Post 602: MAKING TRADITIONAL JAZZ VIDEOS

I feel hugely privileged to have lived to an age when - sitting at my computer here in Nottingham, U.K. -  I am able to click a button and watch wonderful traditional jazz performances from all around the world. We have to be deeply grateful to all the generous and hard-working video-makers who provide us with these treats.

Some of them have high-quality equipment. They use two or more cameras and have a separate sound-recording apparatus.

If it had not been for video-makers such as those codenamed digitalalexa and RaoulDuke504, I might never have discovered the wonderful traditional jazz being played by relatively young musicians in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. Their videos convinced me that I had to get to New Orleans to see and hear for myself.

Good news is that digitalalexa (Al and his wife Judy) produced the first video of Tuba Skinny to be viewed more than a million times: THIS ONE - CLICK ON TO WATCH IT.

When I decided to try to make some videos, I bought a simple small camera from the cheaper end of the Panasonic Lumix range. It is intended mainly for taking still photographs but, like most cameras these days, it has a built-in microphone and the facility to record videos. It also has a useful 'zoom' feature.

Once you have made a video, it is easy to load it on to such a site as YouTube, thereby making it available to viewers all over the world. You have merely to follow the simple instructions on the screen.

I have had only four or five opportunities to video truly outstanding jazz bands. But I have made a number of videos and put them on YouTube. My favourite - the one with which I am most pleased - shows The Shotgun Jazz Band at The Spotted Cat Club (New Orleans) playing Royal Garden Blues when I was there for the French Quarter Festival in April 2015. The band was on absolutely cracking form and I was able to film from the side, very near the band, so I obtained some pleasing close-up shots of Haruka, Marla, James, John and Twerk.

If you have not yet seen that video, you can watch it BY CLICKING HERE.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I still do.

I must also mention James Sterling, who discovered the music a few months after I did. Living in Florida, he has been able to travel to New Orleans far more often than I have, and he has uploaded some fine videos.

If you haven't yet explored what's up there on YouTube, you should start by looking at the offerings of the three video-makers I have mentioned.

Post 590: 'SAVOY BLUES' - TWO MAGNIFICENT CONTRASTING PERFORMANCES

May I draw to your attention two recent and magnificent performances of Savoy Blues? They are both available for you to watch and hear on YouTube.

Savoy Blues is one of the best-known tunes in the traditional jazz repertoire. It is played by almost all of our bands. Created by the great pioneering trombonist Edward 'Kid' Ory (1886 - 1973), it is played throughout in the key of F and has opportunities for 12-bar blues improvisations at its centre. But it also has popular riffing patterns at the beginning and end. These have become conventional parts of the structure. The exciting riffs are old friends to anybody who listens regularly to traditional jazz. Because the trombone usually has such a prominent part, the tune is often regarded as a trombone feature. Most bands playing Savoy Blues stick closely to the original Ory structure.

The first performance on YouTube, by the Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band, adheres to these conventions. The video may be enjoyed BY CLICKING HERE.

The ladies begin with the famous 16-bar introduction with its striking notes at the end (30 seconds to 32 seconds). This is followed by the famous riff of 12 bars where once again the final two bars are usually accentuated (52 seconds to 54 seconds). After this comes a four-bar 'bridge' (two bars played twice) acting as a lead-in to the series of 12-bar blues solos. 

In this Shake 'Em Up performance, the first solo is taken by Chloe Feoranzo on the clarinet. Chloe by the way plays a Buffet E11 clarinet with a Vandoren M13 Lyre mouthpiece. She begins with a laid-back chorus and then plays two more in which her improvisations become increasingly fiery. Chloe is followed by Marla on the trumpet. She also takes three choruses, demonstrating some very fine work with the plunger mute. Note how Haruka Kikuchi and Chloe back her up with a gentle riff in the third chorus (2 minutes 56 seconds to 3 minutes 12). 

