I checked my phone this morning at breakfast, as one does (I can remember life pre-smartphone, but that’s an Andy Rooney essay) and saw that the soulful Ali Affleck had shared a performance of UNTIL THE REAL THING COMES ALONG with the Rhythm Rascals, who were Lucas Ferrari, piano; Jacob Ullberger, guitar and banjo; Roy Percy, double bass; Andy Schumm, clarinet and cornet. I didn’t inspect the personnel and just played the video through the phone next to my breakfast.
What soulful passionate intensity! No gimmicks, no trickery, just a deep message aimed right at us.
And when it was over and I could once again form words, I said to the OAO, seated near me, “Well, that’s my post for today.” So here it is:
Ali Affleck is a great artist, and I do not write those words casually. She tells her truth and it moves us. That’s rare and precious.
And the band! Four heroes in emotional and musical unity.
But wait! There’s more! How about Jelly’s mournful warning, half-lament and half “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” DON’T YOU LEAVE ME HERE.
The backdrop isn’t Storyville (it’s far too clean and tidy) but the ambiance is deep New Orleans at night:
Today’s homework: do share these unaffected masterpieces with the people who will get them. And since there’s no tip jar visible, please subscribe to www.youtube.com/@Aliaffleck. Surely this audience can make that number a wee bit larger.
And in return, the generous Alison will share more music with us. Deal?
Souvenirs of a brilliant weekend, even though many of us did not make it to the Village Hotel, Newcastle, for this Party, held annually in November, bringing together wonderful European, British, and American musicians. Three v.hot selections from the last jam session of the Party, captured for us by Chris Jonsson, the nattily dressed fellow next to Anne-Christine Persson in the photo. I know them as “Chris and Chris” on YouTube, they are neatly CANDCJ:
Here’s CHRIS and CHRIS
I’M GONNA STOMP MISTER HENRY LEE (I prefer the version without the comma, but grammarians who wish to explicate this title may email me):
Andy Schumm, clarinet; David Boeddinghaus, piano; Dave Bock, tuba; Josh Duffee, drums; Torstein Kubban, trumpet; Graham Hughes, trombone; Matthias Seuffert, clarinet; Stephane Gillot, alto saxophone; Jacob Ullberger, banjo.
Colin Hancock, cornet, and Henry Lemaire, string bass, come in for Gillot and Bock, and Graham Hughes sings MAMA’S GONE, GOOD-BYE (splendidly!):
and, finally, MILENBERG JOYS, with Boeddinghaus, Hancock, Kubban, Duffee, Ullberger, Lemaire, Lars Frank, clarinet . . . and if I am not mistaken, Torstein essays his own version of Louis’ Hot Chorus here, magnificently:
I would have expected more violent approval, but it was after 2 AM.
A word about my title. What, you might ask, is “v. hot“? It’s an inside joke for those of us — including percussion wizard Nicholas D. Ball, who have visited the Village Hotel in Newcastle with any regularity: a meant-to-be-terribly-cute advertising gimmick:
and a different view:
When I was there last in 2016, the elevator (sorry, the lift) had inside it a glossy photo of a larger-than-life young woman and the words “v. snuggly” or some such. We joked about this, and wondered if the toilets in each room were labeled “v. flushy” or the pizza “v. costly.” And so on. But nothing can take away from the jam session, which was indeed “v.hot.” Bless the musicians and both Chrisses (Christer and Anne-Christine) too.
I spent much of the morning hooking up a new computer setup: my laptop and my neck have a tumultuous relationship, so I prefer a desktop computer, a large monitor, and all the trimmings. That means a good deal of crawling around under a table, plugging wires in to the wall and in to the back of the computer (Swift’s phrase “Leaping and Creeping” came frequently to mind). The image below is an exaggeration, but most readers know the feeling, even if they wouldn’t wear those shoes:
I succeeded,without banging my head on the underside of the table of cursing: a double victory.
