Post 578: YES MA'AM ARE BACK

Watch this performance from December 2017 of the New Orleans busking string band Yes Ma'am.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW.

I find it utterly compelling, so full of variety and brilliant musicianship. After the gently stated start, note the changes of tempo, the attention to dynamics, the brilliant little solos, Matt's footwork. It will give you some idea of what this group - and especially its founder and leader Matt Constanza - have achieved in the eight years since he formed the band.

But let me go back.

During my April 2016 visit to New Orleans, I was thrilled at last to hear the string band Yes Ma'am. I had admired their work on YouTube for several years but unfortunately did not come across them when I previously visited New Orleans in 2015.

However, in Royal Street on 7 April 2016, I bumped into my friend Randy (the great video-maker codenamed RaoulDuke504 - he who also filmed the video I have recommended above) and he gave me a tip-off that Yes Ma'am were playing at that moment at The French Market. I hurried over and sure enough there they were.

What a dazzling performance! I can assure you they are even more exciting in person than when seen on YouTube. Each musician individually is a virtuoso. The finger-work on some of the solo choruses was mind-boggling. The songs were witty; and the control of 'breaks' and rhythm (sometimes doubling-up) was so clever and effective. You can't help having a big smile on your face and you can't stop your feet tapping when Yes Ma'am are playing.

Elena Dorn has been with Yes Ma'am since
the early days. She plays the violin beautifully
and her subtle improvisations perfectly complement
the textures of the other instruments.

At the break, I was fortunate enough to have a chat with the leader - Matt Costanza. On YouTube, Matt (like Yes Ma'am in general) has always given me the impression of being very laid-back, devil-may-care, unconventional and bohemian in life-style. Well, maybe some of that is true. But I have to report that the man I met that day was also deadly serious about his music, modest, very articulate, extremely hard-working and also kind and generous in talking with me. He allowed me to take this photo.

I thanked Matt for the pleasure his band had given to YouTube viewers all over the world. I told him I was amazed at his own brilliance and versatility: he sits at the centre of the band, playing the guitar with great vigour and lustily singing, while simultaneously providing percussion: with his feet he plays a 'drum' and a tambourine and a bell! In the course of a performance he uses a huge amount of energy.

He very modestly said he did not consider himself a great player. In his opinion, the rest of the band were the technically-gifted players and he was privileged to have them working with him.

Well, there you have the recipé for a perfect team: a leader who is a dedicated, tireless, directing presence surrounded by other musicians whom he respects and encourages to display their skills.

Those Yes Ma'am songs tend to be tricky in structure. Think of the sudden tempo changes. How does the band get to perform them so slickly? And where do the songs come from?

Matt's answers were surprising. He told me he himself now composes about 90% of the material. The band hones and masters it during their many performances on the streets. 

I had guessed they must get together from time to time to rehearse. No, Matt told me. He could recall that they had had two rehearsals. No more.

But is all this really traditional jazz? That's a question I hear some people ask. Well, yes, it certainly is. The links and overlaps between jug bands and string bands and what has become 'conventional' traditional jazz (with a front line of trumpet, trombone and clarinet) go right back to the earliest days; and they have been gloriously revived by the young musicians in the New Orleans of today. Instrumentation in the string bands may be slightly different (though I should mention that Yes Ma'am sometimes - as in the picture below - includes a cornet and trombone), but the principles for playing and interpreting the music are exactly the same.

In the years during which Matt's band has been evolving, there have been several changes of personnel (and I believe he still draws from a pool of players). When I first discovered them on YouTube, they looked like this.

Although two of the ladies from that photo are still usually in the band, the line-up was rather different when I saw them in April 2016. I made a video and you can watch it by clicking on here.

If you would care to hear how they sounded at the end of 2015, click on this performance of Squishin' Bees, an up-tempo 12-bar blues in Bb.

For a very fine video of them with their late-2013 line-up playing a medley, CLICK HERE.

One of my favourites from their earlier days (2011) is this: CLICK HERE  to watch it.

Whatever you think, please watch right to the end: there are surprises along the way. And admire all the little details.

The band appeared to be absent from the streets of New Orleans after the end of 2016. According to an unofficial report, it seemed that Matt felt completely exhausted at the end of that year - hardly surprising, in view of the energy and hard work put into every performance. He decided to take a break, during which he could re-charge his batteries, probably compose some more songs, and make plans for the future. Well, I'm pleased to see he's back.

