Post 560: HARUKA KIKUCHI'S GREAT ANTHOLOGY CD

Haruka Kikuchi, energetically driving a band along or playing gently and lyrically, is currently one of the world’s best traditional jazz trombonists. She grew up in Japan and graduated in Music Science at Tokyo University of Fine Arts in 2010. Inspired by Kid Ory, she fell in love with traditional jazz.

In 2014, Haruka made the bold move of emigrating to New Orleans. She was soon in demand and playing with such bands as Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers and The Swamp Donkeys. Today, through her playing with The Shotgun Jazz Band and The Shake ‘Em Up Jazz Band, she has become an international favourite. Her diary – up to the moment of the Coronavirus lock-down, was full.

Haruka married fellow Japanese musician the superb pianist Yoshitaka Tsuji; and they have a cute little son, Shouta, who has appeared with Haruka in videos – even on last year’s European tour.

Haruka wanted to link Japan with New Orleans in a project to inspire the next generation. So, whenever Japanese players visited New Orleans, she invited them into a recording studio to play music with her new friends. Over four years, she arranged 10 such sessions. Thirty-eight different musicians took part. They included Naho Ishimura, Shingo Kano, Makiko Tamura and Tomomitsu Maruyama from Japan and locals such as Molly Reeves, Gerald French, Twerk Thomson and David Boeddinghaus.

This year, Haruka has put together a CD anthology drawn from those sessions. It is called ‘Japan: New Orleans Collection Series’. 

There are eleven tunes on the CD. I don’t know which studio Haruka uses but I can tell you the recording and sound quality are first-class. You can enjoy the full tone of every instrument with great clarity.

Here are some of the highlights. On ‘Struttin’ With Some Barbecue’ we have witty, fluent double-chorus solos from Naho Ishimura, and Haruka herself, with Gerald French providing a vocal. ‘By and By’, which features fine playing from Haruka’s husband, Yoshitaka, is played by a quintet including both piano and organ. It begins with a slow church-style organ solo before a stomping treatment of the song. Haruka is at her lyrical best in ‘When It’s Sleepy Time Down South’, which she performs with only a piano and string bass in support.

You may agree with me that the loveliest track is ‘Give It Up’, which shows you need only get four great players together and magic results. Makiko Tamura is on clarinet, Molly Reeves on guitar and Joshua Gouzy on bass. Need I say more?

The sextet playing ‘Buddy Bolden’s Blues’ includes three trombones and there is no vocal. In both these respects the atmospheric interpretation, with liberal use of trombone mutes, is refreshing.

You would hardly expect ‘The Mooche’ to work well when played by a mere quartet of guitar, bass, trombone and piano. But, with a dramatic arrangement and the trombone carrying most of the melody, Hideki Kon, Nobu Ozaki and Haruka, joined by Larry Scala, pull it off. You would think the tune had been written for them.

Kevin Louis is on trumpet in an all-star quintet playing the ‘Gettysburg March’, which – delightfully and traditionally – the group runs through first in 6/8 time before breaking into a swinging 4/4. Junji Kimura shows his skills on percussion.

‘Mama Inez’ is the only number to feature a saxophone. Its player is Yasuki Sogabe; and very fine he is too, with piano, bass and drums providing the excellent rhythmic support this song requires.

It was brave for a quartet to undertake ‘High Society’. But with Kensuke Shintani on clarinet, Haruka knew it would sparkle. David Boeddinghaus on piano and Tom Saunders on tuba give just the right support.

‘Lonesome Road’ features the banjo-player Tomomitsu Maruyama, whose work we have admired in YouTube videos from Tokyo. They take it at a gentle tempo in the key of F, with Tomomitsu also offering the vocal.

The final number - ‘Indian Red’ - features a seven-piece group, successfully plunging four Japanese musicians into a stereotypical piece of Louisiana culture. Quite an achievement! My guess is that Haruka is specially proud of that.

I strongly recommend this unique anthology. It is available from The Louisiana Music Factory.

Post 561: JAPAN COMES TO NEW ORLEANS

Haruka Kikuchi, the great young Japanese trombonist who settled in New Orleans in 2014, has been busy both as a record producer and as a player in the last couple of years. She has produced a series (at present five 'volumes') of recordings under the general title 'JAPAN: NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION'.

What has happened is this: several of her Japanese jazzing colleagues have visited her in New Orleans over the past months and she has taken advantage of the opportunity to get them into a New Orleans recording studio, together with some of the local musicians, in order to record a few tunes.

By November 2017, she will have released the fifth Volume in this series.

I think this fifth volume could be the loveliest, to judge from the one sample track that I have so far been able to hear. Haruka uses just a quartet (see the photo above); and what a terrific team they are! Molly Reeves (guitar and vocals) and Joshua Gouzy (bass) are a super pair to provide the chords and rhythmic backing, as well as an occasional solo chorus. And Haruka herself, with the wonderful Makiko Tamura (currently considered by many of us one of the most talented and tasteful clarinet players in the world) produce delightful interplay in the 'front line'. The tune I have been able to hear is I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now, which is played through twice as a waltz before breaking into 4/4 time. Makiko takes the lead on the melody in the first chorus. This is such a beautiful and appealing performance, that I feel sure the other three tunes on the recording will be well worth hearing too. They are Give It Up, Burgundy Street Blues - wow, I bet Makiko will be brilliant on that - and Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor - which I know Molly has often sung beautifully.

I found the necessary information on all the above at:

https://harombone.bandcamp.com/album/japan-new-orleans-collection-series-vol-5

Also already available is Volume 4, in which Haruka uses a 6-piece combination which is most unusual in having no banjo or guitar or clarinet or trumpet or saxophone. What it offers is a feast for trombone enthusiasts, as the entire 'front line' comprises three trombonists! They are Shoichi Yamada and David L. Harris as well as Haruka herself. However, they do not get in each other's way, as you might expect. The music is well arranged and disciplined. It is quite something to hear Royal Garden Blues and When My Dreamboat Comes Home played by 'massed' trombones!

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 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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POST 480: LADIES SHAKE 'EM UP AT UMBRIA JAZZ FESTIVAL

The Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band, made up entirely of great lady musicians who are based in New Orleans, is to play at The Umbria Jazz Festival in mid-July 2017. The Festival is held in Perugia, Italy.

Shaye Cohn, who founded the band, has now dropped out and her place is to be taken on trombone by Haruka Kikuchi - the superb Japanese-born musician.

In case you are unaware, let me tell you that in the summer of 2016, Shaye Cohn put together in New Orleans this traditional jazz band comprising only ladies. We are lucky to live at a time when so many of the greatest traditional jazz musicians are ladies and when so many of them happen to have settled in that city.

And in this band, you find SIX of them making up what may well be one of the greatest all-female bands ever.

Another interesting feature of the band is that Shaye Cohn played trombone - something I had never seen her do before. Is there nothing that young lady can't master? Even before this, she had become established as one of the finest trad jazz piano and cornet players of all time, as well as being very good on violin, string bass and accordion. The other ladies are Chloe Feoranzo, Marla Dixon, Defne Incirlioglu, Julie Schexnayder, and Molly Chaffin Reeves - every one a heroine of our musical times.

Shaye's original purpose was to give a demonstration of traditional jazz at the Girls' Summer Band Camp in New Orleans. But the all-ladies band - once formed - was too good to waste and fans pleaded for them to play elsewhere.

They were invited to play at the famous Abita Springs Opry on 19 November. 

The concert they gave was traditional jazz of the finest kind - tasteful and yet always exciting and full of intelligent ideas. They opened with Some Day Sweetheart and then continued with Root, Hog; or Die!, Sugar Blues, When You Wore A Tulip, Make Me A Pallet on the Floor, and - to finish - Hindustan.

Having done the good work behind the scenes, Shaye gave herself a secondary role in performance, leaving Marla to play the trumpet, lead the band and do the announcing.

Everyone was interested to see how Shaye would fare playing her newest instrument.

What she did was exactly what we might expect of her: she played a perfect and accurate though simple and basic line, fully conscious of the harmonising and rhythmic responsibilities of the trombone in our music. On Sugar Blues (played in the rarely-used key of G) she took a complete solo chorus and the audience loved it.

Root, Hog; Or Die! - played in C minor - romped along, with plenty of mini-solos and Marla providing the vocal.

Among the highlights of the concert were a beautiful two-chorus solo by Chloe on Make Me a Pallet (which they played in F) and an exquisite vocal duet at the end of When You Wore A Tulip (played in Ab) with Chloe singing the melody and Marla perfectly harmonising on lower notes. Chloe was also the vocalist on Sugar Blues, which she sang with great passion.

(I am mentioning keys because they differ from those sometimes used for the tunes in question.)

Pumping the band along, Molly on guitar and Julie on string bass provided the chords very solidly, four to the bar; and 'Dizzy' as ever maintained metronomic gentle percussion on the washboard, and took very neat solos, including a full chorus on When You Wore a Tulip.

Molly is a fine singer, as well as being a brilliant player of the guitar and banjo;  and she gave a lovely rendition of Make Me a Pallet. In fact, Make Me a Pallet is my favourite performance in this video. Molly reminds me of Carol Leigh singing with Kid Thomas; and every member of the band plays it beautifully, with terrific teamwork.

Chloe's clarinet was stunningly eloquent throughout and Marla was her usual exuberant self – passionately singing and also playing some wonderful stuff on the trumpet. On this occasion she did not use her famous Derby mute but her playing with the plunger mute on Sugar Blues and Pallet on the Floor was outstanding.

What a treat for us all! Let's hope this band - in addition to its performances in Italy - will continue to get together from time to time and that there will be many more videos for us to enjoy all over the world. The signs are good. The band has continued to accept occasional gigs. For example, they made their début at The Spotted Cat on 25 June 2017.

Shaye herself decided to leave the band early in 2017, and her place on trombone was taken by the great Haruka Kikuchi. And when Molly Reeves was not available, her place was taken by the excellent singer-guitarist Cristina Perez Edmunds.

You can watch the Abita Springs performance by going to Abita Springs' own site and then clicking on the arrow by the name of the band:
http://www.abitaopry.org/html/AO2016-11.html
It is also to be seen here:
https://vimeo.com/201161078
===================
NOTE ADDED IN JULY
Sure enough, the ladies seem to have had a great time and to have been popular in Italy. There are on YouTube several videos of them at the Festival.
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Footnote:
I am deeply indebted to my blog-reading friend and Louisiana resident Michael Brooks for supplying me with some of the information.

Post 468: SHAKE 'EM UP JAZZ BAND AT ABITA SPRINGS

Molly Reeves

In the summer of 2016, Shaye Cohn put together in New Orleans a traditional jazz band comprising only ladies. We are lucky to live at a time when so many of the greatest traditional jazz musicians are ladies and when so many of them happen to have settled in that city.

And in this band, you find SIX of them making up what may well be one of the greatest all-female bands ever.

Another interesting feature of this band is that Shaye Cohn is playing trombone - something I've never seen her do before. Is there nothing that young lady can't master? Even before this, she had become established as one of the finest trad jazz piano and cornet players of all time, as well as being very good on violin, string bass and accordion. The other ladies are of course Chloe Feoranzo, Marla Dixon, Dizzy, Julie Schexnayder, and Molly Chaffin Reeves - every one a heroine of our musical times.

Shaye's original purpose was to give a demonstration of traditional jazz at the Girls' Summer Band Camp in New Orleans. But the all-ladies band - once formed - was too good to waste and fans pleaded for them to play elsewhere.

At first, the band had no name but somebody (John Dixon, I believe) had the idea of calling it The EQP Jazz Band (EQual Pay). However, by November, Shaye seems to have decided to call it The Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band.

Whatever the band's name, the Good News is that they were invited to play at the famous Abita Springs Opry on 19 November. 

The concert they gave was traditional jazz of the finest kind - tasteful and yet always exciting and full of intelligent ideas. They opened with Some Day Sweetheart and then continued with Root, Hog; or Die!, Sugar Blues, When You Wore A Tulip, Make Me A Pallet on the Floor, and - to finish - Hindustan.

Having done the good work behind the scenes, Shaye gave herself a secondary role in performance, leaving Marla to play the trumpet, lead the band and do the announcing.

Everyone was interested to see how Shaye would fare playing her newest instrument, the trombone.

