Post 347: DO YOU CARE FOR DISCO MUSIC?

Which do you prefer: disco music or traditional jazz? Regular readers will know well where my preference lies.

Quite a few years ago, when I lived in Wisbech, I volunteered to help at a disco for teenagers in the Great Hall of the Isle College (just inside those windows in the photo above). The din from the stage, on which the operators and their battery of equipment were placed, was unbearable. After a while, I decided I could endure the evening only if I took up a position in the corridor outside. Even there, if I wanted to exchange a word with anyone, I had to shout and then struggle to make out the reply.

Occasionally teenagers would run out of the hall into the corridor for a while, screaming, shrieking and sweating.

At the end of it all, we adult volunteers were left with the clearing up, after which I was truly glad to go home. I would never do anything of the kind again.

I was reminded of that evening while reading a book by Susan Tomes, a very fine pianist whom I admire.

She said in one of her chapters that amplification had 'become the main event' in much modern pop music and that the youngsters embrace this music out of a kind of tribal allegiance. I am sure she is right. These young people are in danger of missing so much if they never hear music played quietly by genuine musical instruments, unamplified. I hope they will in maturer years happen upon a recording of the Quatuor Mosaiques playing Mozart's String Quartet KV 590 or Tuba Skinny playing Cold Morning Shout and be amazed by a new source of great musical joy.

There must be some nuggets somewhere in modern pop music but I long ago gave up the struggle to find them. If you asked me to explain the deficiencies of this type of music, I could come up with a kind of list. But Susan is brilliant at putting her finger right on so many features of the music world. So here she is doing the list-making job for me:

     'You need only spend an evening listening to any pop radio station across the world to know that songwriters in all countries work to a formula. The same disco beat, the same tiny short phrases, timid harmonies, melodies culled from just two or three notes, real instruments replaced by electronic sounds, performers who can't even sing.....'!

Post 346: TUBA SKINNY'S CD 'BLUE CHIME STOMP'

I offer my thanks to the many correspondents who sent me emails this morning to tell me Tuba Skinny's latest CD - Blue Chime Stomp, recorded last April - has at last become available to download. Some asked me to write about it.

Well, it's a bit early for much analysis. I am looking forward to listening to the CD carefully many times in the weeks ahead. But, for what they are worth, here are my immediate observations.

We are told the CD was recorded at The Tigermen Den in Royal Street, New Orleans. Mr. Google shows me the building is situated in a peaceful spot about three-quarters of a mile east of the French Quarter. It is a restored 1830s corner store. It seems there is plenty of music and dancing there these days, and that great food is served.

Maybe the aim was to get an appropriate 'old-time dance hall' type of acoustic. (You may remember The Shotgun Jazz Band did just that with their last CD: they recorded in the former Luthjens Dance Hall.)

There is certainly a good sound quality to this CD. As soon as it begins, with a lusty performance of Maple Leaf Rag, you realise you can hear the tones of all the individual instruments very clearly. Turn up the volume and it's like having them in the room with you.

You later find that, in the recording process, Erika's voice has fared just a little less well in a couple of numbers than the instruments. She is a wonderful singer in great form and beloved by us all but listen to her performance of her own composition Broken-Hearted Blues on the band's 2009 CD and then listen to her performance of the same song on this 2016 CD. A big difference, isn't there? In the 2009 version, the voice is completely clear and you can make out all the words easily; but you can't quite say the same about this 2016 version.

The band has evolved, of course. In 2009, they had just five musicians, plus Erika singing. But in the 2016 CD, they sometimes use nine musicians (three of them reed men) in addition to Erika. This has made Tuba Skinny sound more like a 'big band' on a few numbers. Especially when they use a driving saxophone and 'walking' riffs (as in Running Down My Man and Broken-Hearted Blues) we seem to be in the realms of R&B music. Indeed a correspondent has just told me the Tuba Skinny website - introducing this CD - says '...this album features us in a couple different line-ups - our traditional one, as well as one with multiple reed players, and also our R&B line-up including piano, upright bass and drum set'.