It is usual in Savoy Blues for the final solo to be taken by the trombone. That is what happens here. The great Haruka Kikuchi, who has told us it was Kid Ory who inspired her to become a traditional jazz trombonist, plays very much in his manner. She takes just two choruses, with Marla and Chloe backing her up prettily in the second. As is the convention in Savoy Blues, the trombone solo ends with a glissando rising over two bars (3 minutes 57 seconds to 4 minutes 01 in this video). This glissando is one of the most treasured and exciting moments for traditional jazz audiences (as indeed it obviously is for the cheering audience here!).

The glissando takes us into the final two 12-bar riffing choruses. The Shake 'Em Up ladies then finish with a neat two-bar trombone-led coda. 

Throughout this performance, notice the superbly metronomic, empathetic and gentle rhythmic footfall provided in the background by Albanie, Molly and Dizzy. 

What a magnificent performance of Savoy Blues this is! Here we have six of our greatest musicians each individually demonstrating wonderful skills and yet playing brilliantly as a team. It is hard to imagine a better performance of Savoy Blues in its conventional form.

Now let us turn to the slightly more recent performance by Tuba Skinny. You can watch the video BY CLICKING HERE.

This is equally magnificent and yet the tune is reinterpreted in Tuba Skinny's distinctive way. Editing of the usual rituals has taken place and the tune is given a new delicacy. There is no question of its being a 'trombone feature'; and the 12-bar riffs that usually bring the tune to an end are replaced by a repeat of the riffs from the beginning.

Sure enough, Tuba Skinny begin with the usual 16-bar riffing introduction but with less accentuation on the famous final two bars than we normally hear (from 32 seconds to 35 seconds). Then, sticking for the moment to the usual pattern, they follow with the 12-bar riff but again quite deliberately tone down the final two bars (54 seconds to 55 seconds). 

This is followed by the usual four-bar link to the solo choruses. It is played gently by Barnabus. 

As with the Shake 'Em Up version, soloing now begins. First we have Craig playing two choruses on the clarinet, in the second of which he is very neatly and gently backed up by Shaye and Barnabus (1 minute 26 seconds to 1 minute 42).

We then have an extraordinary conversational two choruses in which Barnabus on trombone and Shaye on cornet 'trade twos' in a most exquisite manner (1 minute 47 seconds to 2 minutes 30). For me, this is the highlight of the performance and it demonstrates so well why thousands of us all over the world consider the musical partnership and mutual understanding of Shaye and Barnabus to be among the best in traditional jazz anywhere. 

After this we have a single 12-bar chorus from the strings. 

Now, in a total break from the Savoy Blues conventions we do not have a final chorus from the trombone and we do not have the famous glissando up to the 12-bar riffs that normally bring the tune to an end. In contrast, the trombone solo and those riffs are dropped altogether and we have Todd (at 2 minutes 52 seconds) taking the lead just for 12 bars while the others repeat the 12-bar riff that had been played before the solo choruses. 

Finally, Tuba Skinny choose to go right back to the beginning (with Shaye tapping her hand on the head at 3 minutes 13 to remind them to do this). So they end by playing the 16-bar introduction and the 12-bar riff that always follows it yet again, giving us an unusual and surprising ending, which incidentally they finish in a gentle manner with a little rallentando.

In addition to the musicians I have named, note the usual brilliance and solidity of the Tuba Skinny rhythm section and the subtleties of Robin's playing on his percussion instruments.

So this too is a magnificent performance, cleverly thought out, with superb teamwork and some lovely touches demonstrating traditional jazz at its best. 

I hope you will enjoy these videos as much as I have. And I must add that both were uploaded by RaoulDuke504. I think we owe this generous gentleman a major international award for all the pleasure he has spread over the world with his videos in the last few years. Thank you, RaoulDuke504!

Post 589: THE DEW DROP HALL - THE OLDEST SURVIVING VENUE

I have written about the Dew Drop Hall before. But it is such an important building in the history of traditional jazz that - for the benefit of newcomers - I think it is worth writing about again.

The Dew Drop Hall
April 2015

For me the ambition to see The Dew Drop Hall started when I read that Marla Dixon's Shotgun Jazz Band played there on 7th November, 2014. That was what prompted me to find out more about this important jazz venue. It must have been a great thrill for Marla and her team to play in this very spot, among the spirits of so many of the Greats who performed there one hundred years earlier.

So let me tell you about this truly legendary old building that is one of the most important venues in the history of traditional jazz. It's the oldest surviving building in the world in which jazz was played in the earliest years of its development; and traditional jazz is again being played there today. I'm referring to the The Dew Drop Dance and Social Hall, which is situated at 430 Lamarque Street in Old Mandeville, Louisiana.

A great thrill for me was finally setting foot in The Dew Drop Hall in April 2015, when I was in New Orleans for the French Quarter Festival.

The story of the Hall begins on 5 May 1885, when local African Americans created The Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Association - aiming to provide help to the sick and the needy.

The Association built the hall from cypress timber nine years later - and opened it in 1895. Its foundations were simple brick piers (a wise choice for flood protection at the time). The pier at the front on the left still bears the original inscription (now barely legible).

It commemorates the founding of the Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Society No. 2 of Mandeville on May 5th, 1885, and the construction of the building in 1895, along with the names of the building committee.

The walls were covered with weather-boards at the front, and batten on the sides and rear; and they were originally painted green. The carpenters created the large wooden double-door at the front gable end, and a smaller door on the right at the back. There was an open beam ceiling. It was essentially a one-room structure, available for meetings, celebrations, vaudeville, dances and so on. It became the centre of social life.

The dais (mainly used as a bandstand) at the far end was typical of the time - with a wooden banister front opening in two places for the steps. The original dais was small (the part behind the banister on the left) but it was later extended to what we see in the picture above. The hall was built without electricity - or plumbing - or even glass: the 'windows' were simply openings measuring 6 feet high by 4 feet wide. They were normally covered by wooden shutters. These windows must have helped keep the band and audience cool on humid evenings.

Lamarque Street is to this day a quiet sparsely-populated, leafy, narrow road.

But where exactly is it? Answer: about 35 miles north of The French Quarter in New Orleans. It's where I've put the red dot at the centre top of this Google Map, very close to the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

From the earliest days, musicians started to cross the lake by steamboat to play for Saturday night dances in the Hall.

There were three landing-places for the boats on the shoreline - from east to west the Camellia Landing (destroyed by fire in 1912), the St. Tammany Pier (destroyed by fire in 1926), and the Lewisburg Landing (at the Lewis Plantation). The bands brought plenty of fans with them: Mandeville was considered a fashionable resort. It had several bands playing in various venues, including pavilions, the hotels and local park.

Pretty well all the famous early jazz musicians played at The Dew Drop Hall. Buddy Petit, Bunk Johnson, Kid Ory, Tommy Ladnier, Louis Armstrong, Papa Celestin, Sam Morgan, Chester Zardis and George Lewis were among them. Local man Isidore Fritz - according to such witnesses as George Lewis one of the best jazz clarinet players of all time - was a regular there, leading The Independence Band, which was hugely popular. He had Tommy Ladnier on trumpet and Edmond Hall on clarinet. Isidore's two brothers also played. What a pity the band was never recorded (or even photographed, it seems). Fritz was unwilling to cross the Lake to play in New Orleans. Why? Because he was doing very nicely in Mandeville and also had a family building business there. Fritz died in 1940.

Lillian, the wife of banjo-player Buddy Manaday (of Buddy Petit's Band) later recalled that white people as well as black attended and they all got along well together. Petit's Band, by the way, played at many venues in the  region - including at Bogalusa, Pensacola and Moss Point.

By the 1920s and 1930s, the Hall was a major centre for jazz concerts. Wooden benches provided limited and basic seating for about 100 people.

