Little Rock Getaway – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 158

I highly recommend spending some time practicing Little Rock Getaway before you record it. I wish I had. 🙂 This tune is something of a bear.

It’s kind of a shame to play Little Rock Getaway without a guitar, because it has such cool chords. But, it’s just as well, because it’s hard to find a guitar player who knows the chords.

Little Rock Getaway History According to Youtube

LITTLE ROCK GETAWAY
Composed by Joe Sullivan
Performed by Joe Sullivan
Recorded July 8, 1935
Decca 600

Joe Sullivan (1906 – 1971) studied for several months at the Chicago Conservatory of Music in 1922 and 1923. In the summer of 1923 he led his own quartet at Pine Point Resort in Indiana, then worked for 18 months on the vaudeville circuit, beginning with Elmo Mack and his Purple Derbies (with George Wettling). He had regular radio work, mainly in Chicago with radio stations WBBM, WENR, and KYW. He was a historic figure in Chicago-Style jazz and was unofficially a member of the original Austin High Gang, along with Gene Krupa, Bud Freeman, Frank Teschemacher, Jimmy McPartland and Eddie Condon. Sullivan’s two great musical heroes were Fats Waller and Earl Hines and he drew heavily on the keyboard styles of both men. He developed an identifiable style, one that other pianists found almost impossible to duplicate. “Little Rock Getaway” is performed in the Harlem stride tradition reminiscent of James P. Johnson, but the number was named for the Arkansas hometown of Mary Anne Dean whom Sullivan had been courting for two years and who later became his wife.