Post 609: THE YOUNG KEEP TRADITIONAL JAZZ GOING

Thank goodness the young are keeping our music going.

There is a band called Ragstretch, formed by young people in 2012.

It is impossible for me to work out where this band is based, because its members are Australians and Scandinavians and some of them seem to be living in New York. The musicians also play in other bands and most of them are already well-known on the traditional jazz scene. But when the band Ragstretch comes together, they give brilliant, sparkling, tasteful performances. There are plenty of videos of them for you to explore on YouTube. You could try this version of Panama (played in Copenhagen) for starters: 

CLICK HERE.

In St. Louis, Missouri, The Sidney Street Shakers play exactly the kind of jazz I like best - unpretentious, straightforward, exciting, with good teamwork and just right for dancers.

And note elsewhere The California Feet Warmers - a fairly young band playing slick, well-prepared traditional jazz.

And even in Britain there is hope for the future. Have a look at the videos of The Brownfield/Byrne Hot Six to discover some technically-brilliant swinging jazz being played by chaps who seem to be still in their twenties.

Also from Britain, seek out the videos of Adrian Cox, or Ben Cummings, or The Graham Hughes Sunshine Kings, or Giacomo Smith, or The Basin Street Brawlers. You will have a pleasant surprise.

And in May 2017 a band called The Ten Bells Rag Band was formed in London. The musicians are relatively young and are inspired by such bands as Tuba Skinny in New Orleans. They play some very pleasant traditional jazz.

Also from London check out the wonderful videos of The Vitality Five.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, we find The Tenement Jazz Band.

I have not had the pleasure of seeing these musicians in person but their videos and recordings suggest to me that they also have been much inspired by the repertoires of Tuba Skinny, The Shotgun Jazz Band and The Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band.

Elsewhere, you may find such good young bands as Magic Shook Heads and The Hippocampus Jass Gang in the south of France: their videos are worth watching. And in Buenos Aires, you have the Jazz Friends - a terrific, fluent band, whose range of instruments sometimes includes the 'pinkullo' - a South American flute.

In the North-Eastern corner of Italy we find the young Adovabadan Jazz Band of Treviso playing some very tasteful traditional jazz. For example, click here to see them performing Cake Walking Babies From Home.

In Horten (population 27,000), Norway, a group of beginners aged 35 to 55 got together in 2016, modestly called themselves The Sloppy Jazz Newbies, and by the following year were making good progress and starting to attract gigs. You can hear them tackling Big Chief Battleaxe BY CLICKING HERE.

In the Rhine-Neckar area of Germany, a newly-formed band of energetic and enthusiastic young musicians has shown what can be achieved even with a limited range of instruments. They call themselves Die Selbsthilfe-Gruppe (The Self-Help Group) and you can find examples of their work on YouTube.

In Japan, of course, there is a terrific jazz scene around Tokyo. Most of the musicians are still quite young. For an immediate example, have a look at a video of Over The Waves to see what I mean:

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

Another band formed in recent years is The Stone Arch Jazz Band of Minneapolis, founded by the talented and tasteful clarinet-player Richard Lund. Have a look at their website: Click here to view. And note that the band has already made some stylish videos, such as this one: Click here to view.

The band called The Fat Babies, based in Chicago, are highly respected and I am told they play regularly at The Green Mill Bar in that City. You can find plenty of their videos on YouTube.

And The Dirty River Dixie Band, founded in Texas and playing a very energetic kind of dixieland music, was able to announce towards the end of 2017 that the average age of its members was under 26. And the Tuba Skinny-inspired King Copper Jazz Band, based in Prescott, Arizona, is very impressive.

The Dizzy Birds Jazz Band in Berlin is terrific.

And have a listen to The Old Fashion Jazz Band of Santiago, Chile, by clicking here.

And correspondent Michael Meissner has introduced me to Queen Porter Stomp in Sydney, Australia. Here they are, and you can easily find examples of this fine young band's work on YouTube:

Regular correspondent Robert Duis recommends looking at videos of Malo's Hot Five and Attila's Rollini Project; and my friend Anders Winnberg in Sweden has assured me there are plenty of good bands operating in his country, where the Gothenburg Jazz Festival is a major event. Anders reports that the Festival is always held at the beginning of September and that last year there were lots of young people, both in the audience and in the bands. And Ray Andrew in Perth, Australia, has told me the traditional jazz scene is very strong in his city and that the young are being attracted to it. Even Finland - a country remote from New Orleans and with a population of well under six million - has the very pleasant Birger's Ragtime Band. Also in Finland there is a band called Doctor Jazz: it seems to me to be bright and recently formed; and several of the players are relatively young.