But - how sad! - as fashions and customs changed, the young were no longer interested, the Dew Drop Association ceased to exist and the Hall was virtually abandoned in the mid-1940s. This state of affairs continued for about half a century.

What amazing luck that nobody knocked the building down! All the other similar dance halls of its era were demolished or changed hands and acquired new uses or (like The Sons and Daughters Hall - also in Mandeville, on Lake Shore Drive) burned down.

The overgrown plot was bought at auction in 1993 by Jacqueline 'Jinx' Vidrine. She might have been expected to demolish the building and erect a modern house there; but she was a jazz enthusiast and knew what she was doing. She cleared the plot and investigated the building. She even found an old upright piano inside.

Jacqueline dreamed of re-opening the Hall as a jazz venue or museum. After some years, she managed to get the local Parks Service interested. By 1999, a first concert was possible! Mayor Eddie Price and the Mandeville Council recognised the importance of the property and bought the plot of land from Jacqueline. She herself donated the Hall to the community. Funds had been raised, including donations from the English. 

There had been a plan to transport the Hall to a site in Louis Armstrong Park, New Orleans. But the Mayor of Mandeville was easily convinced that the Hall should stay where it was. In 2001 the Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 'official' re-opening was on 5 May, 2002. In 2006, two members of the Mandeville City Council led a campaign to create The Friends of Dew Drop - a non-profit organisation. There had to be a little refurbishment (at a cost of about 25,000 dollars), but they ensured it was entirely sympathetic with the original design of the Hall. Here is how the Hall looked in Lamarque Street when I visited. Note the (inevitably moss-covered) tree in front of it.

Concerts featuring the best of local musicians are now put on fortnightly in the Spring and Autumn. There are string bands, jug bands and various similar groups as well as traditional jazz bands.

The band performing when I was there included the great Gregg Stafford and Michael White and the outstanding young bass player Tyler Thomson.

There was even a brolly parade.

Just inside the entrance door

I'm thrilled to say that 'Jinx' is still very much involved in helping with activities at the Hall. She was there and I had the honour of being introduced to her.

Jacqueline Vidrine -
the driving force in preserving the Hall

If you go to The Dew Drop, you have a choice between standing, or arriving early to secure one of those wooden seats, or (bringing your picnic chairs) listening from outside to the wonderful music drifting through the large open windows (three on each side). Good Louisiana food is usually on sale outside the Hall, as it was in the earliest days.

The Shotgun Jazz Band
performing there in 2014

By the way, you may care to watch a video I made about The Dew Drop:
CLICK HERE.
Three days after the Gregg Stafford concert, the great Tuba Skinny played at The Dew Drop Hall. A video showing one of the tunes they played can be seen by clicking on here.

And for a much more recent video of Tuba Skinny playing at the Hall, CLICK HERE. The tune is the wonderful Deep Bayou Moan, composed by Shaye Cohn.

You can sample an entire album (19 tunes) recorded in The Dew Drop Hall during a live concert on 18 March 2017 BY CLICKING HERE. 

========================
Just in case you may be interested to know which tunes were played when I was there for the Gregg Stafford concert in April 2015, the programme was:
SET ONE
Hindustan
We Shall Walk Through The Streets of the City
Bye Bye Blackbird
Redwing
Fidgety Feet
Careless Love
Golden Leaf Strut (final strain of 'Milneberg Joys')
SET TWO
Panama Rag
When You're Smiling
Burgundy Street Blues (Michael White feature)
You Always Hurt The One You Love
Blueberry Hill
SET THREE
Baby Won't You Please Come Home
Creole Love Call
Just a Little While To Stay Here
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
When The Saints Go Marching In

Long may The Dew Drop continue!

Post 577: FEBRUARY IN NEW ORLEANS

I'm looking back on my brief visit to New Orleans last February and, with the help of my photographs, would like to share with you some of the pleasures and memories.

First, some lovely sights.

Next, the flavour of the French Quarter.

As usual, it was a great privilege to be able to video some fine bands playing in Royal Street.

