Fidgety Feet
Fidgety Feet is a Dixieland jazz standard, first recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in June 1918. The more acclaimed version is the 1924 recording by The Wolverines, with Bix Beiderbecke. It is not to be confused with the George Gershwin song of the same name that appears in the 1926 musical Oh, Kay!.
History
The composition is attributed to Nick LaRocca and Larry Shields,{{cite web|url=http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-8/fidgetyfeet.htm|title=Fidgety Feet|publisher=Jazzstandards.com|accessdate=30 May 2020}} of the Original Dixieland Jass Band, who first recorded it New York on June 25, 1918, and released it on Victor 18564.{{cite web|url=http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/4634/|title=Fidgety feet|publisher=Library of Congress|accessdate=30 May 2020}}
The Wolverines, featuring Bix Beiderbecke, recorded a hit version of the song on 18 February 1924.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FOSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1070|title=Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound|publisher=Routledge|author=Hoffman, Frank|year=2004|page=1070|isbn=9781135949501}} Fletcher Henderson's orchestra recorded the tune on 19 March 1927, and it was released on July 7 of that year.{{cite web|url=https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/977518/versions|title=Fidgety Feet|publisher=secondhandsongs.com|accessdate=30 May 2020}}
Notable jazz artists who later recorded it include Bud Freeman, Kid Ory and His Creole Band, Red Allen, Sidney Bechet, and Wingy Manone, and stride pianists Willie "The Lion" Smith and Dick Wellstood.
Composition
It begins in B-flat major and modulates to A-flat major. Beiderbecke biographer Jean Pierre Lion wrote that the 1918 original recording was "played at a jumpy tempo, sounds mechanical, and the trombone' s plaintive breaks are dated" . He approved more of the Wolverines recording which was recorded at a slower tempo, stating that it is more "relaxed and varied, breaks are more sophisticated, and Jimmy Hatwell's solo, using the lower register is deeply original. Lion states that Beiderbecke avoided repetition on the second time through the chorus inserting "some graceful melodic lines within a rich harmony".{{cite book|author=Lion, Jean Pierre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D4Ynu1-HmugC&q=Fidgety+feet&pg=PA63|title=Bix: The Definitive Biography of a Jazz Legend |publisher=Bloomsbury|page=63|year=2005|isbn = 9780826416995}}
References
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Category:Dixieland jazz standards