“OH, BABY!” by GERRY GREEN’S CRESCENT CITY SHAKERS

DON’T FORGET TO CLICK HERE WHILE YOU’RE DOING THE CHARLESTON – – THE MUSICIANS WILL THANK YOU!

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A friend sent in this nice performance of OH, BABY! — which, in its lovely old-school way, bends jazz genres in an unexpected fashion. 

Because of Bix Beiderbecke and Eddie Condon, because of Wild Bill Davison and others, I associate this song firmly with a “Chicagoan” approach: hot, charging, perhaps with the world-shaking rhythm section of Ralph Sutton, Eddie, Walter Page, and George Wettling rocking Columbia Records’ Thirtieth Street studios, now probably vanished. 

But clarinetist Gerry Green and friends reimagined it somewhat in reverse — taking it back to New Orleans in the most delicately forceful way.  The magicians in this video performance are Dave Brown, string bass; Bill Dixon, banjo; Bob Pelland, piano; Jim Armstrong, trumpet and trombone.  This was recorded on February 5. 2011, at the Bellingham, Washington, Traditional Jazz Society.  The new YouTube channel is called, sweetly, “islandstarfish,” and it will be worth your energy to watch it closely, I think.

CHRIS TYLE’S SILVER LEAF JAZZ BAND, May 1, 2010

I was tempted to title this post CHRIS TYLE STRIKES AGAIN! but held back that impulse, fearing it would make the estimable Mr. Tyle sound like a Thirties bank robber.  But it’s how I feel.  Chris is a wonderful cornetist, drummer, clarinetist . . . a fine homespun singer and obviously a fine bandleader.  Here he is in what I’ve never thought of as the jazz capital of the Pacific Northwest*, playing and singing that Walter Donaldson perennial, IT’S BEEN SO LONG — with a first-rate crew of musicians whose names are mostly new to me:  Craig Flory, clarinet; Dave Loomis, trombone; Dave Brown, string bass; Candace Brown, banjo/guitar; Benji Bohannon, drums:

Yes, the video’s a little informal, but the solos are right on target and the rhythm section knows what to do (catch the fine drumming, even at a distance).  Chris is also a casually erudite jazz scholar, and his website — http://www.tyleman.com. is more than worthwhile.  I hope to have more videos of his bands to share with my viewers in future. 

*But there’s a Bellingham Traditional Jazz Society — and obviously they have good taste in musicians!