And I had the chance to meet and photograph some of the great musicians whose work I have long admired from 4500 miles away on YouTube. They included Molly Reeves.

I had the pleasure of making a new friend among the musicians - saxophonist Marty Peters.

And it was a great thrill renewing friendship with Marla Dixon and Haruka Kikuchi.

I told Haruka in 2015 that I was adopting her as my grand-daughter, so she now greets me as 'Grandad'!

If you have never seen the storming performance of Royal Garden Blues that I filmed in 2015 (in which Haruka and Marla both play), may I recommend it as a treat?

CLICK ON IT HERE.

And this February, as usual, I made time for an occasional stroll by the mighty Mississippi.

I decided this would be my 'farewell' visit to New Orleans. In my old age, and currently being treated for a couple of medical conditions, common sense tells me the 4500-mile journey is too strenuous to undertake any more. But looking at these pictures makes me want to be right back there. I wonder whether I shall be able to make it one more time?

Post 537: SHAKE 'EM UP JAZZ BAND'S FIRST ALBUM

Good news is that the all-ladies New Orleans-based band called The Shake ‘Em Up Jazz Band has released its first Digital Album. It contains ten songs. You can buy the Album (or individual songs from it) by downloading from:

https://shakeemup.bandcamp.com/releases

The first thing that strikes you about this Album is the clean quality of the recording. All the instruments can be clearly heard and the balance is fine. Molly Reeves has every right to be proud, as she was responsible for the recording and mixing.

Molly Reeves

The title of the Album – Le Donne Mangiano Succhero – which I would very freely translate as The Ladies Like Eating Sugary Things – seems to have been confirmed by their Summer 2017 visit to The Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, where I hear they enjoyed visiting the pastry and sweet shops!

What will you discover in the Album?

I think you will discover that this band has developed a very pleasant house style. Using simple but well-judged head arrangements, they aim at clarity and accuracy, with full respect to melody and harmonious decoration. You will not find the deliberate rough edges and rawness that some traditional jazz bands go for. But you will hear inspired improvisation, both in the solos and ensembles. And there's some good singing too.

There is a short and snappy version of Les Oignons – with the breaks left silent. So you can all shout ‘Onions’ in the privacy of your home!

Shake ‘Em Up, which has become the band’s unofficial signature tune, is a merry up-tempo 16-bar number, based on a familiar chord sequence. They play it cheerily.

Hearing Molly singing Make Me a Pallet on the Floor was for me one of the pleasures of 2017. She sang the song at my request one night in New Orleans and I put the performance on YouTube. You can see it BY CLICKING HERE.

I’m pleased to say Molly sings the song on this Album, with great support from the rest of the band.

In fact Molly and Julie, together with Dizzy, make a superb and metronomic rhythm team and provide perfect background colouring. Molly and Julie may be heard taking occasional 8-bar or 16-bar solos; and Washboard Wiggles – a standard F minor tune with a 32-bar aaba structure (remarkably similar in chord progression to Root, Hog, or Die or Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen) – gives Dizzy a chance to shine. But also note a lovely fluent chorus in this tune from Chloe.

The Kid Ory standard Savoy Blues is included. It is a trombonist's speciality and I know Haruka enjoys playing it. She and the band give a good solid performance.

There is the calypso number called Shame and Scandal in the Family. This seems to be a two-chorder (C and G7th). It is a fun song composed in 1943 by the Trinidadian Lancelot Pinard (who used the stage name Sir Lancelot).

Root, Hog, or Die (here played in C minor) has become a popular standard in the band’s repertoire. Marla sings it and there is some super soloing, including Chloe’s clarinet backed by washboard only.

Molly sings My Silent Love (composed in 1932) very sweetly and then Chloe plays the first of a series of lovely half-choruses taken by herself, Marla, Haruka and Molly.

In total contrast, Chloe lustily sings the many verses of Empty Bed Blues. I don’t know whether the innuendoes enjoyed by Bessie Smith’s audiences back in 1928 are still appreciated in this more sophisticated age; but the song gives great opportunities to Haruka and Marla to show how well they can provide background colouring in a 12-bar blues.

