Post 420:THE CITY STEAM JAZZ BAND

Regular readers will know I often complain about the poor quality of traditional jazz currently being played in pubs by elderly English bands.

So I'm pleased to tell you I have today found on YouTube an elderly English band that plays in the pubs of the South-West of England and really is quite good. The musicians make an effort to play the music in a tasteful, restrained way, with some delicacy and decent teamwork.

This is The City Steam Jazz Band and you may watch and listen to an example of their work BY CLICKING HERE. Note especially the ensemble Chorus beginning at 2 minutes and 41 seconds. Not exactly Tuba Skinny, perhaps, but very pleasant nevertheless.

According to the band's website, The City Steam Jazz Band has been operating for three decades in the Exeter region. It took its name from an old laundry box in which the drummer carried his kit!

You can learn more about the band from its website BY CLICKING HERE. The 'main man' seems to be Dave Martin who plays the cornet, more or less manages the band, and has produced its pad of arrangements. 

Almost 60 years ago I spent a few months living in Exeter and I remember once hearing a very young traditional jazz band performing there. I wonder whether any of those players went on to become members of the City Steam.

Footnote: Friend and correspondent Ernest James Buck has sent me this further information:

Thanks for drawing the clip of The City Steam Jazz Band to my attention.  It was good to see Dave Martin in action.   Did you know that he also runs/ran a band called  The Jabbo Five which concentrates on playing the music of Jabbo Smith?   I have also heard him (but not recently) in a classic band run by Steve Graham with a two trumpet/cornet front line playing the Oliver/Armstrong  repertoire.

While looking at some of his Youtube clips I saw his playlist of clips and found it interesting, with a band  from New York playing "Once In A While".

Post 135: GOOD PLAYING (TUBA SKINNY'S 'BIG CHIEF BATTLEAXE') AND BAD PLAYING

I have been watching (on YouTube) quite a few English bands playing in pubs and clubs. First, I am pleased to report there are a few young musicians in these videos - playing traditional jazz or music that is on the fringes of traditional jazz. Also, in the north of England, there are places where young people may be seen dancing to jazz in the old style - some of them aspiring to be as good as Amy Johnson and Chance Bushman.

But so many of these pub and club trad jazz performances are disappointing. I see elderly gentlemen with beer bellies looking smug or not particularly interested while wearily and mechanically playing the same old dreary, uninspired procession of 32-bar (or 64-bar) 'solo' choruses. Sometimes there is a pretty awful vocal too. The tunes drag on for six or seven minutes, long after the band has anything more to 'say' about them.

No wonder that - on the whole - very few young people are attracted to the music.

I may sound like a miserable old crabstick, but I felt I had to write something about this today.

Then this morning I listened again to the CD Pyramid Strut, made by Tuba Skinny, that great and energetic young band of New Orleans.

Straight away, my faith in the music, and its ability to thrill and excite, was restored.

Take the very first tune on the CD - Thomas Allen's Big Chief Battleaxe. For a start, the band obviously gave a lot of thought to how it would tackle the tune. (How many English pub bands do that?) They decided to use only two sections from the familiar four (omitting the less interesting). They kept the 16-bar Bridge (which they decided to treat as a kind of Verse) and the 16-bar Main Theme.

As you probably know, the Bridge is played in G minor and the Main Theme in the related key of Bb.

Having made that decision, they then worked out how to make the interpretation interesting. For example, they would play the Bridge as an Introduction and then the Main Theme eight times - but twice punctuated by the Bridge again. Each time, the Bridge and Main Theme would be given different treatments, with a variety of instruments taking the lead. But the focus - as usual with this band - would be on good ensemble playing. So you end up with a performance comprising 11 segments of 16 bars each, 176 bars in all.

There's so much of interest to enjoy. And yet it's all over in less than three and a half minutes.

If you want the detail, it goes like this. Try following this while you listen to it.

16 Bars (1) BRIDGE. Clearly stated, with full ensemble.

16 Bars (2) THEME. Clearly stated, with full ensemble.

16 Bars (3) THEME. A more decorative statement of it. Note Jonathan Doyle's lovely fluid playing here and elsewhere.

16 Bars (4) BRIDGE. Full ensemble, differently stated this time, with more fluidity.

16 Bars (5) THEME. Trombone states it, with cornet and clarinet dropping out.

16 Bars (6) THEME. Trombone still leads but cornet and clarinet add sympathetic decorations in response. 

16 Bars (7) THEME. Something very different: the Cornet improvises on the theme, accompanied only by the washboard and banjo. The re-entry at the end by the tuba dramatically leads us into:

16 Bars (8) THEME. The full ensemble frolicking around the simple chord progression, with lovely work from the clarinet.

16 Bars (9) BRIDGE. The best surprise in the performance. The TUBA plays a special improvisation on the Bridge, while the others support him with long crescendo-diminuendo notes.