Post 461: THE FRENCH MARKET IN NEW ORLEANS

Here's The French Market, New Orleans, in 1880:

And here it is in 1920:

And here it is - same year - from the other side:

Here are two recent photos showing the interior of The French Market:

Finally, to watch that excellent band Yes Ma'am busking in April 2016 outside the French Market: CLICK HERE.

Post 402: DIZZY

About three years ago, on YouTube, I first spotted Dizzy, playing with Yes Ma'am, the string band, and also deputising for Robin with Tuba Skinny. Immediately I could tell I was watching a young lady who was not only a great washboard player but also the world's most beautiful musician.

I wrote a Blog Post about her and noted from my sitemeter that it had thousands of readers in the weeks that followed.

When I travelled the 4,500 miles from my home to New Orleans for the French Quarter Festival in April 2015, I was disappointed that I did not come across Dizzy, though I heard later that she had been busking in the streets when I was there.

However, visiting again in April 2016, I bumped into the great video-maker codenamed RaoulDuke504 and he gave me a tip-off that the band Yes Ma'am was playing at that very moment in The French Market. I hurried over and sure enough there they were. They were brilliant - even better in person than in their many YouTube videos.

I introduced myself to Dizzy and had a lovely chat with her. As I had expected, she turned out to be a very articulate, good-humoured and warm-hearted person. An important piece of information she gave me was that she would be touring in Europe during the Summer of 2016. Arrangements were still vague. She did not know what the Band would be called or who the other musicians would be, though one of them was certainly Ryan Baer (a truly great player of the banjo and other instruments, and a former member of Tuba Skinny) and she knew they would be performing at some stage in Ghent, Belgium.

I told Dizzy I had once written a blog article, illustrated with photos, telling everyone she was the world's most beautiful musician, and I jokingly said I had no idea why so many thousands of readers had been attracted to that post. She replied, equally joking, that it must be because of my good writing!

This young lady has now been settled in New Orleans for several years. She plays sublimely and prolifically with a number of bands. Mostly, she is with Yes Ma'am. You can find plenty of their videos on YouTube.

If you think playing the washboard is easy, you are wrong. It takes some doing to maintain the strict tempo and to decorate properly the music being played by the rest of your group. You have to know the tunes really well, especially to be aware of 'breaks' and rhythmic changes. It's hard work on the fingers and wrists, too. You need a lot of energy.

Dizzy is a brilliant player of the washboard. My favourite video of her is this one. Click on to watch:

CLICK HERE.

Isn't Dizzy sensational (as well as beautiful)? Incidentally, that great song - Caffeine - was composed by the gentleman singing it - Aaron Gunn.

But if you would like to see Dizzy playing in a more conventional traditional jazz band, here's one of her in Mexico with Tuba Skinny. Watch out for her enjoying a solo chorus at 2 minutes 41 seconds: CLICK HERE.

And to see her playing a super solo (at 1 minute 45 seconds) with Tuba Skinny on Dallas Rag, CLICK HERE.

Since April 2015, Dizzy has frequently turned up in The Sluetown Strutters: Click here to view.

Dizzy has a Turkish background and speaks both English and Turkish fluently. As a child she had piano lessons and also started to play the saxophone. (She told me she is still playing the piano quite a lot.) She went on to be a high-flying graduate in English and American Literature and Creative Writing at New York University. Then in 2009 she chose to go to New Orleans to 'collect material' to write about. It seems she is still collecting it!

What she obviously did collect was washboards and she chose this happy if unconventional busking life-style. I made a video of her playing in Yes Ma'am on 7 April 2016 - the date when at last I met her. I hope you will watch it. To do so, CLICK HERE.

For a bit of fun from Dizzy's earliest days in New Orleans (showing she can sing well too!) click here.

On 10 June 2016, Dizzy took part in the first performance ever by the amazing all-female Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band that performed at The Dragon's Den in New Orleans (photo below courtesy of a New Orleans-based friend, who wishes to remain anonymous). What a group of stars! She went on to become a permanent member of the band, and played with them at The Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy during July 2017.

And in January 2017, Dizzy expanded her horizons till further. She took up full-scale drumming, with Max Bien-Kahn's band Max and the Martians.