A nifty quartet — and for once without one of Marty’s idiosyncratic names — performing on September 17, 2011, at Jazz at Chautauqua. That’s Marty on guitar, vocal, and repartee; Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet; Scott Robinson on tenor saxophone, metal clarinet (he briefly considers his cornet in the final track); Frank Tate on string bass. As always with Marty’s groups, I think of Fats and his Rhythm, the Kansas City Six, the Bechet-Spanier Big Four, the Delta Four, the 1940 Chocolate Dandies — sweet rhythmic contraptions that scrape the clouds.
Swing it on out there! ALL MY LIFE:
Did someone say Fats Waller? Why not SQUEEZE ME:
How about Fred Astaire and Johnny Mercer’s I’M BUILDING UP TO AN AWFUL LET-DOWN:
And — as a jazz dessert of sorts — a tribute to the under-acknowledged Horace Gerlach, two songs immortalized by Louis Armstrong: IF WE NEVER MEET AGAIN (sung sweetly) and SWING THAT MUSIC with Jon-Erik keeping time, which he does so well:
I’m as happy as can be / When they SWING THAT MUSIC — not only for me, but for the larger audience and Posterity, too.