What she did was exactly what we might expect of her: she played a perfect and accurate though simple and basic line, fully conscious of the harmonising and rhythmic responsibilities of the trombone in our music. On Sugar Blues (played in the rarely-used key of G) she took a complete solo chorus and the audience loved it.

Root, Hog; Or Die! - played in C minor - romped along, with plenty of mini-solos and Marla providing the vocal.

Among the highlights of the concert were a beautiful two-chorus solo by Chloe on Make Me a Pallet (which they played in F) and an exquisite vocal duet at the end of When You Wore A Tulip (played in Ab) with Chloe singing the melody and Marla perfectly harmonising on lower notes. Chloe was also the vocalist on Sugar Blues, which she sang with great passion.

(I am mentioning keys because they differ from those sometimes used for the tunes in question.)

Pumping the band along, Molly on guitar and Julie on string bass provided the chords very solidly, four to the bar; and Dizzy as ever maintained metronomic gentle percussion on the washboard, and took very neat solos, including a full chorus on When You Wore a Tulip.

Molly is, of course, also a fine singer and gave a lovely rendition of Make Me a Pallet.

In fact, I am coming round to the opinion that Make Me a Pallet is my favourite performance in this video. Molly reminds me of Carol Leigh singing with Kid Thomas; and every member of the band plays it beautifully, with terrific teamwork.

Chloe's clarinet was stunningly eloquent throughout and Marla was her usual exuberant self – passionately singing and also playing some wonderful stuff on the trumpet. On this occasion she did not use her famous Derby mute but her playing with the plunger mute on Sugar Blues and Pallet on the Floor was outstanding.

What a treat for us all! Let's hope this band will continue to get together from time to time and that there will be many more videos for us to enjoy all over the world.

You can watch the Abita Spring's video of the performance by going to Abita Spring's own site and then clicking on the name of the band:
http://www.abitaopry.org/html/AO2016-11.html
It is also to be seen here:
https://vimeo.com/201161078

I am deeply indebted to my blog-reading friend and Louisiana resident Michael Brooks for supplying me with information.

===

Here are extracts from two emails I received shortly after the above was published:

(1) As you and I have said before, we are living in a new golden age for traditional jazz.  These aren't just the best female musicians that our music has to offer but among the best no matter the gender.  I wonder what the old timers from the early days of New Orleans jazz would say?  Women were relegated to piano back then.

(2) Well, I read your blog over breakfast, and then watched the band ...

... and I just had to have another breakfast.

WHAT A WAY TO START MY DAY ... SIX VERY LOVELY AND TALENTED LADIES, TWO CUPS OF COFFEE AND A PLATE FULL OF CROISSANTS.

Life doesn't get any better!

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Post 62: SHAKE 'EM UP'S ALBUM 'THE BOY IN THE BOAT'

The latest album by The Shake ’Em Up Jazz Band is called ‘The Boy in the Boat’. It was released in July 2019. It is a delight and shows how this wonderful band comprising six top lady musicians based in New Orleans is continuing to develop a distinctive house-style and to set the highest standards in tasteful, elegant traditional jazz. The tunes are played with restraint, grace and good taste, and generally at tempos that give space for creative fluent solos, notably from Chloe. There is little of the ‘raw’ jazz we associate with certain other bands – even including some in which these ladies play.

The Album also shows how, in its off-road repertoire, the band is increasingly building on the singing talents of its members. No fewer than ten of the twelve tracks include vocals. The ladies sing beautifully, both as individuals or in three-part harmony. In the course of this album, all six ladies may be heard singing, with Julie and Dizzy taking long solos for the first time.

The recording was made, we are told, at the Bunny Friend Studio. I have no idea where or what that is, but I can assure you the acoustic results are first-class. Molly Reeves, the band’s guitarist, is one of those named among the recording engineers and it seems she is a perfectionist in such matters.

The dominance of vocals is best illustrated by Wild Women Don’t Have The Blues (made famous by Ida Cox’s 1924 recording), in which Marla sings the 12-bar blues for virtually the entire track, with skilful accompaniment from the others.

Nuts To You, which they appear to have learned from the 1930s recording by the Chicago strings-and-vocals quartet called Cats and The Fiddle, is briskly sung in close harmony by Molly, Marla and Chloe. Molly has a fine extended guitar solo and the piece is cleverly arranged to accommodate brief instrumental breaks by Dizzy and the others between the lines of the lyrics.