There is also inevitably a greater sense of choreography these days. In the more complicated multi-theme tunes, such as Soudan, Oh Papa, Shaye's composition Blue Chime Stomp, the vigorous Variety Stomp and - to a lesser extent - Dear Almanzoer, all the musicians had to master their parts meticulously in order to participate in the strict, tight arrangements. Of course there is still some room for free expression and improvising, but the backbone of each of these pieces is very rigid.

Robin Rapuzzi (who - before playing washboard regularly with Tuba Skinny - was originally a complete percussionist) plays the full drum-kit on some of these numbers. Todd Burdick apparently plays the string bass rather than the tuba on some - but I have yet to work out which, though I think they include Running Down My Man. He told me last April that he had been 'learning to play a string bass' but he did not mention that he had already recorded with it!

The barrel-house piano (presumably the one in the picture above, belonging to The Tigermen Den) is played by Shaye on some of the pieces. One of these - I'm Blue and Lonesome - is heard in the key of Gb. Amazing. When did you last hear a tune performed by a jazz band in Gb? I can't recall when. All other bands would simply have opted for a key of G or F to keep the playing simpler.

And on the same subject, Erika sings Running Down My Man (the Merline Johnson 12-bar from 1936) in E - a key most traditional jazz musicians steer clear of.

These two tunes (and Broken-Hearted Blues - here performed in the unlikely key of B) make me suspect the piano was half a tone flat. After all, in YouTube videos (with Shaye on cornet rather than piano) they have always played Running Down My Man in F and I'm Blue and Lonesome in G. But for the CD Shaye switched to the piano. If, as I believe, it was half a tone flat, then its F actually produced an E and its G sounded like Gb. Perhaps that's the complete explanation. The rest of the band did very well to adapt to such awkward keys.

With very neat banjo support, Erika sings Me and My Chauffeur (the song written by E. Lawler and recorded in 1941 by Memphis Minnie). This is trickier to sing than it may sound: note the long pause that has to be left in the ninth and tenth bars. There are some gems from Erika - not only those I have mentioned but also the 12-bar blues (composed in the 1930s by Ann Turner for Georgia White) Almost Afraid To Love, and Oh Papa (the Ma Rainey number from 1927) and Midnight Blues, both with substantial vocals. Midnight Blues follows very closely, in spirit and detail, the recording made of this song by Rosa Henderson in 1923 - the year of its composition.

Anyone who has watched the YouTube videos of Tuba Skinny to emerge since March 2015 will have heard all of the tunes on this CD, so they may already be familiar to you.

But here are a few more thoughts about some of the pieces. 

Soudan started out in about 1906 a a sort of tone poem for piano by the Czech composer Gabriel Sebek. He called it Oriental Scene for Piano, Opus 45. The sub-title was In The Soudan: A Dervish Chorus. The ODJB recorded an adaptation of it in 1917 as Oriental Jazz (or Jass) and recorded it again in 1920 - this time as Soudan. As I have indicated, Tuba Skinny play a neat, strict arrangement. Their version intersperses the 'oriental' theme in F minor with the more bouncy traditional theme in the related key of Ab, and there is a trombone-led F minor coda from Barnabus to round it off. It's a very unusual number!

Corrine (sung by Erika) is not the same as the famous Corrine Corrina.

Corrine, recorded in 1937 by Blind Boy Fuller, is a 16-bar blues, not a 12-bar. Erika gives a fine performance in the key of A, appropriately supported by the resonator guitar.

Memphis Shake (long-since established in Tuba Skinny's repertoire) is a straightforward number of two short themes and distinctive diminished chords. The 'big band' line-up gives it a delightfully free treatment, with much ensemble work.

Similar is Shake It And Break It (which has two short themes - in minor and major keys). The performance is very enjoyable and the final minutes are taken up with some pretty soloing and ensemble on the major-key theme.