As a reward to myself for all that technological-dancing, even though it was primarily on all fours, I decided that the first thing I should do on this computer, after being allowed access to my own life, would be to share some music — appropriately a song celebrating a new hot dance, the SHIM-ME-SHA-WABBLE.
Since technology, going all the way back to cylinder recordings, has blessed us with the power to make the past and present dance on into the future, here is a performance from July 11, 2010, at what was then the International Jazz Festival at Whitley Bay, featuring Norman Field, clarinet; Nick Ward, drums; Andy Woon, trumpet; Paul Munnery, trombone; Frans Sjostrom, bass sax; Jacob Ullberger, guitar / banjo:
Fewer than 400 jazz-hot fanciers have viewed this video in nearly a decade, so this post is my effort to share joy with more people. Keep dancing, everyone, wherever you can.
Our subjects today are the overlap of “madness” and “pleasure.” Please be prepared to take notes.
“But first, this,” as they used to say on public radio.
PLEASURE MAD, a Sidney Bechet composition, was recorded in 1924 but the vocal versions weren’t issued, except for this one. Did the record company find it too direct to be acceptable? Here’s Ethel Waters’ version, clear as a bell:
Perhaps the song continued to be performed with those lyrics, but I don’t have any evidence. However, it resurfaced in 1938 as VIPER MAD, new lyrics, as sung — memorably — by O’Neil Spencer:
There might be other ways to pose the rhetorical question, but at what moment in those fourteen years did sexual pleasure become a less interesting subject in popular song than smoking reefers?
While you consider that intriguing philosophical question, I have a new double-CD set (36 tracks! 12 pounds!) to share with you. A little personal history: I attended the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party, then renamed Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party, from 2009 to 2016, and had a fine time: the best American, European, Australian, and occasionally South American musicians turned loose for a long weekend of hot and sweet jazz, its spiritual center the late Twenties and early Thirties.
Here are three samples, videoed by me, songs and personnels named:
and
and
I ended with GOT BUTTER ON IT so that JAZZ LIVES readers can — as they say — get a flavor of the experience. The Party continues to do its special magic splendidly, a magic that videos only partially convey. This year it’s November 1-3, and details can be found here. And if you search JAZZ LIVES for “Whitley Bay” or “Durham,” you will find a deluge of posts and videos.
But this post isn’t exactly about the Party as such, nor is it about my videos. Its subject — now, pay attention — is a 2-CD set of live performances from the 2018 Party, which is just thrilling. It’s called PLEASURE MAD: ‘LIVE RECORDINGS FROM MIKE DURHAM’S INTERNATIONAL CLASSIC JAZZ PARTY 2017 (WVR RECORDS WVR1007). As I wrote above, 36 live performances in beautiful sound.
And the sound is worth noting, with delight. At the Party, some fans record the music from the audience with everything from ancient cassette recorders to digital ones; when I was there, I videoed as much as I could. But this CD issue has the benefit of superb sound, because of the young Norwegian trumpeter and recording engineer Torstein Kubban, who has recorded every session for the past six years. Torstein is a phenomenal player, so I may be permitted this digression:
He’s got it, for sure. And his recordings are wonderful.
Here are the songs performed — referencing Duke Ellington, Ben Pollack, Bennie Moten, the Halfway House Orchestra, Alex Hill, Rube Bloom, Jabbo Smith, Louis Armstrong,Eddie Condon, Willie “the Lion” Smith, Clarence Williams, Luis Russell, King Oliver, James P. Johnson, and more:
And the musicians: Mike Davis, Andy Schumm, Duke Heitger, Jamie Brownfield, Malo Mazurie, Kristoffer Kompen, Jim Fryer, Graham Hughes, Ewan Bleach, Michael McQuaid, Richard Exall, Claus Jacobi, Matthias Seuffert, Lars Frank, Jean-Francois Bonnel, Emma Fisk, David Boeddinghaus, Martin Litton, Keith Nichols, Morten Gunnar Larsen, Martin Wheatley, Spats Langham, Peter Beyerer, Henry Lemaire, Jacob Ullberger, Phil Rutherford, Elise Sut, Malcolm Sked, Josh Duffee, Richard Pite, Nick Ward, Nick Ball, Joan Viskant, Nicolle Rochelle. If I’ve left anyone out, let me know and I will impale myself on a cactus needle as penance, and video the event.
I think it’s taken me so long to write this post because every time I wanted to take the CDs into the house to write about them, I would start them up on the car player and there they would stay. A few highlights, deeply subjective: Martin Litton’s sensitive and tender solo LAURA; the riotous hot polyphony of CHATTANOOGA STOMP (which I recently played six times in the car, non-stop); the exuberant GIVE ME YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER; Spats Langham’s NEW ORLEANS SHUFFLE; a completely headlong RAILROAD MAN; a version of THE CHARLESTON that starts with Louis’ WEST END BLUES cadenza; SHIM-ME-SHA-WABBLE that rocks tremendously; I FOUND A NEW BABY that sounds as if Hines (in the guise of Boeddinghaus) visited a Condon jam session in 1933; SOBBIN’ BLUES with layers and textures as rich as great architecture. You will find your own favorites; those are mine of the moment.
My advice? If you can, get thee to the Party, where seats are going fast. Once there, buy several copies of this set — for yourself, national holidays, the birthdays of hip relatives — and enjoy for decades. If you can’t get to the UK, you can still purchase the set, which I urge you to do.
And when the authorities knock on your door to ask about the ecstatic sounds coming from within, you can simply show them this CD and say, “Well, Officers, I’m PLEASURE MAD! Would you like to come in?” And all will be well.
“Chris and Chris” at the 2015 Steamboat Stomp in New Orleans. Photograph by Bess Wade.
I couldn’t make it to this year’s Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, but my place as videographer has been filed nobly by a number of people, which is reassuring. You can find their works on YouTube, but here is one performance so glorious that I wanted to share it with you. The video is the work of my comrade Chris Jonsson — he’s half of the friendly team of “Chris and Chris,” the other half being Anne-Christine Persson (both snappy dressers as well who make all the hot festivals). Chris Jonsson carries a video camera — low and unobtrusive — and has a YouTube channel called CANDCJ.
One of the highlights of the Party is the nightly jam sessions in the Victory Pub, where this year, they managed to get a small piano in, making the music even more true-to-life. Chris captured hours of the “formal” sets, but the five selections he recorded in the Pub seem — to me, at least — even more thrilling. Here’s ONCE IN A WHILE, the Hot Five classic, played with immense energy and joy by some people I admire greatly: Kristoffer Kompen, trombone; Torstein Kubban, cornet; Lars Frank, reeds; Phil Rutherford, tuba; Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano. And how fiercely they swing!
Thanks to five musicians and one gifted archivist. And to Louis, of course. An aside: proven morale-boosters and mood-enhancers (pick your jargon) for me are the company of people I love, caffeine, and anything associated with Louis. I hope you feel better, too.
And a postscript. This performance is hot enough to have ignited something, which reminded me that at the 2014 Party there was a fire in the Victory Pub, and we had to leave the hotel for a time. The music that resulted when we returned is one of my favorite memories: you can see it here.
Violinist Emma Fisk— with a lovely dark tone, a romantic conception to match her fine technique — never disappoints and is always swinging. Here she is with three of the best — Spats Langham on the right and Jacob Ullberger on the left, guitars, and Henry Lemaire, string bass — in a session celebrating Django, Stephane, and their work together both as the Quintette of the Hot Club of France and later.
This delight took place at the 2016 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, held in Whitley Bay, England: this set comes from November 4, 2016.We begin with an incomplete performance — my fault — but I thought the remainder was too good to ignore.
