“EAST COAST TROT”: THOMAS WINTELER, MATTHIAS SEUFFERT, DUKE HEITGER, KEITH NICHOLS, JACOB ULLBERGER, PHIL RUTHERFORD, NICHOLAS D. BALL at the 2015 MIKE DURHAM CLASSIC JAZZ PARTY (November 7, 2015)

I’ve been back in New York for eleven months now, and it does move at a fast pace now and again.  I still don’t walk at a proper Manhattanite tempo, but I’m getting back into tempo.  So when I was at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party on November 7 of this year and heard Thomas Winteler announce the next song as EAST COAST TROT, I thought, “They’re playing my song.”

Originally, it was an etude for two clarinets (Johnny Dodds and Junie Cobb), piano (Tiny Parham) and the irreplaceable Eustern Woodfork, banjo.  This session offers a splendidly enhanced ensemble: Thomas Winteler and Matthias Seuffert, clarinet; Duke Heitger, trumpet; Keith Nichols, piano; Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Phil Rutherford, brass bass; Nicholas D. Ball, washboard.

Trot along!

And just to show the phenomenal emotional range of this  group, I would point readers to the performance that took place just before the TROT — an immensely soulful reading of BLUES IN THIRDS.

Great things happen at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, and will happen again in November 2016 . . . from the 4th to the 6th.  Details to come.

May your happiness increase!

“BLUES IN THIRDS”: THOMAS WINTELER, MATTHIAS SEUFFERT, DUKE HEITGER, KEITH NICHOLS, JACOB ULLBERGER, PHIL RUTHERFORD, NICHOLAS BALL at the MIKE DURHAM CLASSIC JAZZ PARTY (November 7, 2015)

Let us begin at the beginning: Earl Hines’ composition, called CAUTION BLUES, offered as a piano solo in 1928:

and the next evocation, a 1940 trio of Hines, Sidney Bechet, and Baby Dodds for Victor.  Hines remembered Bechet as being “evil” that day yet repeating, “I want to play Hines’ tune,” which he did, by then titled BLUES IN THIRDS:

Both those performances — one for solo piano, the other for a trio — are full of variations: improvisations on the theme, variations in timbre and dynamics, and an impressive compositional variety.  So, in its own way, is this magical performance from our century — November 7, 2015 — at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party held in Newcastle, England, not a month ago.  The inspired participants are Thomas Winteler, clarinet / leader; Matthias Seuffert, clarinet; Keith Nichols, piano; Duke Heitger, trumpet; Jacob Ullberger, guitar; Phil Rutherford, brass bass; Nicholas Ball, spoons.  Yes, spoons — and since Nick is a beautifully imaginative percussionist, hear the variety of sounds and effects he obtains from what we take for granted in the silverware drawer.  Notice, please, how no one chorus is exactly like the one before or after it, and how this performance — without getting louder or faster — builds and ascends to something like true majesty:

A glorious performance — the sort of thing that has happened regularly at this party and its predecessors.  And I guarantee it will happen again in 2016.  Details to follow.  And, this just in!  The next Party will take place at the comfortable Village Hotel Newcastle, Friday, November 4 to Sunday the 6th.

May your happiness increase!