Blue Chime Stomp is of course yet another fine composition by Shaye. I have written about it before (CLICK HERE to read) and I also had the pleasure of hearing the band play it in New Orleans last April at this performance - CLICK HERE to view.

The CD ends with a very pleasant and straightforward version of Chloe - bringing things full circle in a sense, as this number also featured sweetly on their very first CD of seven years earlier, when they had only five musicians: a cornet, violin and trombone were supported merely by a tuba and guitar. This latest CD version of Chloe (using at least eight musicians) is taken a shade more slowly.

I must also mention the order in which the tunes have been thoughtfully arranged on the CD: fast and slow numbers alternate, as do instrumentals and vocals. So, played straight through, it makes a good concert.

Our heroine - that multi-talented young lady Shaye - has again done the artwork for the CD: see it at the top of this article.

POST 345: MERLINE JOHNSON, CLARA SMITH - THOSE LADIES OF THE BLUES

Tell me honestly: were you much aware of Lucille Bogan, Mamie Smith, Merline Johnson, Memphis Minnie, Clara Smith and Hattie Hart before Tuba Skinny and other young bands in New Orleans today revived some of their songs? I certainly wasn't. Yes, I knew about Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, and I was aware of Victoria Spivey and Clara Smith, though I couldn't have told you much about them.

So I must thank Tuba Skinny and others for making me seek out those great lady performers (who were often composers too) from the 1920s and 1930s. Fortunately, quite of a lot of their work is available on YouTube.

Lucille Bogan (in her later years performing as Bessie Jackson) lived from 1897 until 1948, first in Mississippi and later in Alabama. She was twice married.

Lucille

Lucille made a lot of recordings, songs often composed by herself; and some of them are notable for their sexual innuendoes or even explicitness. She was the originator of Tricks Ain't Walking No More. Memphis Minnie recorded it too. This Century, it has become a favourite in Tuba Skinny's repertoire. Lucille's recording probably also influenced their choice of Eddie Miller's composition I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water.

Merline Johnson was probably born in 1912, in Mississippi or Missouri.

Merline

Merline made recordings from 1937 until 1947, usually in the company of some of the most famous blues musicians of that era. If you are a fan, you may be interested to know that it was from Merline Johnson that Tuba Skinny learned Got a Man in the 'Bama Mine, Sold It To The Devil, and Running Down My Man. What a legacy from someone about whom little is known!

Hattie Hart worked both with and apart from The Memphis Jug Band. Among the songs she recorded that Tuba Skinny have taken up were Won't You Be Kind To Me? (her 1928 composition), Ambulance Man, and Papa's Got Your Bath Water On.

Hattie

Not much is known about Hattie, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in about 1900.

I must briefly mention Clara Smith, who was born around 1894 in Carolina and worked in both New Orleans and New York. In the 1920s, she recorded well over a hundred songs, often with some of the 'big names'. Though she did not compose it, Clara made Freight Train Blues famous; and this is another song Tuba Skinny have developed dramatically (train noises and all) in their repertoire.

Clara

Among Clara's other interesting recordings are Jelly Bean Blues and Percolatin' Blues. Clara died in 1935.

And what about Mamie Smith (1883 - 1946 - no relation to the other Smiths)? She was the singer who made famous the song composed in 1920 by the 27-year-old Perry Bradford, Crazy Blues. He was the Musical Director of Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds. Mamie recorded it in the same year with huge success. This is now considered by jazz and blues scholars to have been an important milestone in the history of our music, because Mamie was the first black blues singer to be recorded.

Mamie

Mamie could be said to have started the era of classic female blues. In 2014, Tuba Skinny introduced into their repertoire a super version of Crazy Blues - quite a tour de force by their singer Erika Lewis.

Memphis Minnie has become a favourite of mine. It was she who recorded Me and My Chauffeur, Bumblebee, Blood Thirsty Blues, Frisco Town, I'm Goin' Back Home, What's The Matter With The Mill? as well as many other good old songs. Erika Lewis and Tuba Skinny have found her work to be a rich source.

