HOT JAZZ IN THE WINE COUNTRY: TED SHAFER’S JELLY ROLL JAZZ BAND (Jan. 8, 2012)

There might be better ways to spend a Sunday afternoon than in the company of a hot band playing King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton, but so far science has not found it.  Think of the raised dopamine levels!

Rae Ann Berry, the guiding light for traditional jazz in the San Francisco Bay Area, brought me to the monthly meeting of the Napa Valley Dixieland Jazz Society — where the guest band was Ted Shafer’s Jelly Roll Jazz Band.

You can find out more about the NVDJS here.  Their regular sessions take place at the Embassy Suites, 1075 California Blvd., in Napa, on the second Sunday of the month from 1-5 PM.

The band was Ted and Ken Keeler, banjo; Leon Oakley and Rick Holzgrafe on cornet and trumpet; Glenn Calkins, trombone; Pete Main, clarinet; Virgina Tichenor, piano; Jim O’Briant, tuba; Burt Thompson, drums.

And here’s some of the music they played:

SNAKE RAG:

CAMP MEETING BLUES:

TIGER RAG:

MILENBURG JOYS:

WORKING MAN’S BLUES:

To learn more about what’s happening in the Bay Area jazz scene, visit Rae Ann’s site for an up-to-date listing, here — and check out her YouTube videos — well over two thousand at last count — www.youtube.com/sfraeann

“HOT NUTS” (Get ‘Em While They’re Hot!)

One more example of the innocent-but-naughty ribaldry that made its way into American homes (or at least a lucky few households) in the Twenties by way of records and perhaps sheet music. 

True, this cheerful jazz group does slow down inexorably as the performance proceeds, but I would consider myself lucky to have the Eldorado Syncopators show up at my local bookstore.  (I would consider myself lucky to HAVE a local bookstore, but that lament is for another time and place.)  

This was recorded by SFRaeAnn on May 31, 2009, at North Light Books in Cotati, California.  And the hot heroes you see are Robert Young, saxes and vocal; Glenn Calkins, trombone and clarinet; Stan Greenberg, percussion; Steven Rose, sousaphone; Jim Young, tenor banjo; and Dave Frey, plectrum banjo.