16 Bars (10) THEME. Ensemble, with more bounciness and fluidity than ever, building to a climax. Robin uses his cymbals to exciting effect.

16 Bars (11) THEME. Ensemble. This is the climax. There's busy, free expression all round and yet they are all still listening to each other.

That's the way to do it!

Incidentally, on YouTube you can find several videos of Tuba Skinny playing this tune - in various settings. The pattern usually differs just a little from what's on the CD, but it is always interesting.

Post 54: A NEW AUDIENCE FOR OUR MUSIC?

Regular readers will know I frequently bemoan the fact that - where I live in England (and I believe in many other parts of the world) - most of the audiences for traditional jazz concerts consist of people aged 75 and above. 

The musicians, too, are mostly in that same age category.

It is no surprise that we see the audiences gradually dwindling; and the bands struggling to survive as the musicians retire or die. Venues and festivals are not as numerous as they once were.

However, one of my optimistic musician friends recently made an interesting point in a discussion with me. I think it is worth passing on.

He claims to have noticed that quite a few people, after retiring from their jobs, look for ways of keeping themselves amused and entertained in their retirement. Some of them discover - to their surprise - that traditional jazz bands are playing lunchtime concerts in pubs near where they live. After giving the music a try, they find they very much enjoy going out for a pub lunch with such musical entertainment. Still aged in their 60s, they become 'regulars', replacing the older disappearing members of the audience.

I hope my friend is right. I go to four or five pub lunchtime sessions every month and I must say I too have met just a few people in this 'new audience' category.

Of course, there is still the problem that we also need to maintain the supply of musicians, but perhaps there are also some promising amateurs who will soon retire from their day jobs and think about taking up traditional jazz playing as a hobby.

Post 30: FRESH HOPE FROM SCARBOROUGH

Often, I have bemoaned the fact that - here in England - if you go to a pub or jazz club to listen to a traditional jazz band, you will usually find yourself in a small audience whose average age is 75; and there is a fair chance that the music will sound tired and mechanical and lacking in creativity, though perhaps this is not surprising as we musicians are in our 70s and 80s too. Thank goodness (as I have often said) there are some young people producing more exciting traditional jazz in other parts of the world. Many of them are to be heard every day on Frenchmen Street and Royal Street in New Orleans. Here in England we have just a few.

I must share with you the latest bit of Good News to reach me. It comes from Scarborough, Yorkshire, on the east coast of England, about 220 miles north of London. At school there as recently as 2010, Laurence Marshall - a talented young player of several instruments, including the trumpet, trombone and sousaphone - joined up with fellow members of school bands and orchestras to form The Jelly Roll Jazz Band.

Laurence says: We did a lot of busking, and trad was perfect as the repertoire we played was happy and upbeat and lots of people know the tunes in the backs of their heads. It always made us some pocket money and it's very fun music to play as you can do whatever you want really.

Since then, the members of the band have passed through universities, where most of them studied music in some form, though Michael, the clarinet player, read Chemistry. They kept the band going by playing together during their holidays.

Having graduated, they embarked on professional careers, some as musicians; but one is a school-teacher and another works for a healthcare software company. Even though they are more scattered now, the band is flourishing and they have even made a CD.

The Jelly Roll Jazz Band can comprise anything from three to six players. In various formats (often just as a trio) it has frequently busked in Scarborough Town Centre, where the young musicians found themselves attracting plenty of bookings as well as spreading joy among the shoppers. CLICK HERE to see the trio playing Ice Cream.

CLICK HERE to watch four of them playing Yes, Sir, That's My Baby.

They play in a lively, energetic fashion and I'm told they frequently add to the entertainment by introducing comedy elements and routines.

So these are English traditional jazz musicians still in their early 20s! You will notice that they are very good players of their instruments. I hope they will keep up the good work and go on developing.

The Jelly Roll Jazz Band

Laurence Marshall: sousaphone, trumpet, etc.

Michael Grant: clarinet

Dan Wackett: banjo

Rosie Pickering: tenor saxophone

Ben Sarney: double bass

James Ure: sousaphone