Memphis Minnie

'Memphis Minnie' was of course a stage name. She was born in Algiers (the 'across the river' suburb of New Orleans) in 1897 and her real name was Lizzie Douglas. As a teenager, she became a busker in Memphis and it was there that her musical career was to take off, especially when she was invited to make recordings, together with her second husband (of three): they were billed as 'Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie'. They wrote quite a lot of their own material. Over the years, Minnie performed in many different cities and recorded for various labels. She had a hard life but seems to have been a tough, resilient, cheerful woman and a good singer and guitarist. Possibly she was the most popular country blues singer of all time. She died in 1973. Fortunately, it is still possible to buy many of her recordings and to find some on YouTube. CLICK HERE  for an example of Minnie's work.

Victoria

As for Victoria Spivey from Houston (who is, I believe, a favourite of Erika's), this lady had a long career. Coming from a musical family, she lived from 1906 until 1976 and was a prolific entertainer.

She was a pianist as well as a singer and composer. (Among her compositions were TB Blues, How Do They Do It That Way?, Black Snake Blues, Detroit Moan, Moaning the Blues, Long Gone, and Spider Web Blues.) She made her first recording in 1926 and her last as late as 1964, having worked at times with several of the big names of jazz. At the age of 56, she launched a record label of her own. She even found time to marry four husbands. CLICK HERE to appreciate Victoria Spivey singing Any Kind A Man Would Be Better Than You; and you will understand at once how much she has influenced today's singers, such as Erika Lewis.

Georgia White was another blues singer who influenced Tuba Skinny. For example, Erika picked up Late Hour Blues from Georgia's 1939 recording of this song by Richard M. Jones. Georgia and Richard worked together and jointly composed I'm Blue and Lonesome; Nobody Cares For Me and Biscuit Roller - both of them songs Erika has adopted - to the delight of her fans. Georgia White is believed to have been born in 1903 and was working in Chicago by the 1920s.

Georgia White

She made a very large number of recordings. She was still performing as late as the 1960s and is believed to have died in about 1980.

While 'researching' these ladies, I discovered there were DOZENS more like them making good blues recordings at the same time. For example, check out Leonia Williams. There are several of her recordings from 1922 and 1923 on YouTube - some of them remarkably clear and impressive. She is accompanied by her 'Dixie Band', though I gather they were actually The Original Memphis Five.

I simply could not study the work of all these ladies. But believe me, they are there all right.

Post 344: THE GENTILLY STOMPERS - A NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND

One of the best traditional jazz bands to appear in 2016 (even though it was formed only at the beginning of that year) was The Gentilly Stompers. When you see who's in the line-up you will begin to understand why. This picture shows the players who recorded the band's first CD. It was released on 24 January 2017. It is called 'Thanks A Million!' and comprises 12 tunes, mostly good old favourites.

You can watch a very happy video of the band - with excellent sound and picture quality (though without a reed player on the occasion) by clicking here. When I spent a few days visiting New Orleans in April 2016, one of the local musicians gave me the tip that I ought to seek out The Gentilly Stompers. I had not previously heard of them.

The Gentilly Stompers at Bamboula's

I managed to find them playing at Bamboula's in Frenchmen Street on 10 April. And a very enjoyable session it was. The Band played mainly the standard repertoire in good but uncomplicated arrangements. The teamwork and musicianship were outstanding.

The Band had been formed early in 2016 by yet another great lady trumpet-player - Catie Rodgers. Her own playing is first-class and she is a good leader - giving clear directions and encouraging all members of the band to show what they can do.

I managed to have a few words with Catie. She told me she studied Music at the local University of New Orleans, specialising in trumpet playing. She is a fine classical trumpet player. But classical trumpet players do not always make good traditional jazz players. Catie is an exception. She is an outstanding player in the New Orleans jazz idiom, whether stating a melody with minimal decoration, or improvising a solo chorus with great technical proficiency.

