Post 462: THE BEST TRADITIONAL JAZZ OF 2016

James Sterling

Looking back on 2016, the most exciting performance of traditional jazz I heard in the entire year was played by the unlikely combination of string bass, banjo, and TWO C melody saxophones - just four instruments. The musicians were Tyler Thomson, John Dixon, James Evans and young Chloe Feoranzo. The tune was Bye Bye Blues.

It started pleasantly and conventionally enough. But notice what happens from 2 minutes 56 seconds in the four final choruses. First we have the two saxes 'trading eights'. Then at 3 minutes 32 seconds (how the excitement is building!) they play a chorus 'trading fours'; next at 4 minutes 08 seconds they top this with a chorus 'trading twos'. Finally at 4 minutes 45 seconds they play an ensemble out-chorus which has the whole place rocking. I still feel breathless every time I listen to this. Everybody at The Spotted Cat knew they had just witnessed something very special.

I was there - but not using my camera. Thank goodness James Sterling was on hand to video it for the rest of the world! He deserves our deepest gratitude.

Watch the video for yourself by clicking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTFXYDyBRr4

Post 395: JAMES EVANS, CHLOE FEORANZO - AND A MAGICAL MOMENT

During my April 2016 visit to New Orleans, one moment stood out as the most wonderful and magical.

I was in the audience at The Spotted Cat on Saturday 9 April when The Shotgun Jazz Band was playing. Chloe Feoranzo, the great young clarinet and saxophone player (and singer) had moved to New Orleans only a few days earlier and had not yet even finished unpacking her belongings. But she was already sitting in with some bands and booked to play in others.

The Shotgun Jazz Band, 9 April 2016
Left to Right:
Chloe Feoranzo, John Dixon, Marla Dixon,
Tyler Thomson, James Evans (here, unusually, on trombone)

With so many musicians engaged elsewhere in French Quarter Festival duties, The Shotgun Jazz Band was short of its regular staff: they had no trombone player. So the brilliant James Evans (like Chloe, one of the world's greatest traditional jazz reed players and also a very good singer) switched to trombone for some numbers (yes, he can play that instrument very well too!). And Chloe played the full gig on reeds.

When we reached the final number of the second set, Marla Dixon left the stand to go among the audience with the 'tips bucket' as she always does. This left James and Chloe in charge of the music. They chose to play Bye Bye Blues, both using their C Melody Saxes. It was a stunning performance that I shall never forget.

Thank goodness for James Sterling! He - a reader of my blog - had driven over from Florida and was filming it on his mobile phone. Thanks to James, you too can now witness (on YouTube) this very special performance of Bye Bye Blues.

It is astonishing to think that only four musicians were involved (two of them on saxes) and that such pulsating music resulted. We have John Dixon on banjo and Tyler 'Twerk' Thomson on string bass (in my opinion the best combination in the world, when it comes to driving music along in a rock-steady 4/4). The piece starts off normally enough with James Evans introducing the melody. The excitement gradually builds up. Note what happens from two minutes 55 seconds, after John Dixon's chorus. James and Chloe play one chorus 'trading eights' and then one 'trading fours' and then another 'trading twos'. Absolutely thrilling. It is amazing what is produced by James Evans and this young lady half his age. Just look at the faces of James Evans and Tyler Thompson. They knew something very special was going on. Finally, there is a throbbing 'all-in' chorus in which the two sax players are positively bouncing in their seats. I can tell you the audience loved it and there were tears of joy in the eyes of seasoned veterans.

Now turn up the volume and please watch the video for yourself by clicking here.

I spent quite a bit of time chatting with video-maker James Sterling and his wife Markay during my visit and I can tell you he is a wonderful and generous gentleman.

Post 309: THE NOWHERE CHORD AND THE CLAPHAM JUNCTION CHORD

Listening to Wabash Blues, I was reminded that what 'makes' this tune is the 13th bar (measure), where we suddenly land on a note and chord that sound alien but are in fact just right.

Don't know what I mean? Well, hear what happens at 30 - 32 seconds into this video (click on to view) and again (more conspicuously) from 1 minute 42 seconds to 1 minute 44 seconds.

Checking it out, I found it's the chord on the flattened 6th of the key in which the tune is played. So, if you are playing in C, the flattened 6th would be the chord of Ab. If you're playing in F, it would be the chord of Db:

And so on.

The flattened 6th is a chord that rarely appears in our music but, whenever it pops up, it creates a special effect.

I discussed this with my friend Ralph Hunt and he told me that among banjo players such as himself it is known as the 'Nowhere Chord'. That sounded really interesting. Did it mean the chord that led nowhere? Did it mean the chord that seemed to come from nowhere? Unfortunately the explanation was much more mundane: it came from the tune 'Out of Nowhere', in which the chord plays a prominent part.

The led us to wonder what other tunes we could think of in which the listeners are hit at some point with the chord on the flattened 6th. In five minutes we came up with these:

Bye Bye Blues (on the word 'blues': you can hear it, can't you?)

Come Back Sweet Papa (very emphatically in the Verse)
I Never Knew What a Girl Could Do (both in the verse and in the main theme)

Love Songs of the Nile
Oriental Strut (in the main theme)

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

Marie (30th bar)

Mama's Gone, Goodbye (Mama's gone, Mama's gone goodbye)

My Melancholy Baby (in the second half of each of the first two bars):

San (it makes the Chorus truly distinctive)
Sorry (bars 3 & 4, for example)
Golden Leaf Strut (bars 25 and 26)

Henry Kiel reminds me that four more are:
Alabama Jubilee (in both Verse and Chorus)
Angry
Black and Blue (Middle Eight)
Dancing With Tears in My Eyes

But no doubt you will tell me there are more......

And while we're on the subject of these strange named chords, did you know there is one called 'The Clapham Junction Chord'? I learned about it from The Oxford Companion to Music. It is the chord of the 7th diminished. For example, in the key of C, it would contain B, D, F, and Ab.

Why Clapham Junction? Because that is a railway station in South London from which routes branch off in many directions. In the same way, when you play this chord, you can modulate into any one of several different chords to follow it.