Another novel close-harmony performance (successfully emulating the recording by The Andrews Sisters) is given on Nevertheless, which is sung without instrumental solo choruses. They take it at a gentle tempo in the key of F. (The Andrews Sisters sang it very slightly higher, using G before going through it again in A flat.)

Marla sings Say Si Si, which makes a great opener to the Album, with its brisk approach, well-balanced sound, super busy teamwork and Marla’s bright trumpet solo chorus.

Haruka sings Salty Dog so sweetly and includes her Japanese lyrics. Although she hardly counts herself as a singer, this number has become a popular party-piece from the band in 2019. It is such fun. Between Haruka’s vocals, improvisations on this famous circle-of-fifths tune are provided notably by Molly and Haruka herself.

I Double Dare You (the 1937 composition by Terry Shand and Jimmy Eaton) features Molly, singing and playing fine guitar. This is an up-tempo number, taken in E flat, with the rhythm players given a chance to shine, and some tasteful solos - including a gem from Chloe.

The vocalist on My Sin (composed in 1929 by Lew Brown, Buddy de Sylva and Ray Henderson) is Marla. Here again we have an unusual choice and treatment for a traditional jazz band, but it is typical of the way Shake ’Em Up is indeed shaking things up in the way we think of our music. Marla sings this song in E flat. My first thought was that she might have been more comfortable in F; but E flat somehow sounds right for the sad nature of the lyrics.

Need A Little Sugar is sung by Chloe. This popular tune composed in 1931 by Clarence Williams,Tim Bryan and W.A.D. Small has a 12-bar Verse and 18-bar Chorus, both of which are splendidly expressive melodies. There is perfect support from Molly on guitar, and some fine clarinet soloing from Chloe herself.

You Always Hurt The One You Love is sung by Dizzy - the first time I have heard her sing a full vocal on record! A lovely, gentle, complete vocal with guitar accompaniment is followed by the band joining in, with stepped-up tempo.

Eh La Bas is played briskly in the key of C (higher than most bands choose). It is a cheery performance, with much use of vocals led by Julie(!), and is complete with the full Creole patois lyrics.

Johnny St. Cyr’s famous 1926 composition, Oriental Strut, is played in a restrained gently-paced way, unlike its treatment by many other bands. After the minor-key start, Haruka leads on the ‘C’ theme, and is followed by other fluent solos. At this pace, Chloe has the room to create one that is so pretty, mobile and fluid; and Marla takes a good chorus against stop chords.

The only other purely instrumental number is the eponymous The Boy in the Boat. It was a new tune to me but I have discovered the band must have picked it up from the 1928 recording by pianist Charlie Johnson and His Paradise Band. Shake ’Em Up, though with different instrumentation, closely follow Johnson’s Introduction and melody line – and the phrase-trading between trumpet and clarinet, with Marla (muted and sounding very much like Sidney de Paris on the original Charlie Johnson recording) alternating phrases with Chloe. The tune is not quite as sophisticated as it sounds: listen carefully and you notice it is very largely using just one chord – G minor.

Finally, I must mention Julie. I had the pleasure of meeting her in New Orleans very briefly in 2015, when she told me she had taken up the double bass not many months before. But she has become one of my favourite players on this instrument. Always accurate, she (in combination with Dizzy’s tireless, inventive washboard) provides a constantly-felt pulse that is just right for the light-touch style of this band. With the virtuosic Molly on guitar, we have one of the best rhythm sections in the business.
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My book Enjoying Traditional Jazz is available from Amazon:

Post 57: THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE TRENT - AND SPOT THE DIFFERENCE!

Here's a really tough challenge for you. One of these two pictures shows me standing beside the mighty River Mississippi in New Orleans. The other shows me standing beside the mighty River Trent near my home here in Nottingham, England. Can you figure out which is which?

And while we're on the subject of spotting differences, can you detect any difference between the melodies of 'If You Don't Want Me, Please Don't Dog Me Around' and 'Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor'? You can hear them in these two videos.

1. CLICK HERE TO VIEW

2. CLICK HERE TO VIEW