COQUETTE:
I’M CONFESSIN’:
BELLEVILLE:
IF YOU ONLY KNEW (HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU):
DARK EYES:
As you can hear, Emma is a superb violinist, one not restricted to this particular genre. She and guitarist James Birkett have formed a duo devoted to the music of Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti, and the delightful evidence — audio and video — can be found here. I’ve heard rustlings that a new CD by the duo is on the way as well. Emma and friends — what friends! — will be back for the 2017 Party, held in late October: visit here for details, videos, and more. I won’t be there, but that will leave more room for you and yours.
SWING indeed. It gets very hot in Newcastle during the long weekend when the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Partygently but firmly occupies the Village Hotel in Newcastle, England.
Nick Ball and Graham Hughes at the 2015 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party. Photograph by Emrah Erken.
This year, the Party begins with a jam session on Thursday, November 3 . . . and runs almost without a letup until late Sunday (really, early Monday morning) — either November 6 or 7, depending on what your watch or smartphone tells you.
I’ve posted links to the Party site below, but before you venture into the land of Clicks, how about some hot music? This rousing performance (from November 8, 2015) was part of a set led by Thomas Winteler paying tribute to the 1938-41 recordings Bechet made for Victor Records.
The heroes onstage are Thomas Winteler, soprano saxophone; Bent Persson, trumpet; Graham Hughes, trombone; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano; Jacob Ullberger, guitar; Henry Lemaire, string bass; Nicholas Ball, drums.
To see who’s playing, click here. And to book your seat, click here.
The Party’s webpage has a number of delightful videos, so prepare to spend some happy (hot) minutes. I’ve posted a substantial number myself from 2009 on, on this site, too. Maybe we’ll see each other there this November.
Jonathan Schwartz told the story of walking with his father (Arthur Schwartz, of Dietz and Schwartz fame) on a shady city street, and his father saying, “Come on, let’s cross over to Dorothy’s side of the street,” the reference being to the lyricist Dorothy Fields and the classic 1930 song ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET (music by Jimmy McHugh).
Even though the rendition that follows was hours away from the sunshine, it glows and radiates in the best way: evoking Bechet, Louis, and Hines if you like, or dramatizing that such mastery is still entirely possible in this century: the players are Thomas Winteler, soprano saxophone; Torstein Kubban, cornet; David Boeddinghaus, keyboard; Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone; Jacob Ullberger, banjo. All of this goodness took place on November 5, 2015, at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party. And I know for a certainty that more like it will take place at the November 2016 Party.
Living sunshine, even in the darkness. Thanks to Messrs. Sjostrom, Winteler, Kubban, Boeddinghaus, and Ullberger:
The Union Rhythm Kings at the 2013 Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party
The debut CD of this wonderful hot band,A HOT REUNION, on Herman Records, came out in 2009. So the second one is long overdue, and I am happy to report that it is here, and as delightful as its predecessor. (I am grateful to Trygve Hernaes, the band’s enthusiastic guide and supporter, for enabling me to hear them on disc before I’d met them all in person.)
The band, the Union Rhythm Kings, is a wonderful hot hybrid of Norwegian and Swedish musicians — Kristoffer Kompen, trombone; Bent Persson, trumpet; Lars Frank, reeds; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano, Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone; Jacob Ullberger, banjo / guitar. For the geographers keeping score, Kris, Lars, and Morten are from Norway; Bent, Frans, and Jacob from Sweden. The band even has its own Wikipedia page.
What sets the URK apart (and above) many other “traditional” jazz bands is the excellence of their solo and ensemble work, expert and impassioned, and free from cliche. They are inspired by the original recordings and arrangements, but they bring their own energy to the repertoire. They’ve broken free of the Jazz Museum.
On this disc, much of that repertoire is comfortable Morton, Ellington, Armstrong, Luis Russell, and Beiderbecke — but the URK takes pleasure in Jack Purvis and obscure Morton. Thus, CLARINET MARMALADE, CROCODILE CRADLE, DAVENPORT BLUES, SARATOGA SHOUT, HUMPTY DUMPTY, WHEN YOU’RE FEELING BLUE, I DIDN’T KNOW, I AIN’T GOT NOBODY, MILENBERG JOYS, RIVERBOAT SHUFFLE, WHAT’S THE USE OF CRYIN’, BABY, SANTA CLAUS BLUES, BLUES OF THE VAGABOND, SOMEBODY STOLE MY GAL, DUSKY STEVEDORE.