Regular reader Phil in the USA has recommended the Moscow-based young bands The Kickipickles and The Moscow Ragtime Band. You may find their work on YouTube.

Above all, of course, there is great old-time jazz being played by YOUNG people on the streets of New Orleans. They offer hope for the future, because the Internet and visits from overseas musician-tourists are spreading their influence very rapidly.

In the days before Hurricane Katrina, you would have thought of Bourbon Street as the main hub for jazz in New Orleans. But now it is Frenchmen Street, in the Faubourg Marigny - a road full of jazz bars and clubs. There are over twenty traditional jazz bands playing professionally in New Orleans - more than at any previous time in jazz history.

To see what I mean, even if you can't get to New Orleans, try spending some time visiting the City on YouTube. You will be amazed at the quality of the traditional jazz being produced by instrumentalists mostly under forty years of age; and there are plenty of singers of outstanding ability too.

You may try any of these groups on YouTube. Just type their names in and indulge yourself with some fine music:

Tuba Skinny

Rhythm Wizards Jazz Band (CLICK HERE to sample their tasteful playing)
Loose Marbles
Little Big Horns
The Cottonmouth Kings
The Dapper Dandies
Smoking Time Jazz Band
Jessy Carolina and the Hot Mess
Jenavieve Cook and the Royal Street Winding Boys
Yes Ma'am String Band
The Shotgun JazzBand (led by the dynamic Canadian trumpeter and singer Marla Dixon: CLICK HERE for an exciting example of their work)
Stalebread Scottie and His Gang
The Gentilly Stompers
Eight Dice Cloth
The Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band
Emily Estrella and the Faux Barrio Billionaires (Emily is originally from Cincinatti)
Hokum High Rollers
The Messy Cookers
The Sluetown Strutters
The Palmetto Bug Stompers
John Zarsky and the Trad Stars
The Jazz Vipers
The New Orleans Swamp Donkeys
Orleans 6 (led by the excellent Ben Polcer)
Sour Mash Hug Band
Baby Soda

Post 539: THE CALIFORNIA FEETWARMERS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Frequent correspondent Phil Lynch in the USA is a fan of the Los Angeles-based band called The California Feetwarmers. He has written to me about them in the past.

Now, Phil has alerted me to a concert they gave at The Red Room, Cookstown, in Northern Ireland when they were on tour there in July 2017.

Fortunately for us, a generous video-maker called John Watson put several videos from the concert on YouTube. The sound and visual qualities of these videos are exceptionally good, so this concert is something available for us all to enjoy.

And what we find is that this band is seriously good! Not only are they fine musicians; they are also brilliant at putting together a truly entertaining programme, holding an audience spellbound throughout.

The seven musicians arrange themselves in a straight line across the stage - just the way I like - so that the audience can see all of them and they can see each other. These young men play high-energy music, underpinned by a sensitive, accurate sousaphone, guitar and banjo and minimalist unobtrusive percussion. The clarinet, trumpet and trombone players are technically brilliant and great team-workers. On top of all that, the members of the band can sing; and there are times when the whole band joins in with vocals, in fine close harmony.

They obviously prepared well. There are some first-rate head arrangements, so there is no need for signalling on the hoof.

Take Clarinet Marmalade. They leap about among the various themes and bridges. And there is even a vocal - something I've never heard with this tune before:

CLICK HERE.

The same kind of slickness is evident in their performance of That's a Plenty:
CLICK HERE.

Then, for a contrasting example of their ability to entertain - and involve an audience - try I'm Feeling Good. You can't help wanting to join in on the Chorus, which is based on one of our most familiar 16-bar [plus two-bar tag] chord sequences. The use of stop chords against the cornet solo, and the Chorus in double-time (but with rallentando ending) illustrate how well the band has prepared. 

CLICK HERE.

There is even a storming 14-minute Medley of Sing On, Down By The Riverside, I'll Fly Away, Oh Mary, Don't You Weep, and Over in the Gloryland, which showcases well how brilliant each of the musicians is, both individually and in collective improvisation:
CLICK HERE.