The CD ends with Chloe singing the medium-tempo There’s a New Moon Over My Shoulder, complete with Verse. It is a Jimmie Davis song from 1944.

All in all, this is a delightful Album and well worth acquiring if you have enjoyed the band’s live performances and YouTube appearances since it was formed (originally by Shaye Cohn) in the summer of 2016.

Post 528: EH LA BAS - LET'S TALK CREOLE PATOIS

There are a few good old songs in our repertoire that date from the days when Creole patois was still widely spoken in Louisiana. I believe it probably is still spoken. I well remember, on my first visit to America about 30 years ago, somewhere near Lafayette meeting a couple of elderly gentlemen who were sheltering from the heat in the shade of a moss-covered oak. One of them was playing an accordion. They were speaking in 'Creole' and I struggled to converse in my almost-forgotten schoolboy French, but we managed to understand each other enough to exchange plenty of thoughts.

If you know a bit of French, you can get some of the meaning; but you notice that most of the rules of French grammar and spelling have gone to the wall, and familiar words are compressed.

The great Humphrey Lyttelton used to play an exciting tune called Ce Mossieu Qui Parle. This was taken to mean 'This man who is speaking'. But, as Humphrey himself said, it might originally have been C'est moi seule qui parle ('It's only me who's speaking.')

The most famous of the tunes our bands still play is Eh La Bas. Potentially, it has plenty of verses. But here is quite enough of the song for most people (with French and English translations):

Eh la bas! Eh la bas! Eh la bas, chèri! Komon sa va?
(Eh la bas! Eh la bas! Eh la bas, chéri. Comment  ça va?)

(Hey there! Hey there! Hey there, m'love! How's things?)

Mo chè kouzen, mo chè kouzin, mo lenme la kizin!
(Mon cher cousin, ma chère cousine, j'aime la cuisine)
(My dear cousin, my dear cousin(ess), I love cooking)

Mo manje plen, mo bwa diven, e sa pa kout ariyen.
(Je mange beaucoup, je bois du vin et ça ne coûte rien.)

(I eat plenty, I drink wine and that costs nothing.)

Ye tchwe kochon, ye tchwe lapen, e mo manje plen.

(On tue cochon, on tue lapin, et je mange beaucoup.)

(They kill a  pig, they kill a rabbit, and I eat till I'm full.)

Ye fe gonmbo, mo manje tro, e sa fe mon malad.

(On fait gumbo, je mange trop et ça me rend malade.)

(They make gumbo, I eat too much and that makes me sick.)

The reason why I am thinking of this topic today is that I enjoyed the performance of this song by the all-ladies Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band at the Abita Springs Buskers Festival in April 2017. Marla Dixon had a really good shot at singing the words (all the above and more, I think!). You can watch the performance again by going to

https://livestream.com/accounts/21714146/events/7258879

Click on the second from the top of the four available videos. You will then need to slide the control button along to 1 hour 40 minutes 30 seconds, which is where the song begins.

You can also enjoy the late great Danny Barker performing the song clearly and with many verses BY CLICKING HERE.

Post 524: THE SHOTGUN JAZZ BAND; AND THE GOLDEN AGE

We are certainly living in a Golden Age of traditional jazz. Although most of us can't get to New Orleans or the few other places in the world where top-quality music is constantly being played, the wonders of YouTube assure us that it exists all right.

Only a few days ago, blog readers urged me to watch the recent 54-minute video of The Loose Marbles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EFAhHT9AEE&t=17s
It was sensationally good and gave me huge pleasure.

Now, readers have told me also to watch the video of similar length which shows The Shotgun Jazz Band playing at the same event (The Abita Springs Buskers Festival, 2016):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvoau6EoMxI

Both of these videos were professionally made by Radio Station WWOZ; and the sound quality is excellent. We have to thank Alice Glick for uploading them.