I’ve listened to them with great pleasure at their recent annual appearances at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, and I have some performance video from November 5-8 to share with you — which will embody the band’s virtues better than paragraphs of enthusiastic prose. The great young drummer Nick Ball helps out on all these performances.
Here are four from their Sunday-evening concert:
DAVENPORT BLUES:
BLUES OF THE VAGABOND:
HUMPTY DUMPTY:
CLARINET MARMALADE:
and four from the Thursday-night pub session:
In honor of the Luis Russell band, SARATOGA SHOUT:
For solitaries everywhere, I AIN’T GOT NOBODY:
and these last two (with Bix in mind), with Thomas Winteler sitting in for Lars:
SORRY:
JAZZ ME BLUES:
The URK discs (beautifully recorded), can be obtained from Sonor Records AS,
Postboks 4275, NO 7436 Trondheim, Norway. Information at email: sonoras@online.no. Price: NOK 200 or USD 25, packing and postage included. Payment via Paypal, to the email address above.
This isn’t a recipe post, but who could resist this? (Erin, who dislikes cake, can skip right to the music.)
What follows is absolutely glorious — evoking Louis and Sidney ninety years later, in the Victory Pub, a place I am sure neither of them ever visited. This after-hours session took place on November 5, 2015, as part of the revelry of the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party.
The people lighting up the darkness are Torstein Kubban, cornet; Thomas Winteler, soprano saxophone; David Boeddinghaus, keyboard; Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone.
CAKE WALKIN’ BABIES FROM HOME:
I know that the original recordings — and the tradition that follows — are somewhat pugnacious, with Bechet and Armstrong each trying to show dominance . . . but this 2015 version evokes the Hot Peaceable Kingdom, with the two lions treating the lambs to Newcastle brown ale after the set. Mixing metaphors wildly, I know, but these wonderful virtuosic players seem more brotherly than combative, united in the great desire to bring light into the darkness.
Two other performances of equal splendor from this evening can be found here and here.
See you at this year’s Party. Even more details to be savored here.
You don’t need a large group of people to create something beautiful. And you don’t need the most comfortable settings — even a large sign advertising GOURMET BURGERS and COMFORT SALADS is no distraction for heartfelt artists who know and embody lovely truths.
And so it was once again shown — gorgeously — on the first night of the 2015 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party (November 5) after the rehearsals had concluded and a small group of the devout gathered in the Victory Pub for fun and hot jazz.
Here, three masters of hot combined to produce music at the highest level: Torstein Kubban, cornet; Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone. Their text for this mellow sermon is the old song IN THE SHADE OF THE OLD APPLE TREE — a song so well-known that I recall two parody versions (one ethnic-vaudeville, one lewd) and I am sure there are more . . . as well as Ellington’s and the sacred collaboration of Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers.
But rather than studying the past, I invite you to delight in the glories of the present — a performance where one can admire the individual voices and then marvel at what they combine to create:
Who knew that lovely fruit could grow in darkness? These three artists did and do. And more marvels like this will take place at the 2016 Partyin November.
Thanks to the Library of Congress “National Jukebox,” here is Billy Murray’s 1905 parody version of the song, depicting death and violence in the orchard. “Don’t try this at home!” rings especially true.
This song — new to me although almost a century old — made a powerful impression on me when Thomas Winteler, the great soprano saxophonist (and clarinetist) performed it at Mike Durham’s Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party on November 8, 2015. Accompanying him were Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano; Jacob Ullberger, guitar; Henry Lemaire, string bass. It’s a passionate performance:
Here’s the original 1923 recording, with Mamie Smith’s powerful penetrating voice matched by Bechet’s soaring soprano (and Buddy Christian, banjo):
And the first, even more convincing recording, that same year, by Bessie Smith and Fletcher Henderson:
And a 1935 instrumental version with Williams, Cecil Scott, Ed Allen, Jimmy McLin, Cyrus St. Clair, and Willie Williams:
Emma Fisk is a deep-rooted jazz violinist. Here, from her website, is the story of how she became one.
