley joins Jim and The Band for an exploration of both instruments. Leon was a long-time member of Turk Murphy's band and led his own groups. These days he holds forth at the Café Borrone on Friday nights in Menlo Park, CA.

Text based on script by Margaret Pick
Copyright 2008 Riverwalk Jazz