I hope I have whetted your appetite. Explore the rest of the concert for yourself. I am sure you will be impressed by the way these musicians have absorbed the influences of the early ragtime, string and jug bands and given them a new life in the Twenty-First Century. I rate The California Feetwarmers as one of the top bands playing anywhere in the world today and wish I could get to hear them some time.

According to their web page, the members of the band are:

Brandon Armstrong - sousaphone/Bass
Charles De Castro - cornet/Accordion/vocals
Josh Kaufman - clarinet/accordion/piano/vocals
Carlos Reynoso - washboard/Guitar/vocals
Dominique Rodriguez - snare drum/bass drum
Justin Rubenstein - trombone/vocals
Patrick Morrison - Banjo/Guitar.

Post 499: THE YOUNG KEEP THE MUSIC GOING!

There are plenty of wonderful young musicians around the globe who have discovered the musical styles and repertoire of a century ago and are playing traditional jazz with great skill and passion.

Recently two more groups have come to my attention. In Brazil, guitarist Cleber Guimarães has been developing his fine, swinging little band called Fizz Jazz, and you can watch a good example of their work - 'Sunday Swing' - a piece composed by Cleber himself - BY CLICKING HERE. The band seems to have a nucleus of four versatile musicians. Occasionally they are joined by two friends on keyboard and trumpet. Also the band has now issued its first recordings - available on Bandcamp at:
https://fizzjazz.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-the-studio

The other group is The Milk Crate Bandits, based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and led by banjo-playing singer Jack Ray. You can easily find examples of their work on YouTube. Late in 2016 they travelled to New Orleans and, for a great acoustic, recorded several tunes in the building that was the former Luthjen's Dance Hall - and is today the Marigny Recording Studios. I understand that two EPs should be available from May 2017 onwards.

For an immediate example of what is going on in Japan, where there are many well-trained traditional jazz musicians, have a look at a video of Over The Waves played by young musicians in Tokyo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBuXLwcnvvg

I constantly hear of new young bands setting up, (though sadly not as many as I would wish in my own country). There is The Stone Arch Jazz Band in Minneapolis, founded by the talented and tasteful clarinet-player Richard Lund. Have a look at their website: Click here to view. And note that the band has already made some stylish videos, such as this one: Click here to view.

The band called The Fat Babies, based in Chicago, are highly respected and I am told they play regularly at The Green Mill Bar in that City. You can find plenty of their videos on YouTube.

And The Dirty River Dixie Band, founded in Texas and playing a very energetic kind of dixieland music, was able to announce towards the end of 2016 that the average age of its members was under 25.

The situation in such countries as Australia, Germany, Canada, Spain, Italy and Denmark, as far as I can tell, gives some encouragement.

The Dizzy Birds Jazz Band in Berlin is terrific.

And correspondent Michael Meissner introduced me to Queen Porter Stomp in Sydney, Australia. Here they are, and you can easily find examples of this fine young band's work on YouTube:

Regular correspondent from Holland Robert Duis recommends looking at videos of Malo's Hot Five and Attila's Rollini Project; and my friend Anders Winnberg in Sweden has assured me there are plenty of good bands operating in his country, where the Gothenburg Jazz Festival is a major event. And Ray Andrew in Perth, Australia, has told me the traditional jazz scene is very strong in his city and that the young are being attracted to it. Even Finland - a country remote from New Orleans and with a population of well under six million - has the very pleasant Birger's Ragtime Band. Also in Finland there is a band called Doctor Jazz: it seems to me to be bright and recently formed; and several of the players are relatively young.

Regular reader Phil in the USA has recommended the Moscow-based young bands The Kickipickles and The Moscow Ragtime Band. You may find their work on YouTube.

And in Japan, especially, as I indicated above, traditional jazz seems to be going through a boom period. Some of the best in the world is being played in Tokyo. Seek out the performances on YouTube made by the video-maker codenamed ragtimecave.

So, we do not have to accept that traditional jazz is on the way out!

In St. Louis, Missouri, The Sidney Street Shakers play exactly the kind of jazz I like best - unpretentious, straightforward, exciting, with good teamwork and just right for dancers. And note elsewhere The California Feet Warmers - a fairly young band playing slick, well-prepared traditional jazz.

