The latest album by The Shake ’Em Up Jazz Band is called ‘The Boy in the Boat’. It was released in July 2019. It is a delight and shows how this wonderful band comprising six top lady musicians based in New Orleans is continuing to develop a distinctive house-style and to set the highest standards in tasteful, elegant traditional jazz. The tunes are played with restraint, grace and good taste, and generally at tempos that give space for creative fluent solos, notably from Chloe. There is little of the ‘raw’ jazz we associate with certain other bands – even including some in which these ladies play.
The Album also shows how, in its off-road repertoire, the band is increasingly building on the singing talents of its members. No fewer than ten of the twelve tracks include vocals. The ladies sing beautifully, both as individuals or in three-part harmony. In the course of this album, all six ladies may be heard singing, with Julie and Dizzy taking long solos for the first time.
The recording was made, we are told, at the Bunny Friend Studio. I have no idea where or what that is, but I can assure you the acoustic results are first-class. Molly Reeves, the band’s guitarist, is one of those named among the recording engineers and it seems she is a perfectionist in such matters.
The dominance of vocals is best illustrated by Wild Women Don’t Have The Blues (made famous by Ida Cox’s 1924 recording), in which Marla sings the 12-bar blues for virtually the entire track, with skilful accompaniment from the others.
Nuts To You, which they appear to have learned from the 1930s recording by the Chicago strings-and-vocals quartet called Cats and The Fiddle, is briskly sung in close harmony by Molly, Marla and Chloe. Molly has a fine extended guitar solo and the piece is cleverly arranged to accommodate brief instrumental breaks by Dizzy and the others between the lines of the lyrics.
Another novel close-harmony performance (successfully emulating the recording by The Andrews Sisters) is given on Nevertheless, which is sung without instrumental solo choruses. They take it at a gentle tempo in the key of F. (The Andrews Sisters sang it very slightly higher, using G before going through it again in A flat.)
Marla sings Say Si Si, which makes a great opener to the Album, with its brisk approach, well-balanced sound, super busy teamwork and Marla’s bright trumpet solo chorus.
Haruka sings Salty Dog so sweetly and includes her Japanese lyrics. Although she hardly counts herself as a singer, this number has become a popular party-piece from the band in 2019. It is such fun. Between Haruka’s vocals, improvisations on this famous circle-of-fifths tune are provided notably by Molly and Haruka herself.
I Double Dare You (the 1937 composition by Terry Shand and Jimmy Eaton) features Molly, singing and playing fine guitar. This is an up-tempo number, taken in E flat, with the rhythm players given a chance to shine, and some tasteful solos - including a gem from Chloe.
The vocalist on My Sin (composed in 1929 by Lew Brown, Buddy de Sylva and Ray Henderson) is Marla. Here again we have an unusual choice and treatment for a traditional jazz band, but it is typical of the way Shake ’Em Up is indeed shaking things up in the way we think of our music. Marla sings this song in E flat. My first thought was that she might have been more comfortable in F; but E flat somehow sounds right for the sad nature of the lyrics.
Need A Little Sugar is sung by Chloe. This popular tune composed in 1931 by Clarence Williams,Tim Bryan and W.A.D. Small has a 12-bar Verse and 18-bar Chorus, both of which are splendidly expressive melodies. There is perfect support from Molly on guitar, and some fine clarinet soloing from Chloe herself.
You Always Hurt The One You Love is sung by Dizzy - the first time I have heard her sing a full vocal on record! A lovely, gentle, complete vocal with guitar accompaniment is followed by the band joining in, with stepped-up tempo.
Eh La Bas is played briskly in the key of C (higher than most bands choose). It is a cheery performance, with much use of vocals led by Julie(!), and is complete with the full Creole patois lyrics.
Johnny St. Cyr’s famous 1926 composition, Oriental Strut, is played in a restrained gently-paced way, unlike its treatment by many other bands. After the minor-key start, Haruka leads on the ‘C’ theme, and is followed by other fluent solos. At this pace, Chloe has the room to create one that is so pretty, mobile and fluid; and Marla takes a good chorus against stop chords.
The only other purely instrumental number is the eponymous The Boy in the Boat. It was a new tune to me but I have discovered the band must have picked it up from the 1928 recording by pianist Charlie Johnson and His Paradise Band. Shake ’Em Up, though with different instrumentation, closely follow Johnson’s Introduction and melody line – and the phrase-trading between trumpet and clarinet, with Marla (muted and sounding very much like Sidney de Paris on the original Charlie Johnson recording) alternating phrases with Chloe. The tune is not quite as sophisticated as it sounds: listen carefully and you notice it is very largely using just one chord – G minor.
Finally, I must mention Julie. I had the pleasure of meeting her in New Orleans very briefly in 2015, when she told me she had taken up the double bass not many months before. But she has become one of my favourite players on this instrument. Always accurate, she (in combination with Dizzy’s tireless, inventive washboard) provides a constantly-felt pulse that is just right for the light-touch style of this band. With the virtuosic Molly on guitar, we have one of the best rhythm sections in the business.
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My book Enjoying Traditional Jazz is available from Amazon:
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My book Enjoying Traditional Jazz is available from Amazon:
