Post 385: THE RHYTHM WIZARDS

Robin Rapuzzi is very proud of the work done in New Orleans by The Rhythm Wizards, one of the jazz bands in which he played.

Alas, the band was short-lived. It disbanded by 2017.

I can tell you this was a really good and interesting band, unusual because of its instrumentation and broad-minded repertoire. It is admirable that so many of the young musicians in New Orleans are introducing us to long-forgotten and unfamiliar tunes, including some with a Caribbean origin. This is so refreshing after all the Bourbon Street Parades and When The Saints and Bill Baileys that we constantly hear elsewhere.

The Rhythm Wizards were formed late in 2014, with Tomas Majcherski as leader. Some of the musicians had earlier played together in an experimental band called The 4.99 Five-Piece (a name based on fried chicken on sale in the market!); and some had played in Steamboat Calypso - the group led by Madeleine Reidy. Robin says they were very inspired by that group. In fact, Maddy was the singer on the first album The Rhythm Wizards produced.

Robin had great respect for the leadership provided by Tomas: he told me Tomas had 'done a ton of research for the group, especially when it comes to picking out the significant poly-rhythms that make Caribbean and jazz music so much fun to play'.

Robin kindly let me know The Rhythm Wizards intended to perform in Royal Street on 7 April 2016, while I was in town. So I made a point of being there.

Who were the members of the band? It's hard to give a definitive answer because the young New Orleans bands all seem to have a pool of players to draw upon. But the 'core' players seemed to be:

Tomas Majcherski : Clarinet and Reeds
Robin Rapuzzi : Drums and Washboard
Jon Ramm : Trombone
Max Bien-Kahn : Guitar
Todd Burdick : banjo and tuba
Peter Olynciw : upright bass
Coleman Akin : Violin
Zayd Sifri : auxiliary percussion
Others who played and recorded with them include:
Max Feldschuh : Vibraphone and Piano
Madeleine Reidy : vocals

You will notice that The Rhythm Wizards usually played without a trumpet and they had up to four musicians on stringed instruments. It was the clarinet that tended to lead on the melody. All these features helped to make this a refreshingly distinctive traditional jazz band.

On its website, the Band claimed to play 'Traditional Jazz and Pan-American Music from the Mississippi Delta to the Caribbean and beyond'. Such a repertoire also made it rather special.

Yes, The Rhythm Wizards could be found playing a popular standard such as Ice Cream, or St. Louis Blues, or an elegant Maple Leaf Rag, but in the same programme you were also likely to hear that rarely-played number St. Louis Tickle and the rhythmic Caribbean-style Petrol or the sweetly melodic waltz-tempo Tres Bemoles (meaning 'Three Flats' - and it is indeed in the key of Eb). Or you might catch them playing Black Rag, which sounded to me like Down Home Rag. (I found later that Down Home Rag was composed in 1911, but that Papa Celestin's Tuxedo Orchestra was the first to record it - in 1925 - under the title Black Rag. I wonder why. To avoid paying dues?)

As you may infer, the variety of rhythms to be heard in a performance justified their name as the 'Rhythm Wizards'.

One of their most popular numbers was The History of Man. Codallo's Top Hatters Orchestra of Trinidad recorded that tune in the 1930s, and The Rhythm Wizards were one of the few bands to be playing it in the 21st Century.

I made two videos of their performance in Royal Street on 7 April 2016. While filming, I slowly walked round the band, to get a good view of all of them in close-up. The result is that the sound quality is sometimes unbalanced but I hope the videos give a good idea of the kind of music the band plays and, incidentally, what busking is like for a musician on the streets of New Orleans.

In one of my videos, they are playing The Cotton-Picker's Drag.  This tune was created by a string band of the 1930s - The Grinnell Giggers. View The Rhythm Wizards playing it BY CLICKING HERE.

The other video shows them playing the old favourite Ice Cream: View it BY CLICKING HERE.

Post 4: THE GRINNELL GIGGERS

The Grinnell Giggers were a small string band - usually just three players - who performed near the Missouri-Arkansas border in the 1920s and 1930s. They were based about 700 miles south-east of the centre of the USA. Or, to put it another way, 500 miles due north of New Orleans.

These men were farmers and fishermen, whose hobby was providing music for country dances. Their leader was Ben Tinnon, born in 1890. He played the violin and also composed most of their tunes. His pieces were bright and simple, with two or three good melodic themes based on familiar easy chord sequences - just right for dancing and straightforward playing. Try, for example, Ruth's Rag, which he wrote in honour of his wife, Ruth. Click here to listen to it.

Let's get this clear right now: the fact that they called themselves 'Giggers' had nothing to do with playing gigs, in the music sense. Grinnells were fish and 'gigging' was a way of catching them (using a pronged fork). These men really were grinnell giggers.

The only times the band recorded were in May and November 1930. Together with Tinnon on fiddle were Melvin Paul (1905-1970) on banjo or mandolin, and Grover Grant (1897-1971) on guitar.  In fact they recorded only eight tunes. But these sessions, which took place in Memphis, have proved to be important and influential.

The tunes recorded were:

Cotton Pickers Drag (composed by Tinnon himself and probably the best of them all - with a distinctive and memorable second theme, descending from high notes)

Duck Shoes Rag

Gigger's Waltz 1

Gigger's Waltz 2 (clearly the same piece of music as above but there are quite a few differences of detail in the playing)

Plow Boy Hop (a fine piece by Tinnon)

Ruth's Rag

Sunset Waltz (Composed by Tinnon. Yes, a waltz; but it's a different from tune from the 'Sunset Waltz' created and recorded by The Mississippi Mud Steppers the previous year)

Uncle Ned's Waltz (a gentle waltz by Tinnon. It has a 'Victorian' feel to it, and there is some pleasant tremolo playing by the banjo)

A generous uploader codenamed Banjerholler has put all these on YouTube for our enjoyment.

As there are a number of fiddle-players among the present young generation of traditional jazz musicians in New Orleans, it is not surprising that that they have been attracted by this music. For example, there is the charming video in which Shaye Cohn is seen playing Plow Boy Hop on the fiddle (apparently for her own amusement), and other members of Tuba Skinny gradually join in. Click here to watch it. And you may care to watch a video I made in April 2016 of The Rhythm Wizards playing Tinnon's Cotton Pickers Drag. Click here to view it. For Shaye playing this tune with Tuba Skinny, click here.

And for Tuba Skinny giving a sweet performance of the 'other' Sunset Waltz - the one created the previous year by the similar string band, The Mississippi Mud Steppers - click here.

Of the three Grinnell Giggers, Ben Tinnon was the first born and the last to die. He passed away in 1974.
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Footnote: On 17 April, 2019, I received this interesting email:
I recently discovered this article about the Grinnell Giggers and also a  
few other sites that had their music. I am thrilled to see these articles  
and hear the music.  The reason for my message is that I personally knew  
Ben Tinnon.  He was my guitar and music teacher in around 1965.  Him and my  
Dad were also very good friends.   He always told me that he had recorded  
for Victor Records and he would play these songs on fiddle while I  
accompanied him on guitar, which was part of my guitar training keeping  
rhythm. I am from East Prairie, Mo.   He was known as Uncle Ben to many folks  
here and was a very nice man loved by all that knew him.
By the way, the picture of the fish that has been gigged is not a
grinnell.   I have gigged grinnell and also caught them on a hook.
Another little piece of information is that the Grinnell Giggers were
supposed to have recorded another group of songs.  For this recording,
they brought the tape recorder to Ben Tinnon's house.   His wife had
gotten upset over his recording and also she had turned against him
playing music because of his new popularity.  So when they were
getting ready to record, she had buttered his bow, which kept him from
playing.  Living out where there was not immediate access to another
bow, the session never took place and was never rescheduled.   Mr.
Tinnon never got over being upset over this.

Regards,
Tommy Loomas