Tin Pan Alley

Put on your boater, your spats, and your suspenders, because everybody loves to hear a brass quintet play the popular songs of the early 20th century.

Depending on your source, Tin Pan Alley was a place or a time or an attitude. About all everybody can agree on is that Tin Pan Alley was a group of composers who wrote and published sheet music in a time when recorded music was barely possible and about the only way to enjoy the latest songs was to stand around the piano listening to Aunt Suzy tickle the ivories as you sang along.

For the folks at Toot Suite Brass, Tin Pan Alley began at the turn of the century, thrived in the teens, started to taper off in the 20's, and ended in the 30's. But as short as the 20 year heyday was, a tremendous number of wonderful songs sprung from it. Composers churned out upbeat romantic songs like "When You Wore a Tulip", patriotic songs like "Over There", and rags and Dixieland songs like the fabulous "Tiger Rag" by the dozens.

These songs, with their relatively straightforward structure, readily accessible harmonic progressions, and driving rhythms, translate wonderfully into brass quintet settings.