Catie told me she is 'going for clarity and soul'. One of her main influences is the cornet player Connie Jones, who recently retired. She told me 'His lines and feeling really can't be beat'. She said her policy has been to recruit musicians who are sharp, sensitive listeners and really good, fun people. 'I believe that creates an inviting dynamic, and a positive environment to hang in. I'm always looking for more inspiration, whether it be recordings, old or new, or in my fellow peers as we grow and change together'.

Her core players at July 2016 were: Haruka Kikuchi (trombone), Chloe Feoranzo (reeds), Alex Belhaj (guitar), Miles Lyons (tuba) and Sean Clark (drums).

But how did Catie come to be leader of a band called The Gentilly Stompers?

While still a student (in about 2012), she started gigging in the City. She did quite a bit of deputising for absent trumpet players. As they were often the band leaders, she found herself in both a directing as well as a deputising role. Soon people began to suggest that she should officially become a band-leader and run a band of her own.

Why call it The Gentilly Stompers? It is named after Gentilly, the New Orleans suburb about four miles north of the French Quarter. Gentilly is on the south side of Lake Pontchartrain and it is also where The University of New Orleans is situated.

How has Catie mastered the art of playing the trumpet so well? By putting in many years of hard work, I am sure. But she also told me the secret lies in loving the instrument. 'I have great respect for the trumpet and I think that's very important.'

I made a video during their performance on 10 April. Unfortunately, because of the conditions in the bar, the lighting and sound qualities are far from perfect, but I hope it will give you some idea of how good this band really is: CLICK HERE for a performance of 'Honeysuckle Rose'.

Some months later, Catie decided to head to Kansas City to pursue yet higher classical trumpet music studies at the University of Missouri. Though she was missed in New Orleans, I am sure we all wished her well. The good news is that she was back in New Orleans at the end of December 2016, leading The Gentilly Stompers in some gigs, no doubt during her vacation. Here she is, on December 29th, 2016, at Buff'a's, leading the band through Milneberg Joys:

Even later news is that Catie returned 'permanently' to New Orleans in March 2017. I hope she will keep the band going.


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FOOTNOTE

The book Enjoying Traditional Jazz by Pops Coffee is available from Amazon.

Post 343: TROMBONE GLISSANDOS; 'I'D RATHER DRINK MUDDY WATER'

One of the special effects that any trombonist can contribute to a performance by a traditional jazz band is the glissando, where he uses his slide to move (sometimes down but more often up) from one note to another. Most commonly, it is used on the last beat of a bar, dragging up to the first beat of the next bar, and in the process moving either the melody or the chord progression or both on to the next change.

Barnabus Jones, with Shaye and Erika

Well, let me tell you about an amazing use of trombone glissandos. The trombonist is Barnabus Jones and the band is Tuba Skinny on its CD called 'Rag Band'.

In the song I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water (a 12-bar blues from 1936 performed in the key of G), Barnabus plays nothing but glissandos. There are - I think - 96 bars (i.e. eight choruses) - not counting the Introduction - and Barnabus plays a glissando leading into every odd-numbered bar. So he plays 48 glissandos in all. AND ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE! He begins every glissando on the 4th beat of a bar, slides up to the required note by the first beat of the next bar and then sustains the note for several beats, thereby underpinning all that is going on in the rest of the band.

I don't know whose idea this was. But I suspect it's because the trombonist on the later Smiley Lewis recording of this song did something similar. When Smiley recorded it, he changed the title to Don't Jive Me. I wonder why.

The glissando works amazingly well. Whether accompanying Erika's singing, or Shaye's piano chorus, or the clarinet solo, the glissandos are unrelenting; and they are very effective in pumping the tune along.

What a tour de force!

You can listen to the performance by going to:
https://tubaskinny.bandcamp.com/album/rag-band

Then click on the second tune. You will hear it - completely free. But I hope you will also consider helping this wonderful band by buying the CD. You can do this online: just follow the instructions on the page. I have done it; and it works easily and well. You can also watch the band performing this number on YouTube:

CLICK HERE.

