Post 446: THE PALINGENESIS OF TRADITIONAL JAZZ

Is our music dying out? Thank goodness, despite certain causes for alarm in my country, the answer is 'NO!'

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. For an immediate example, have a look at a video of Over The Waves played by young musicians in Tokyo to see what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBuXLwcnvvg

But let me tell you about what has happened here in England.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, traditional jazz was extremely popular in Britain. There were hundreds of bands, from full-time professionals performing at the Royal Festival Hall to enthusiastic amateurs who entertained in the back rooms of pubs. Their music was inspired by the New Orleans and Chicago jazz of the period 1910 - 1930 and also by the revival of traditional jazz after the Second World War by bands such as that of George Lewis.

Occasionally a record made by a British jazz band would even make it into the week's 'Top Ten'.

But from the era of the Beatles and disco music onwards, traditional jazz fell into decline. It is now given very little air time on British radio and virtually none on television.

Ten years ago, I noticed audiences at traditional jazz club concerts in England were becoming sparse and the average age of members of the bands was about 65.

Now, it's even worse: there are places where you can find trad jazz being played in Britain (usually still in the back rooms of pubs) but the musicians are dying out. A typical pub band today comprises musicians aged 75 or over.

The kind of retired people I have known in such bands over these years include men who formerly worked as a plasterer, a dentist, an accountant, an electrician, two doctors - one of them a heavy-smoker(!), two maths teachers, a laboratory technician, a car dealer, a builder, a music shop salesman, a school caretaker and a telephone engineer. On one night a week, they would come together and make pretty good music. Their reward? Nothing, other than a 'first drink free' from the bar.

Traditional jazz in Britain has become the pursuit of a tiny minority. But at least it is still alive - just about. Pretty well every month I hear of yet another jazz club (some of them that have been running for decades) closing down because of poor attendances and lack of revenue.

But I constantly hear of new young bands setting up, especially elsewhere in the world. One of the latest 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 have a listen to The Old Fashion 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. 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 uploaded by the video-maker codenamed ragtimecave.

One of the newest Japanese bands seems to be The High Time Rollers:
CLICK HERE.
So, we do not have to accept that traditional jazz is on the way out!

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

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 on YouTube. You will be amazed at the quality of the traditional jazz being produced by instrumentalists mostly in their twenties and thirties; and there are plenty of singers of outstanding ability too.

I have written before about Tuba Skinny - currently considered 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 you may also care to 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
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

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

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

And even in Britain there is hope. 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.

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.

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

And on top of all that, the astonishing response to this blog proves there is still great interest in the music. I started the blog in 2013 - just as a little hobby in my old age - and I am amazed to find that it is now being looked at more than 15,000 times a month by people from all over the world.

Post 342: 'PERCOLATIN' BLUES' AND THE SMOKING TIME JAZZ CLUB

Percolatin' Blues was written in about 1925 by Lemuel Fowler.

He was a composer of 57 tunes and an important pianist. He featured in many early jazz recordings. Percolatin' Blues was recorded by the great blues singer Clara Smith in 1926, with Fowler himself at the piano.

To my ear, Percolatin' Blues has this structure:
(1) a 4-bar Introduction
(2) a verse of 16 bars (played twice, with different words the second time)
(3) a 32 bar Chorus (16 + 16 - with no Middle Eight). Bars 25 - 28 inclusive are treated as 'breaks'. The words of the Chorus give the 'instructions' for the  'Percolation' dance ('You hop to the left; then you hop to the right; then perrrrrcolate...'). If you would like to add it to your repertoire, it's a simple, catchy, riffy little tune to pick up and I would suggest Eb as a comfortable key.

It was a fine modern video on YouTube that brought me to this song. I chanced upon The Smoking Time Jazz Club with their radiant singer Sarah Peterson giving a performance of Percolatin' Blues in a New Orleans street. Compared with the original, they simplify the Verse down to one set of 16 bars only.

The film (in HD) was made by Beau Patrick Coulon and his team. The video is of the highest professional quality: it uses more than one camera; and a splendid range of shots takes us all round the band and the street dancers with great attention to detail. You watch this video and immediately want to get on the next plane to New Orleans. The joyful atmosphere is so infectious. These are people who know how to have a good time.

Click here to watch it.

I have been four times to New Orleans - three of them long before Katrina. I'm hoping I shall be able to make it there one more time before heading to the Gloryland.