I first encountered Emma at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party, where in the past three years she has been called upon to honor Eddie South, Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelly, Joe Venuti, and others — see her in action hereand here. (Emma pops up here and there on my most recent videos from the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, and she’s always welcome.) Then I heard the CD, featuring Emma, as part of the splendid small group aptly calling itself DJANGOLOGIE.
Fast forward to November 6, 2015, where Emma was leading a stellar quartet that she whimsically called “the Hot Club of Whitley Bay,” herself on violin, Martin Wheatley, Spats Langham, guitar; Henry Lemaire, string bass. Here are the delights they offered us.
DINAH:
J’ATTENDRAI:
DOUCE AMBIANCE:
NUAGES:
MINOR SWING:
A sidelight: Emma is giggling through some of this set, and there’s good reason, if you see a youngish man sitting on the floor right in front of the band. That’s no Quintette-obsessed fan, but the fine guitarist / banjoist Jacob Ullberger. Emma told me, “I was laughing at Jacob coming to sit under a table to listen at the start of one of the songs. He looked like a little boy sitting cross-legged in the school hall, which tickled my funny bone. He told me afterwards that he wanted to come and hear the acoustic sound of the music.”
And quite rightly so.
Follow Emma (as we say in this century) on Facebook, where she is Emma Fisk Jazz Violin.
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.
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.
There won’t be much prose in this blogpost: a seventeen-hour travel day has a way of overpowering ordinary cognition (Newcastle to Amsterdam to New York to home, including a taxi, two planes, two airports, a shuttle, and a drive home in rush hour).
But I wanted to let the JAZZ LIVES faithful know that I hadn’t decided to abandon them or the blog. I will have something to say about the glorious cabaret evening that singer Janice Day and pianist Martin Litton put on in Hay-on-Wye. And I assure you I will have much more to say about the Mike Durham Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party, which is still ringing beautifully in my ears.
Nick Ball and Josh Duffee in the Victory Pub, November 2015, at the Party
But music speaks louder than words, as Charlie Parker reminded Earl Wilson. So here’s a sample from the Thursday, November 5, 2015, after-hours jam session at the Victory Pub in the Village Hotel Newcastle . . . on RIVERBOAT SHUFFLE.
The energized participants are Torstein Kubban, cornet; Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone; Thomas Winteler, clarinet; David Boeddinghaus, piano; Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Nick Ball, drums:
The Party will go on in 2016, but it needs you to survive and flourish. So do make a note of that, in honor of hot jazz, in honor of Hoagy and Bix too.
TWO DEUCES! Bent Persson and Enrico Tomasso at the 2014 Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party
“Fine! Wonderful! Perfect!” to quote Fats. I’m referring to the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party— coming soon to the Village Hotel Newcastle in the UK.
I mean no offense or slight to my friends and heroes who organize Parties, Stomps, Fests, and other weekend galas, but the MDCJP (the Party formerly known as the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party) is special. Many musicians simply want to get up on the stand and sing or play among their friends and peers, and this is standard — often exhilarating — fare at most jazz weekends. And the MDCJP encourages such frolic with a nightly jam session in the Victory Pub. But many musicians devoted to the sounds of the Twenties and Thirties and beyond want to pay reverent homage to their forbears while having their own say — so this Party is organized into small concerts, each celebrating a band, a sound, a leader: it becomes a wondrous living evocation of where we’ve all come from.
