Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 4½ mins.
Tar Babies, is a typical, happy Johnson rag with a number of nice touches, a contagious piece. The tar babies in question refer to a bouquet of smiling Piccaninnies shown on the cover of the original sheet music Its form is AABBACCDADA with a 4-bar introduction whereby the AABBA- and CCBBDADA-strains are written in the major keys of C and F respectively. One of the touches that I particularly admire as a bass player, is the dialogue between the basses and the melody voices in each of the strains. The ascending and descending "walking passages" characterises this composition.
Tar Babies was published by
Chas. L. Johnson Publishing Co., Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
A tempo of 80 crotchets/min. is suggested.
