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 260: LUCKY JIM - A VISIT TO NEW ORLEANS

A September Night on Frenchmen Street

I had an email from Jim Sterling, an elderly Florida resident and regular reader of my articles. Jim shares my tastes in traditional jazz and also experiences the same joy as I do when witnessing the finest performances.

In mid-September, Jim undertook the long drive to New Orleans to spend a couple of days catching what he could of the music.

As I have never been in New Orleans at such a time of year, I was happy to learn from Jim how well the music is supported even when it is not 'festival' season. There was standing room only in such places as The Spotted Cat. Jim wrote: 'The amazing thing was that it was a Monday night in September, not the height of the tourist season and not a weekend night. But the street was packed with locals and tourists.'

Although, in such a short visit, Jim inevitably missed some of the performers he would have liked to catch, he was thrilled to meet and have good conversations with the reed player Earl Bonie, who was deputising for Aurora Nealand in The Royal Roses. Jim wrote 'Earl grew up in New Orleans and played for years on the steamboats and with the Dukes of Dixieland for about ten years. He also plays on large ocean-going cruise ship bands'.

Jim also enjoyed in Frenchmen Street 'an impromptu street performance by a brass band of mostly young black musicians so I had to stop and listen to their spirited playing'.

At The Spotted Cat, Jim caught The Jazz Vipers. 'I really enjoyed their playing, as well as the Royal Roses, though their style is not the same era of traditional jazz as Tuba Skinny. Both bands did more swing numbers, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Fletcher Henderson/Benny Goodman style. I have been a fan of that style since my college days. I actually got to see and hear both Ellington and Basie shortly before they died... The highlight of the Jazz Vipers was their performance of Basie's One O'Clock Jump. And JUMP it did! It brought down the house, along with a couple doing the Lindy Hop while they played. The dance floor cleared of other dancers when they got going and it seemed to inspire the band even more'.

Just as I would have been, Jim was thrilled to meet and speak with the musicians, including some who were passing by and looked in for a while. These included Jenavieve Cooke (who sang a song with the Vipers) and Haruka Kikuchi, back from her European tour and shortly heading to Japan for a festival.

Jim managed to video some numbers, so watch out for his YouTube offerings. This one (CLICK ON HERE TO VIEW) brilliantly captures the atmosphere in Frenchmen Street on a September night.

He says: 'If you can't tell,  I am still on Cloud Nine about the experience'. I know the feeling.

Post 18: JENAVIEVE COOKE

If you would like to see a performance by a remarkable young lady who is a singer / trumpet-player / band-leader (and very good in all three rôles), CLICK HERE.

Giving up a good career to become a musician, especially when it means learning new instruments from scratch without a tutor, can be 'hard and scary'. That's what Jenavieve Cooke told me. And having got to know her a little, I can easily understand what she meant. She said that although it is hard and scary it is also 'very exciting and rewarding'.

The first time I heard of Jenavieve Cooke was in August 2015, when a reader of this Blog suggested I should watch some YouTube videos in which she was featured. With her Band - The Royal Street Winding Boys - she was filmed busking in New Orleans. She played trumpet on That's a Plenty and also sang numbers such as Egyptian Ella.

I was hooked. Jenavieve had a band of very fine musicians, and she presented the music in a forthright, appealing way. She also had charisma, and what you might call 'stage presence'. 

So, when I visited New Orleans in April 2016, I hoped I would get to hear Jenavieve playing. Sure enough, I found her with her band on the evening of April 9th in The Dragon's Den, which is situated at the junction of Frenchmen Street and Esplanade Avenue.

But before I tell you about that, I must pass on what I learned from Jenavieve about her development as a musician. It is a fascinating story that would make a novel in itself; and I think it illustrates so well the drive, bravery, dedication and hard work to be admired in the new young generation of traditional jazz musicians who have migrated to New Orleans.

Jenavieve was born in Bremerton in Washington State. (If your geography is as bad as mine, it may help to picture that as pretty well 120 miles south of Vancouver in Canada.) Her father was a naval officer on the base there. It wasn't long before the family found itself on the opposite side of the USA, in Annapolis, Maryland, where there is a big naval base to which her father had been transferred. This was one of many moves that must have disrupted Jenavieve's education. She told me she changed schools eight times during twelve years. Her father would be at sea for months at a time.

Throughout her childhood, Jenavieve knew that she had music in her soul. In Annapolis, a friend of the family was leader of the navy band. Jenavieve loved dancing and has fond memories of the dance parties there.

Soon, her father having left active duty to be in the Reserves, they moved to Orlando, Florida. When Jenavieve was only 12, her mother became seriously ill with cancer and successfully underwent chemotherapy.

