Post 445: MEETING DAVID JELLEMA, JAZZ CORNET PLAYER

I first noticed and admired the cornet player David Jellema in 2014, when on YouTube I discovered videos of The Thrift Set Orchestra, which is based in Austin, Texas. David was playing some fine music in the company of other outstanding musicians - among them, Albanie Falletta, Westen Borghesi and Jonathan Doyle. If you don't know this group, you may sample one of their performances BY CLICKING HERE.

But I didn't meet David until 20 October 2016 when, during a very brief visit to New Orleans, I literally bumped into him. I pushed open the door to the Yuki Izakaya Bar in Frenchmen Street, and David was immediately on the other side. He was guesting in Haruka Kikuchi's Band.

During the interval, David kindly and generously joined me for a very interesting chat.

In particular we discussed how he goes about mastering tunes and improvising upon them. He felt that, although it is obviously crucial to know the tune's melody and its chords, it becomes more important to internalize those elements (relegating them to the subconscious through repetition and practice - to the point where you would be able to play the song even in an unfamiliar key). With the music thus internalized, the conscious mind can be free to engage with the immediate demands of the performance in the present, i.e., listening and responding to the other musicians, making split-second choices within a solo, etc.

Beyond mastering the scales and arpeggios of chord shapes and inversions in all keys, David said, what is most important in developing jazz improvisational language, style, and a personal voice is to study many masters (by copious listening, transcribing, and copying their solos and licks) in order to let their influence percolate into your playing as you mature into your own voice.   The music you most love will help inform and shape your first steps towards developing your own improvisational style. In his own case, he said the most important master had been Bix Beiderbecke.

I was not surprised. In his fluency, creativity, attack, tone and technique, David's playing always reminds me of Bix.

But here's something astonishing. David plays a cornet that is over 120 years old; and he still gets a beautiful tone from it. The cornet is an 1893 English Besson, a vintage 'Prototype' (serial number 48XXX). David knows that F. Besson was at the time located at 198, Euston Road, London; and that the instruments were distributed in the USA by Carl Fischer of New York. David bought this cornet from an antique store in Annapolis, Maryland, in the 1990s. As the US Naval Academy is based in Annapolis, David surmises that the instrument may originally have been played by someone in the Navy band.

After a few years, David passed the cornet on to his friend Dave Sager, a jazz trombone player in the DC area. Mr. Sager spent a deal of money in having it brought back to a pristine condition. Since about 2011, it has been back in the hands of David Jellema:

and from the other side:

But David has four other very special cornets, including a Conn from the 1890s. I hope - with David's help - to write an article about them for publication early in 2017.

I remember hearing the late great British jazz trumpet-player Humphrey Lyttelton say that some instruments (such as Stradivari violins) improve with age but that brass instruments begin to deteriorate from the first time they are played and go on getting worse.

Well, David's cornets seem to discredit that theory. Or perhaps it is simply that they really knew how to make solid and enduring brass instruments in the Victorian Age.

Post 83: ALBANIE FALLETTA

Photo supplied by Bill Stock.
What a picture!

I first came across the guitarist and singer Albanie Falletta in this delightful video, where, on the north bank of the Mississippi in New Orleans, with two string-playing friends, she performs I'll See You in My Dreams: CLICK HERE TO VIEW. I was immediately charmed.

And here is a wonderful April 2015 video filmed by the great digitalalexa of 'Albanie and her Fellas' playing in Royal Street, New Orleans. You could hardly have a better introduction to her: CLICK HERE.

With the help of YouTube, I had found that Albanie played in The Thrift Set Orchestra in Austin, Texas, with such fine musicians as Jonathan Doyle, Hal Smith, David Jellema and Westen Borghesi. Here's an example: CLICK HERE TO VIEW.

She also turns up on YouTube in both Texas and Louisiana with her band 'Albanie And Her Fellas'. For example, you can catch her singing When It's Sleepy Time Down South BY CLICKING HERE. Or watch them busking in New Orleans BY CLICKING HERE, where the 'Fellas' happen to include Jonathan Doyle, Todd Burdick, David Jellema and Robin Rapuzzi.

There is also a video of Albanie playing with Tuba Skinny at a French Quarter Festival.

So for months Albanie has been one of my favourites.

Now imagine my joy when I visited New Orleans in April 2015 and suddenly noticed in Royal Street a young lady who looked exactly like the Albanie on YouTube. She had a guitar strapped to her back. 'Are you the famous Albanie?' I asked. 'Well, my name's Albanie,' she replied.

I found her just as sweet and charming as she appears in those videos. Albanie told me she came from Austin, where she started to teach herself to play the guitar at an early age. She has a good ear and usually has no trouble in working out the chords for a tune. She 'dropped out of high school' and took to busking and playing wherever she could. She has mastered her instrument to a high degree and sings very pleasantly.

I later discovered Albanie is highly respected by the entire community of New Orleans musicians. Dividing her time between Austin and New Orleans, she gets to play in many different groups.

Now that she is internationally famous and has reached a high level of proficiency, we might think she would be satisfied with her achievements. But Albanie surprised me by saying she still hoped one day to go to college and study music academically.

How modest these great young musicians on the New Orleans French Quarter scene always are!

I have two precious photo souvenirs. Here's a picture my friend Bill Stock from Essex, England, took of Albanie a few moments before I arrived. (Bill also happens to be the cameraman who made the video on the bank of the Mississippi - the video I mentioned at the top of this article.)

And here she is with me:

Pops Coffee Meets One Of His Idols

FOOTNOTE

Reader Phil has identified the bass player in the video on the bank of the Mississippi as Jeff Moran, leader of The California Feetwarmers, and has commented: Trivial perhaps but still interesting to me how musicians travel and learn from each other...Jeff was busking on the street in California with Chloe Feoranzo when Chloe was still a teenager. You can see the video Phil is referring to if you CLICK HERE.

Post 42: 'BLUE DRAG'

I learn something every day. Recently I learned there is a good simple tune called Blue Drag. It seems to have been composed in 1932 by a Russian-born composer of film scores called Josef Myrow (1910 - 1987). He was a graduate of the Curtis School of Music and an extremely good pianist. His best-remembered song is perhaps You Make Me Feel So Young.

A kind American correspondent suggested I might enjoy watching a YouTube of The Thrift Set Orchestra (of Austin, Texas), playing Blue Drag. In this delightful video, the vocal is sung by Albanie Falletta and the band includes some familiar faces - players who are among the best in the world today.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT.

It seemed to me this would be a very good tune to include in our programmes. It's fun to have a 'riffy' one occasionally, especially if, like this, it is in a minor key.

Blue Drag reminds me a little of Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen. But it makes a good alternative to that tune for use in concerts. The two songs seem to have a very similar harmonic pattern and the same structure:  a  a  b  a, with b (the Middle Eight) providing a perfect contrast to the riff.

My friends and I worked it out by ear, as well as we could, and it didn't sound at all bad when we tried playing it.

Even though this catchy number is new to me, perhaps some of you have known it for years. I find it was recorded long ago by such artists as Earl Hines, Freddie Taylor and Django Reinhardt.