Just keep your eye on that trombone slide! The indefatigable Mr. Jones works the trick again, though in this YouTube performance he  also plays a more 'standard' out-chorus.

And there's a more recent YouTube performance:
CLICK HERE.

Incidentally, here's how the tune sounds to me (three choruses).

Post 342: 'PERCOLATIN' BLUES' AND THE SMOKING TIME JAZZ CLUB

Percolatin' Blues was written in about 1925 by Lemuel Fowler.

He was a composer of 57 tunes and an important pianist. He featured in many early jazz recordings. Percolatin' Blues was recorded by the great blues singer Clara Smith in 1926, with Fowler himself at the piano.

To my ear, Percolatin' Blues has this structure:
(1) a 4-bar Introduction
(2) a verse of 16 bars (played twice, with different words the second time)
(3) a 32 bar Chorus (16 + 16 - with no Middle Eight). Bars 25 - 28 inclusive are treated as 'breaks'. The words of the Chorus give the 'instructions' for the  'Percolation' dance ('You hop to the left; then you hop to the right; then perrrrrcolate...'). If you would like to add it to your repertoire, it's a simple, catchy, riffy little tune to pick up and I would suggest Eb as a comfortable key.

It was a fine modern video on YouTube that brought me to this song. I chanced upon The Smoking Time Jazz Club with their radiant singer Sarah Peterson giving a performance of Percolatin' Blues in a New Orleans street. Compared with the original, they simplify the Verse down to one set of 16 bars only.

The film (in HD) was made by Beau Patrick Coulon and his team. The video is of the highest professional quality: it uses more than one camera; and a splendid range of shots takes us all round the band and the street dancers with great attention to detail. You watch this video and immediately want to get on the next plane to New Orleans. The joyful atmosphere is so infectious. These are people who know how to have a good time.

Click here to watch it.

I have been four times to New Orleans - three of them long before Katrina. I'm hoping I shall be able to make it there one more time before heading to the Gloryland.

It will be such joy to see and hear the wonderful new generation of street performers.

Post 341: CONRAD CAYMAN, CHLOE FEORANZO, AND JUSTIN AU

A few years ago, a blog reader asked me to have a look at the video of Chloe Feoranzo and Conrad Cayman playing and singing the duet What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

I had not previously heard of Chloe and Conrad but I was immediately enchanted. It must be one of the sweetest performances by just two musicians ever to appear on YouTube. If you haven't yet seen the video, please have a look by clicking on here. Isn't that delightful?

But after that touching, gentle performance (in 2012), fast forward to April 2016 and watch Chloe playing the C melody sax, trading bars at high speed with James Evans. The final couple of minutes of this video (the last four choruses) are sensational: click here to view it. On that evidence (Chloe had just moved to New Orleans a few days earlier and this was her first full gig with the band) I would say Chloe was at that time the best and most exciting traditional jazz reed player aged under 25 in the world. She is brilliant on saxes and clarinet and also plays ukulele and she sings most beautifully. What a talented young lady!

And then, for more excitement, watch both Conrad and Chloe in the same week playing Fidgety Feet in New Orleans with The Shotgun Jazz Band by clicking here.

When I previously visited New Orleans in April 2015, I had the pleasure of meeting Conrad who, like me, was there for the French Quarter Festival. 

He appears in an exciting video I made at the time, guesting with The Shotgun Jazz Band in Climax Rag: click here to view it.

Conrad was involved in several musical ventures and had recently gone full-time as a musician and band-leader.

When I returned to New Orleans in April 2016, I had not been in town for more than half an hour when I bumped into Conrad again. And this time Chloe was with him! Meeting them both together was a most joyful event for me. They were about to listen to Marla Dixon's wonderful Shotgun Jazz Band at The Spotted Cat and - of course - to sit in for a few tunes.

Chloe has been playing trad jazz festivals since the age of 15. She went off to college in St. Louis but decided to drop out after only two years because her career had taken over: she had so many attractive gigs in her diary that she was too busy to go on attending lessons! Roots American artist Pokey LaFarge had spotted her playing with a local band and asked her to tour with his band. She did that for a few years, travelling all over the world.

In April 2016, she took the decision to move home to New Orleans and was immediately in demand to play with several bands. I guessed she would stay happy and extremely busy. And Chloe does not feel that she is exclusively a traditional jazz player. She also plays modern as well as various ethnic folk styles.

Earlier in California, Conrad and Chloe, together with trumpet-player Justin Au, had been the nucleus of a small group calling itself The JC Jazz Crew. May I suggest you check out their website: www.jcjazzcrew.com. And have a look at this charming video: Click Here. If you enjoyed that, try this one, which is delightful too (and it features a beautiful cat): Click Here.

They made some great videos in Conrad's living room. Curiously enough, they really enjoyed sitting on the floor to play. So when they made a CD, they called it Four on the Floor (including Conrad's vacuum cleaner, which happens to feature in some of the videos!). An artistic friend, Thomas Yamaoka, produced these very effective front and back covers for the CD:

Conrad very kindly gave me a copy of the CD and both he and Chloe autographed it for me. What a souvenir! 

And I must tell you that Chloe's mother, Donna, did the artwork for the inside of the CD.

A few days later, their colleague Justin Au arrived in New Orleans and he too sat in with The Shotgun Jazz Band at The Spotted Cat.

Conrad, Chloe, Justin.

Justin comes from a famous jazzing family. He and his brothers Gordon and Brandon have also been playing traditional jazz since their youth. They were influenced by their uncle, Howard Miyata, who plays tuba and trombone with The High Sierra Jazz Band. Justin has played and recorded with many of the 'big names' of today; and he also works in Sacramento, teaching music and traditional jazz on various youth programmes.

The CD 'Four on the Floor' is a delight. Conrad explained to me that, because he and Justin live six hours apart, and Chloe was touring, the three friends got together only once or twice  a year, including November for the San Diego Jazz Festival. Just for fun, they made a video, playing the Stars Wars Cantina Band Song.

(They were amazed that it had been watched 565,000+ times on YouTube by May 2016. Judge it for yourself by clicking here.) This led to the idea of recording an album; but it took another year to make and then a further year to mix, master and produce, finally appearing in November 2015.

With a guest on four of the eleven tracks, and vocals on five tracks, there is technically brilliant music in a variety of moods, with some slick arrangements. The very popular Katie Cavera on banjo and bass is one of the guests; the other is Corey Gemme on trombone (though elsewhere he also plays reeds, cornet, sousaphone and is a composer!).

For example, there's an astonishing number of clever touches to enjoy in Riverboat Shuffle, which they take at quite a pace. 

These modest young people are altogether charming and amazingly talented. Let us look forward to many years of great music from them.

Conrad told me the JC Jazz Crew were planning to be together again next in November 2016.

Post: 340 TUBA SKINNY IN AUSTRALIA - A GREAT VIDEO

One of the best half-hour traditional jazz videos that you will find anywhere on YouTube is a concert given by Tuba Skinny during their Australian tour in 2013.

As the video was professionally made and edited by Australian Television, the visual and sound qualities are exceptionally good.

The tunes played are 'Got A Man In The 'Bama Mines', 'Billygoat Stomp', 'Deep Henderson', 'Biscuit Roller', 'Dirty TB Blues', and 'Dallas Rag'.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT.

At the time, the band was an eight-piece and included on strings those great musicians Ryan Baer (six-string banjo) and Westen Borghesi (tenor banjo). The reed player was Jonathan Doyle, who always contributed something very cultured to the Tuba Skinny sound.