Her parents arranged for her to have piano lessons, but only for six months. Jenavieve also played drums in the band of one of the Middle Schools that she attended briefly.

At High School, Jenavieve underwent a rigorous International Baccalaureate programme. This left her no time to join one of the school bands. But she was always singing: 'I used to sing constantly in my room or in school and my brother always told me to shut up whenever I sang!'

She told me 'My dad wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer and my mom was very sick. That was the moment I decided I would never be a musician, but rather a music lover.'

However, in the late 1990s, while at High School, Jenavieve got into swing dancing, taking lessons and then attending as many dances as she could. At this time, she discovered the recordings of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. And such visiting bands as the Squirrel Nut Zippers (from Asheville) thrilled her and showed what was possible. 'I was in love with it all. It spoke to my soul in a very unpretentious and permanent way.'

Jenavieve went to university, studying medicine for two years before deciding this was not for her and switching to a further two years double-majoring in Advertising and Psychology, while at the same time taking lots of art classes. She moved to San Francisco where, after further study, she found a job in which she could be truly creative: art direction in advertising. She says she loved the job ...... and yet still didn't feel content with her life.

One weekend a group of young musicians passed through. She was so moved by the joy they experienced and gave. This was the crucial moment. She gave up her job, bought a guitar and headed to Costa Rica with a one-way ticket.

Then she spent seven years travelling extensively in Canada, Central America and Europe. She played the guitar, learned music, busked,  hitch-hiked, camped, worked on farms, made and sold leather goods, picked up languages, and recorded music from various cultures. She told me 'I travelled pretty much penniless'. Jenavieve believes all of this was a massively beneficial experience.

(And you see what I mean about Jenavieve's life sounding like the plot of a substantial novel.)

She was 25 when she started to learn to play the trumpet. (She can now also play various other instruments, including the accordion). The Jenavieve Cooke of today began to emerge.

She worked immensely hard at her trumpet playing and in developing her vocal skills.

Between working in Europe and elsewhere, Jenavieve in each of 2011, 2012 and 2013 spent a few months in New Orleans. A speciality of hers was traditional Balkan music. And in fact she has never lost this interest: she has founded in New Orleans a Balkan Brass Band called Backyard Belladonna.

In the summer of 2013 she attended the famous Welbourne Traditional Jazz Camp, where the tutors include some of the greatest New Orleans-based musicians.

Then she settled in New Orleans, determined to 'really learn this traditional jazz stuff'! She formed her band The Royal Street Winding Boys (and what an appropriate and memorable Jelly Roll Morton-inspired name she chose for it!). Despite the struggles familiar to any band trying to get itself recognised, she now has the satisfaction of seeing her band firmly established in the local scene.

Jenavieve told me: 'I will probably be struggling the rest of my life but somehow it seems worth it. It's about the people we touch, all the people who benefit from the music we're playing. Just how I am touched and was changed by the music I hear.'

Jenavieve's concert with The Royal Street Winding Boys that I attended on 9 April 2016 was extremely enjoyable. She played not only standards such as After You've Gone and I've Found a New Baby but also some of the obscurer numbers from long ago, such as Fourth Street Mess Around, Do Your Duty, Bogalusa Strut, Delta Bound, Mean Blue Spirits and Michigander Blues. Arrangements of the tunes were neat and uncomplicated. She fronted the band with that excellent stage presence that I had noted in the videos. She had become a very good singer indeed and also a confident trumpet player, able to state a melody with a little tasteful decoration and then in later choruses to improvise lustily and fluently. She had obviously developed a wide repertoire of both standard and less common tunes.

She also led well and gave her fellow musicians plenty of opportunities to display their skills. It is not surprising that some of the best local musicians feel privileged to have been invited to be Royal Street Winding Boys.

I very much appreciated that Jenavieve was also kind enough to talk with me.

She is a fine musician with a fine band. If you are ever in New Orleans, may I urge you to seek them out?

Although the conditions (dim lighting and background noise) made filming far from ideal, I videoed the band performing  I've Found a New Baby. You can watch it by CLICKING HERE.

Jenavieve at The Dragon's Den,
9 April 2016.

On 20 October 2016, I was again briefly in New Orleans and managed to catch another of Jenavieve's gigs. She had become a very busy musician in the local scene, and elsewhere. She gave a powerful, driving performance, both on trumpet and singing, and her supporting 'Winding Boys' were outstanding musicians, too. Wherever possible, she included the verses as well as the choruses of familiar songs; and she had some interesting head arrangements (for instance, switching in to double-time occasionally for a middle eight). You may watch a video I made on that occasion BY CLICKING HERE.

In February 2017 I was in New Orleans again. CLICK HERE for a video I made on that occasion.