Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 4 mins.
Snookums, presumably an expression of endearment and was inspired by or dedicated to someone close to the composer, is a rag with a vague oriental feel about. It was featured in 1918 by Earl Fuller and his famous Jazz Band. Its form is AABBACCCC with a 4-bar introduction and a 16-bar interlude preceding each of the final two C-strains whereby the AABBA- and CCCC- strains are in the major keys of G and F respectively. The cover of the original sheet music is a studio photo portrait of Johnson himself flanked by a pair of indeterminate parrot-like creatures. All-in-all this late rag is an interesting contrast to the rags Johnson composed of a decade earlier and is one of those portals to the coming age of jazz.
Snookums was published by
F.J.A. Forster Music Publisher, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
A tempo of 80 crotchets/min. is suggested.