Whereas The Loose Marbles performed on the day with ten musicians, The Shotgun Jazz Band uses its core five (three of them also in The Loose Marbles video, of course).

Yet again, The Shotgun Band gives us all a lesson in how traditional jazz - at the highest levels of performance - should be played. John Dixon is one of the very best banjo players to be heard anywhere - absolutely solid and reliable. In combination with Tyler Thomson (the world's best string bass player in this genre), he underpins everything this band plays with perfect chords and a perfect pulse. Note Tyler's solo chorus in China Boy (beginning at 45 minutes 36 seconds).

James Evans (reeds), Marla Dixon (trumpet and vocals) and Charlie Halloran (trombone) have all reached the very top of their profession. But they are not just outstanding individual musicians; they demonstrate great teamwork, supporting each other in a hundred subtle ways.

At 30 minutes 30 seconds, you can hear an exemplary performance of The Original Dixieland One-Step.

A little incidental treat is that Chloe Feoranzo joins in on Uptown Bumps.

And note throughout the video the varied and wonderful effects Marla can achieve with mutes. 

Dip into this video anywhere. You will discover music that brings tears of joy to your eyes.

I hope you watch it all. Don't make excuses.

But if you really can't spare more than a minute or so right now, at least watch the beginning of Breeze (10 minutes 20 seconds to 11 minutes 30 seconds) to be reminded of what beauty a great band can find in even the simplest material.

Post 500: SHAKE 'EM UP AT ABITA BUSKERS FESTIVAL 2017

On Sunday 23 April 2017 the annual Buskers Festival was held at Abita Springs, on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain. For those of you who don't know the area, it's about 45 miles north of New Orleans.

Six fine bands played for an hour each between midday and early evening. They included some of our favourites, such as The Hokum High Rollers, The Gentilly Stompers, the all-ladies Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band and Tuba Skinny. 

It was a glorious event; and the great news is that the New Orleans radio station WW0Z made excellent videos of the entire proceedings. 

Many of you have told me you have become big fans of the Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band. They gave a lovely performance in which, as usual, the ladies played some outstanding traditional jazz, while making it all look so relaxed and simple, which of course it isn't. Chloe by the way plays a Buffet E11 clarinet with a Vandoren M13 Lyre mouthpiece. The fluidity of some of her improvisations was mind-boggling; but the playing from the entire band was outstanding. And Molly was a power-house on guitar and also contributed vocals on Sweet Substitute and My Silent Love.

The programme included those old favourites The Onions (though surprisingly the audience did not seem aware that they were required to shout 'Onions' in all the breaks!) and Eh La Bas, with Marla singing the original creole patois. Dizzy's playing was spot-on as usual; and she was featured on Washboard Wiggles.

And Haruka was on her usual fine form.

Other highlights were Savoy Blues, Shake It and Break It and When You Wore a Tulip – one of several vocals delivered by Chloe.

It was so good to be able to watch Julie in close-up and admire what a fine string bass player she has become. She told me in 2016 (the only occasion when I have had the privilege of speaking with her) that she had not been playing the instrument for many months.

Yet now Julie is one of the best bass players on the New Orleans scene, accurate, rock-solid - a driving force.

I imagine this band rarely has the chance to get together to discuss repertoire and rehearse, so the slickness and teamwork are all the more impressive.

But enough from me. Watch the video for yourself. Go to:

https://livestream.com/accounts/21714146/events/7258879

There you will see (on the right of the page) that the entire Festival has been divided into four videos. To find Shake 'Em Up, click on the second from the top - the one that runs for 2 hours and 8 minutes. Slide the time bar to about 1 hour 9 minutes for the start of their performance.

Elsewhere in the four videos, you will be able to listen to all the other bands at the Festival, including Tuba Skinny playing such tunes as Pearl River Stomp, Cold Morning Shout, Bellamina, Fireworks, Kansas City Stomps and (for the first time on video?) Come On and Stomp Stomp Stomp.

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