First, a list of who’s going to be there on the bandstand — an illustrious lot for sure:
Janice Day, Mellow Baku (vocal); Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Schumm, Menno Daams, Duke Heitger, Bent Persson, Enrico Tomasso (trumpet); Kris Kompen, Graham Hughes, Alistair Allan (trombone); Matthias Seuffert, Michael McQuaid, Robert Fowler, Lars Frank, Thomas Winteler, Claus Jacobi (reeds); Martin Litton, David Boeddinghaus, Morten Gunnar Larsen, Keith Nichols (piano); Spats Langham, Jacob Ullberger, Martin Wheatley (banjo, guitar); Phil Rutherford, John Hallam, Malcolm Sked (bass, brass bass); Frans Sjostrom (bass saxophone); Henry Lemaire (bass, guitar, banjo); Richard Pite (drums, bass); Josh Duffee (drums, vibraphone); Nicholas Ball (drums, washboard)
(If I have left anyone out, I apologize.)
And a brief listing of the concert themes: the Union Rhythm Kings; a tribute to Mike Durham; the Original Memphis Five; the Quintette of the Hot Club of France; Jelly Roll Morton; Bunny Berigan; the “avant-garde” of Red Nichols and Miff Mole; Spats Langham’s Hot Combination; Lu Watters; solo piano recitals; Teddy Brown; the Dixie Stompers; Dance Band Divas; Thirties small-group sessions; Louis (featuring Bent and Enrico); the 1938 Morton Library of Congress recordings; Black New Orleans; chamber jazz; Western Swing; Spike Hughes; Chicago South Side; the Cotton Club; Casa Loma Orchestra; more unrecorded Bix; Bechet; Duke Heitger; California Ramblers; Eddie Condon; the Nichols-Duffee Orchestra . . . and more.
And two highlights of the 2104 Festival — moments to remember!
HOT.
SWEET.
It’s a musical feast. Don’t miss out on this Party.
From the JAZZ LIVES Collection (currently on display in the JAZZ LIVES kitchen)
I’d love to have this Gang in my neighborhood: paying tribute to Adrian Rollini, they make beauty, not violence. This session took place at the 2014 Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party, and the “New York Gang” evoked five classic recordings with connections to Rollini from 1928 to 1934. They were Frans Sjostrom, bass sax / leader; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano; Jacob Ullberger, guitar; Nick Ball, drums; Duke Heitger, trumpet; Lars Frank, tenor saxophone; Kristoffer Kompen, trombone.
IF I HAD YOU (if memory serves, the 1928 arrangement from a Sam Lanin record featuring one Bing Crosby, vocal):
DAVENPORT BLUES by our man from that town:
SOMEBODY LOVES ME:
SUGAR:
RIVERBOAT SHUFFLE:
Such sessions have been the hallmarks of every Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party since before my time — my first was in 2009. Notice, please, the enchanting mix of expertise and casualness, while great recordings and great performers are evoked, more than imitated. It’s a wonderful party — now renamed the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party— and this year’s version begins with a jam session by the Union Rhythm Kings, a glorious band, on November 5, and the party goes until November 8, or perhaps the early hours of November 9.
This is the final portion of an ecstatic set of music devoted to the clarinet master Johnny Dodds — as created on November 8, 2014, at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party. The participants: Thomas Winteler, Matthias Seuffert, Claus Jacobi, reeds; Rico Tomasso, cornet; Emma Fisk, violin; Martin Litton, piano; Malcolm Sked, string bass; Martin Wheatley, Spats Langham, Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Nick Ball, washboard. The other postings from this set can be found hereand here.
MELANCHOLY (featuring Martin Litton, piano; Claus Jacobi, reeds, Matthias Seuffert, clarinet; Malcolm Sked, bass; Thomas Winteler, clarinet; Rico Tomasso, cornet; Martin Wheatley, banjo):
MY BABY (add Nick Ball*, washboard; Spats Langham, banjo, replaces Martin Wheatley):
HEN PARTY BLUES (add Emma Fisk, violin):
MEMPHIS SHAKE (as HEN PARTY):
Frank Melrose’s FORTY AND TIGHT (tout ensemble, posted once, but it should be posted evermore):
These hot ecstasies have been a hallmark of the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party for decades; now renamed theMike Durham Classic Jazz Party in honor of its beloved founder. This year it will be held from November 6-8, and it will be delightful. (*If you want to know my feelings about being there, you have only to watch Nick’s face — joy and surprise tumbling on one another constantly.)