Elsewhere, you may find such good young bands as Magic Shook Heads and The Hippocampus Jass Gang in the south of France: their videos are worth watching. And in Buenos Aires, you have the Jazz Friends - a terrific, fluent band, whose range of instruments sometimes includes the 'pinkullo' - a South American flute.

In the North-Eastern corner of Italy we find the young Adovabadan Jazz Band of Treviso playing some very tasteful traditional jazz. For example, click here to see them performing Cake Walking Babies From Home.

In the Rhine-Neckar area of Germany, a newly-formed band of energetic and enthusiastic young musicians has shown what can be achieved even with a limited range of instruments. They call themselves Die Selbsthilfe-Gruppe (The Self-Help Group) and you can find examples of their work on YouTube.

All terrific stuff. So heart-warming; and giving great hope for the future.

Above all, I can tell you there is great old-time jazz being played by YOUNG people on the streets of New Orleans; and I believe the Internet is spreading their influence so rapidly that there will be yet another big revival of this kind of music.

There are over twenty traditional jazz bands playing professionally in New Orleans - more than at any previous time in jazz history.

To see what I mean, even if you can't get to New Orleans, try spending some time on YouTube. You will be amazed at the quality of the traditional jazz being produced by instrumentalists in their twenties and thirties; and there are plenty of singers of outstanding ability too.

I have written before about Tuba Skinny and The Shotgun Jazz Band - currently the best of all the groups. They are not only technically brilliant; they also take great care over arrangements and presentation of tunes, and they have been reviving great old melodies that were in danger of being forgotten. Have a good look and listen to their work. But here are some examples of other New Orleans bands you may care to investigate on YouTube:

Rhythm Wizards Jazz Band (CLICK HERE to sample their tasteful playing)

Loose Marbles
Little Big Horns
The Cottonmouth Kings
Smoking Time Jazz Band
Jessy Carolina and the Hot Mess
Jenavieve Cook and the Royal Street Winding Boys
Yes Ma'am String Band
The Gentilly Stompers
Hokum High Rollers
The Big Dixie Swingers
The Messy Cookers
The Sluetown Strutters
The Palmetto Bug Stompers
John Zarsky and the Trad Stars
The Jazz Vipers
The New Orleans Swamp Donkeys
Orleans 6 (led by the excellent Ben Polcer)

And even in Britain there is some hope.

The great Ewan Bleach, who spent several months in New Orleans playing regularly with Tuba Skinny and other bands, is involved in several enterprises. In particular, he leads The Cable Street Rag Band in the Limehouse area of London. Robin Rapuzzi recommends this band. He told me: 'I've had the honor of playing with them the last couple summers. Those guys are great. They can play everything from straight and narrow ragtime compositions to gorgeous waltzes and hot, hot dance numbers'. Try them for yourself: there are several videos on YouTube. 'Hot' they certainly are. (You should spot Robin himself guesting on washboard in one of the videos.)

And have a look at the videos of The Brownfield/Byrne Hot Six to discover some technically-brilliant swinging jazz being played by chaps who seem to be still in their twenties.

Also from Britain, seek out the videos of Adrian Cox, or Ben Cummings, or The Graham Hughes Sunshine Kings, or Giacomo Smith, or The Basin Street Brawlers. You will have a pleasant surprise.

I am sure there must be many other such bands around the world. I would be pleased to receive more information.

Post 426: THE BALKAN BRASS BAND INFLUENCE IN TRADITIONAL JAZZ

My American friend and frequent correspondent Phil is very keen on a band called The California Feetwarmers.

He has kept me informed about their Summer 2016 tour in the U.K., Germany and Switzerland. You can hear this band of very proficient musicians by clicking here, where they play slick arrangements of Aunt Hagar's Blues, San and Bill Bailey.

Phil tells me some of the players previously played as a 'Balkan brass band' and there is still a great influence of the disciplines of Balkan brass band music in their playing.

This set me thinking, because Balkan Brass Band Music is something about which I knew virtually nothing. So I spent a couple of hours reading about it. I discovered it seems to have arisen from the folk music mainly of Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria. Much of the music supports vigorous dancing. It has repetitive insistent melodies and very strong rhythms.