My own favourite performances are 'Biscuit Roller', with its terrific vocal from Erika, and 'Deep Henderson' - a tour de force. I am always thrilled to hear how Barnabus and Shaye cope with those thrilling and difficult arpeggios in the third theme of 'Deep Henderson'. Listen out for them at 11 mins 50 seconds to 12 mins 02 seconds and again from 12 minutes 37 seconds to 12 minutes 49 seconds.

Also, the passion of Erika's singing and the supporting instrumental work in 'Dirty TB Blues' are outstanding.

This video was on YouTube for a couple of years and then sadly was taken down. But what a thrill it was when - a couple of years later - it mysteriously re-appeared!

Post 339: WHAT IS TRADITIONAL JAZZ?

Recently I was present when two friends - both jazz musicians - got into an argument about what exactly 'traditional jazz' is. One of them took the extreme 'purist' line that traditional jazz is what was played in New Orleans by black musicians in the first half of the Twentieth Century. Only those black musicians, he said, could really feel the music and instinctively play the 'blues' scales. He said that later 'traditional jazz', largely played by white musicians, should just be called 'Dixieland' - music that was slick and often polished but lacking in the true 'blues feeling'.

It reminded me of the arguments on the same topic that my schoolboy friends John, Ian and Derek used to have in the 1950s, when the British 'trad jazz' boom began. We called the music 'trad'; but John and Derek said British bands were producing only a commercialised and sanitised copy of authentic New Orleans traditional jazz. (Personally, I kept out of these arguments. I just wished I could play it - sanitised or not!)

The argument between my pals a few days ago made me think: 'Wow! I have been writing a blog called Enjoying Traditional Jazz for several months. Do I really know what I'm talking about?'

Well, I am not going to attempt a dictionary-style definition of traditional jazz. The fact is that I do not consider the nomenclature important. But I will tell you what I am trying to cover in my blog.

The kind of music I am writing about encompasses all the following terms (and probably more):

Traditional Jazz
'Trad'
New Orleans Jazz
Dixieland
Ragtime
Chicago-Style Jazz
West Coast Jazz
Jug Band Music

In other words, for me traditional jazz is about a style of playing: a group of musicians take a tune and agree the key, the melody and the chord sequence and away they go, playing the material and improvising around it. Generally there is a fixed tempo and generally the 'choruses' are repeated end-to-end as many times as required. There may or may not be an agreed musical arrangement - either a 'head' arrangement or one on paper. The tunes are drawn largely but not exclusively from the repertoires of the classic jazz bands from the first half of the Twentieth Century and popular music generally.

I do not have a fixed idea about what instruments a traditional jazz band should contain and I do not agree that a traditional jazz band must have six or seven players. I think traditional jazz can be played by any number of players - from one to perhaps as many as ten (provided they do not tread on each other's toes).

I do not even believe that a trad band should have a 'front line' of trumpet, clarinet and trombone and a 'rhythm section' of bass (tuba or string), drums and chord instrument (guitar, banjo or piano). Although this formation has worked well for many bands for decades, I think traditional jazz being played by bands that include a violin, a washboard, a harmonica or whatever is just as valid. Look at photos from the bands of the 1920s: there are various combinations of instruments and you often find the leader was a violinist.

What I do not count as traditional jazz is 'free jazz'. And 'modern jazz' is not quite traditional jazz either, though there is more overlap with traditional jazz than some may think.

Do the musicians have to be black in order to achieve greatness? Well, certainly when you listen to such a player as Johnny Dodds, you understand why some theorists think so. But white musicians have contributed massively to the history of traditional jazz, in composing and performing. And now we have the new generation of young musicians who have gravitated to the streets of New Orleans. Most of them are white; and they play with great technique and feeling. Their music - for me - is traditional jazz. You can find plenty of it on YouTube. Try any of these bands:
Loose Marbles
Baby Soda
The Palmetto Bug Stompers
The Gentilly Stompers
The Shotgun Jazz Band
Tuba Skinny
The Smoking Time Jazz Band
The Little Big Horns