This was a truly delightful set, balancing neatly between uproarious riot and precise tribute, where the participants paid tribute to New Orleans / Chicago clarinetist Johnny Dodds by evoking some of his less famous recordings. Those expert participants were Claus Jacobi, reeds; Matthias Seuffert and Thomas Winteler, clarinet; Rico Tomasso, cornet; Martin Litton, piano; Spats Langham, Jacob Ullberger, Martin Wheatley, banjo; Malcolm Sked, bass; Nicholas Ball, washboard. (That’s the collective personnel: you’ll see / hear who is playing on each number.)
Here’s the first part, as captured at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party on November 8, 2014.
I note with pleasure how happy the musicians look — and that’s no stage joke. The most accurate emotional barometer on this little stage is the visage of one Nick Ball, percussionist supreme: he looks as if he’s going to explode with rhythmic joy. You can imagine how happy I was from behind my camera.
IDLE HOUR SPECIAL (with an unexpected cameo by a t-shirted jazz fan at 4:00, who momentarily blocked the view but thankfully not the sound — I knew he was a “jazz fan” because it was written on his shirt, thus saving me the need to speculate):
ORIENTAL MAN:
39TH AND DEARBORN:
CARPET ALLEY BREAKDOWN:
More to come. And you might want to investigate this year’s Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party. It’s a place where such things happen — beautifully — throughout a long weekend.
Cornetist / trumpeter / scholar Bent Persson loves Jelly Roll Morton. Here, he assembled a cohesive little band for a set at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party (on November 7, 2014) that took as its text Morton’s last recordings, from 1940 and 1941. Bent’s colleagues are Nick Ball, drums; Henri Lemaire, string bass; Jacob Ullberger, guitar; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano; Thomas Winteler, Jean-Francois Bonnel, reeds; Graham Hughes.
In the full-band titles, most of which featured Henry “Red” Allen, one of Bent’s (and my) heroes, one hears an approach different from the Victor Red Hot Peppers — sometimes as if Morton was adapting conventions of Swing Era arranging for his own purposes, with great effectiveness.
Here are five selections, each rewarding and full of small surprises.
MY HOME IS IN A SOUTHERN TOWN, which rollicks along:
WININ’ BOY BLUES, without a vocal but with double-time passages:
KING PORTER STOMP in its original form as a piano solo, which — after decades of hearing it scored for brass and reeds — sounds novel, almost startling. Talk about “orchestral piano”!
FROG-I-MORE RAG, as imagined for the trio of Thomas, Morten, and a very happy Nick:
SWEET SUBSTITUTE, for full band, echoing the powerful General recording:
I’ll be at the 2015 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party. These videos, and others I’ve posted, should answer the question “Why?” neatly. At least they do for me.
Here is one of the high points of a wonderful tribute to Fletcher Henderson’s “Connie’s Inn Orchestra,” led by Claus Jacobi, saxophone, with Rico Tomasso, Duke Heitger, Menno Daams, trumpet / cornet; Kristoffer Kompen, Graham Hughes, trombone; Matthias Seuffert, Jean-Francois Bonnel, Claus Jacobi, reeds; Keith Nichols, piano; Jacob Ullberger, banjo / guitar; Malcolm Sked, bass; Richard Pite, drums. Recorded on November 8, 2014, at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party:
The song? STARDUST. What could be more beautiful? And this performance speaks to a time when rhythmic ballads could be both hot and tender, when improvisation could also be romantic dance music, when African-American bands could venture into Caucasian pop music . . . and play it beautifully. And the quietly eloquent shadow of Bix is evident throughout. (Would this performance also be possible without the genial angelic guidance of Louis? I think not.) A profound gentle lyricism in dance tempo — a great achievement then and now (with heroic subtle playing from Mister Daams and the band as a whole).
JAZZ LIVES 