Picture a village square. We see a group of colourfully-dressed dancers in a circle, hands linked, dancing in a manner that involves fast-paced complicated foot movements while the upper bodies remain statuesque. They are accompanied by a sousaphone heavily stamping the first and third beats of the bars, an accordion playing rapid sequences of notes, a violin, trumpets and other horns, as well as sundry busy percussion instruments. The band plays with technical precision. The harmonies sound simple – largely involving the three main chords (but perhaps this is deceptive, since it seems likely also that they using some uncommon scales); and the melodies, mostly rapid, contain some acrobatic twists and turns. In some tunes, there are compound time signatures, notably 9/8 and 7/8.

A 'Balkan Brass Band' in New Orleans!

I learned that there are various song forms of which the two commonest are the Kolo and the Čoček. The Kolo is often a group dance as described above and sometimes in 9/8 rhythmic form. The Čoček may also be in 9/8 time.

To get an immediate feel for what Balkan brass band music at its brassiest sounds like, click here.

The Balkan influence has spread among some of the very best traditional jazz musicians of today. Think of Jenavieve Cooke. In her years of nomadic living, she picked up Balkan music at its source. In April 2016 she told me 'I'm a traditional Balkan music and dance freak!'

Years before she formed the famous Royal Street Winding Boys, Jenavieve founded in New Orleans a Balkan brass band called Backyard Belladonna.

And there's Ben Schenk (mainly playing clarinet), now in his 50s, who spent years evolving the kind of band that seemed just right for him. He ended up with The Panorama Jazz Band, which is quite capable of playing traditional jazz in familiar style, but also has in its programmes doses of influence from Balkan brass band music and Klezmer music, not to mention a considerable Caribbean element! Panorama has been a truly great band since Aurora Nealand (who, by the way, has toured in the Balkans) joined it. She - one of the world's greatest reed players - has a heart full of the joys of music of all cultures. She perfectly complements Ben's work. There are plenty of videos of the band on YouTube but I will mention this one, where you catch them in Big Band Mardi Gras format: CLICK HERE.

And think of Matt Schreiber. This fine accordion player and Balkan music specialist not only plays with Ben in the Panorama Jazz Band but also works in the specialist Mahala Trio (Balkan music in New Orleans). Try watching a video of him and his two colleagues by clicking here. It's not a brass band but it certainly gives novices such as myself a good insight into the nature of Balkan music.

And now we have The Wit's End Brass Band. They have produced a remarkable CD that you can find on Bandcamp.

The Wit's End Brass Band 2016.
It includes some familiar faces!

You must watch THIS VIDEO OF THEM. CLICK HERE TO VIEW.

I discovered there are very many 'Balkan Bands' all over the world, even in such unlikely places as England, Australia and the Netherlands. In the USA there are dozens of them, and Balkan Band Summer Camps are held on both the East and West Coasts. For a terrific Balkan SuperBand playing in our beloved Royal Street, New Orleans: CLICK HERE.

Balkan Brass Bands:
Above and Below

In spirit, instrumentation and rhythmic excitement, it seems to me this Balkan music has a lot in common with Klezmer music, which has also had a permeating influence on New Orleans jazz in the 21st Century. Add to these influences that of Caribbean calypso music – much associated in recent years with The Panorama Jazz Band and with Madeleine Reidy and later with The Rhythm Wizards in New Orleans and Wow! We observe some very interesting developments in the music we love.

Post 170: CALIFORNIA FEETWARMERS IN SCOTLAND

The California Feetwarmers (eight musicians) toured in Scotland in January 2015. To judge from YouTube evidence they attracted large audiences.

This seems to prove that such a tour in the U.K. by an American traditional jazz band (they prefer to call themselves a 'ragtime band') is financially viable - something about which there has been considerable doubt in recent years, when audiences for most trad jazz performances in the U.K. are sparse. This band - by the way - is terrific at communicating with and involving the audience.

For a good example of the band's work in Scotland, try this video: CLICK HERE. This is W. C. Handy's 1920 composition Aunt Hagar's Blues, played at an unusually brisk tempo. There's no prima donna exhibitionism. The emphasis is on neat ensemble work; and both the front line and the rhythm section (which includes both washboard and bass drum - rather like Tuba Skinny's) play well-drilled riffs and rhythmic patterns as required.

This is very enjoyable music-making. The California Feetwarmers are a band worth following.