Dixieland Jam

Dixieland Jam is a medley of five “Dixieland Favorites” for Dixieland Combo and band written by Bob Lowden (see below) in 1983.

A Dixieland combo is a small jazz ensemble that performs Dixieland jazz — a style of traditional jazz that originated in New Orleans in the early 20th century. It is typically a small-band format (often called a “combo”) that emphasizes collective improvisation and a polyphonic texture where multiple instruments play simultaneously, each adding their own improvised lines around a shared melody.

Rooted in New Orleans’ early jazz scene, Dixieland Jazz blends African American ragtime, blues, and European brass band traditions.

The “standard” Dixieland combo includes a “front line” of cornet (or trumpet), trombone, clarinet and sometimes saxophone and a rhythm section of at least two of guitar or banjo, string bass or tuba, piano, and drums. This particular arrangement has parts in the featured combo for cornet, clarinet, tenor saxophone, trombone, tuba and drumset.

The medley includes “Basin Street Blues”, “Maple Leaf Rag”, “Tin Roof Blues”, “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Bill Bailey”. There are two “solo breaks” for clarinet and one for cornet, plus a brief break for drumset near the end.

Arranger Robert William “Bob” Lowden (1920-1998) was an internationally known American composer, music educator, conductor, arranger, and trombonist. He was born in Camden, New Jersey. Lowden played trumpet and trombone in the concert orchestra of the Camden High School. He studied music at the College of South Jersey. His study was interrupted during World War II and he served as a trombonist in the Military Music Chapel of the 322nd United States Army at Fort Dix. After the war, he studied at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. He married Doris Elizabeth Potter on August 5, 1946, and they eventually had three children.

For some time, Lowden worked as a trainer and instructor for concert orchestras and as a music teacher in public schools in Camden, New Jersey, in the 1950s. He was also an arranger and trombonist of both the Johnny Austin Orchestra and the Oscar Dumont Band, which both then performed at the Sunset Beach Ballroom in Almonesson, New Jersey. Along with Gerry Mulligan, he also arranged for the big band of Claude Thornhill and Oscar Dumont. After Joseph Kuhn died in 1958, Lowden was hired by the Somerset label’s owner and impresario, D.L. Miller, and from 1958 to 1968, he worked as a composer and chief arranger for their “101 Strings Orchestra”, which had 150 albums of popular music during this period, including the titles “Happy Hobo” and “My Valley”, among others.

Lowden occasionally got to venture into more adventuresome territory, and he arranged and conducted an excellent percussion showcase album, “Motion in Percussion”, which includes a wide range of stereo sound effects and a respectable sample of space age pop standards such as “Caravan.” Lowden was also responsible for producing dozens of arrangements of big band classics for music publishers such as Hal Leonard and J.W. Pepper. Lowden was one of the best known modern day composers and arrangers for symphony orchestras, big bands, and jazz ensembles. Not only did his works encompass professional orchestras, film, and recordings, but also he was a major contributor of musical arrangements for American’s college and high school performers. He was also in demand as a clinician and adjudicator of instrumental festivals. Later, he worked as chief executive for the Pennsylvania Pops and also for the Ocean City Pops. Mr. Lowden died on October 30, 1998, in Medford, New Jersey.

The music for Dixieland Jam is on loan from The Renton City Concert Band, and we thank them for the use of it.