It will be such joy to see and hear the wonderful new generation of street performers.

Post 304: 'MY SWEET LOVIN' MAN'

Lil Hardin

While roaming around YouTube videos of jazz bands in New Orleans, I chanced upon one put up by Thomas Balzac. It showed Sarah Peterson singing My Sweet Lovin' Man with the famous Smoking Time Jazz Club Band at The Spotted Cat Music Club in Frenchmen Street:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCTXmjXIleA

I remembered that I have the tune on one of my King Oliver CDs. It turned out that it was written by Lil Hardin in 1923.

I also noticed that - after its 12-bar Verse - it has a Chorus based on The Hot Nuts Chord Progression - popular in the 1920s. This is basically a 16-bar progression, with breaks possible on Bars 9 to 12 inclusive. The final two bars of the sixteen are in many songs repeated as a tag. That is what happens in My Sweet Lovin' Man, making 18 bars in all.

I like it; so I decided to add this tune to my mini-filofax collection. I wrote it out, and it sounds quite good on my keyboard.

Post 209: THE FRENCH QUARTER FESTIVAL

The French Quarter Festival in New Orleans is held annually in April. I attended the 2015 Festival and here's what I can report.

One of the best:
The Smoking Time Jazz Club Band.

The Festival runs for four full days. Twenty-three stages are erected, some by the River, some near the French Market, some on Jackson Square, some in Royal Street and Bourbon Street ......  and so on. Typically, there are six performances a day on each stage, the first starting at 11am and the last at about 7pm. The performers range from solo artists to big bands. So the total number of musicians taking part is huge. There are many 'big name' artists and a few bands that have travelled from as far away as Canada, Japan, Australia, Sweden and Germany.

Jackson Square during the Festival.

The entire Festival is free to attend. It is the largest free music event in the United States. You mark your card and spend the day hopping from venue to venue to hear the performers of your choice.

If - like me - you are most keen on the 'purer' kind of traditional jazz, you will find that about 15% of the performances are for you. There is also plenty of other music - rock, gospel, funk, classical, rhythm and blues, cajun, zydeco, klezmer and so on. A wide range of musical cultures is represented. There are about 300 concerts in total over the four days (though in 2015 a few of them had to be cancelled because of heavy rain).

The Festival begins with a Parade to Jackson Square. There are marching bands in the Parade and hundreds of enthusiastic 'second-liners' with their colourful umbrellas and bannerettes.

The City does an amazing job in putting on such a Festival at no cost to the audiences. Yes, there are over 100 sponsors, mainly businesses; but goodness knows what it costs to set up (and later dismantle) all the stages, barriers, portaloos, and to provide publicity and so on, and employ dozens of technicians and marshalls (and presumably give some payment to the musicians). The Festival is run by French Quarter Festivals Inc. - a non-profit organisation with a staff of just seven people and nearly 2000 volunteers.

The stages are equipped with powerful PA systems and well-tuned pianos.

Thousands of tourists come from all over the world for this special event, so hotel rooms are at a premium. There are large audiences for the most popular concerts.

I personally picked out concerts by the traditional jazz bands and these were very good indeed. But on just a few occasions, especially when the sun was blazing, it was uncomfortable being wedged in a large crowd, barely able to see the band. Old hands - you discover - get there early and bring collapsible chairs.

Many of the jazz musicians performed in more than one band, so you would see them (Aurora Nealand and Charlie Halloran, for example) dashing from stage to stage, sometimes playing in strikingly contrasting styles with various bands.

Throughout the Festival, the regular evening gigs by trad jazz bands (not officially part of the Festival) at such places as The Spotted Cat, The Maison, Preservation Hall and DBA went on as usual, so it was possible to attend these as well, at the end of a day spent at Festival events. Here, you could appreciate the music in a more intimate setting where the bands mostly played acoustically and all instruments could be seen and heard. And of course, the many regular street performers, ranging from solo artists to bands, are always available to entertain, even though they too are not part of the official Festival. Believe me, the musical standards of those street musicians in New Orleans are extremely high.

What is quite certain is that the Festival gave thousands of people a huge amount of pleasure and fun.

Future dates for the Festival are:
2018 : April 12 - 15
2019 : April 11 - 14
Finally, a look back at New Orleans in 1923: