It’s October in New York, and the air is appropriately cooler. I know that cold weather is coming on, and that isn’t a pleasant thought. So I will present some wonderful warm music from late spring of this year, free-floating and joyous, performed amidst the trees by Tamar Korn and her Wildwood Ramblers, thanks to Brice Moss. The Ramblers (as I hope you know by now) were Dennis Lichtman, Evan Arntzen, Sean Cronin, and Adam Brisbin. Oh, the beauties they created and so generously gave to us.
Here and hereare the performances I’ve posted earlier (I think there are sixteen). This is Part Four or Part Five, depending on what kind of math is your usual procedure.
As to Tamar herself, I’ve been a devoted follower since 2009. Once I took this portrait photograph in the darkness. Someone, seeing it, said derisively to me (with the air of a middle-schooler mocking a romance) “You LOVE her!” and I said the only thing I could say, “Of course!”
Photograph by Michael Steinman
Here are three more reasons to love them all.
JAZZ ME BLUES (“Come on, Professor, and Jazz me!” — something no student has ever said to me, and that’s a good thing.):
DEEP NIGHT, with heartfelt harmonizing from Tamar and Evan:
YOU’RE DRIVING ME CRAZY, a riotous romp, suitable to end a glorious day of music. Don’t miss Evan’s nose flute interlude! And, as always, such a privilege to be there and to capture these sounds for you and perhaps for posterity:
Last August, I was privileged to watch another of Mike Lipskin’s Stride Summits, this one at the gorgeously pastoral Filoli in California, part of their jazz series.
Here are four performances from that afternoon, featuring the remarkable Chris Dawson. (I will be sharing other performances by Mike and by Dick Hyman — now 87 — in future postings.)
Honoring Teddy Wilson, Chris offers a lightly orchestral style — always mobile, always swinging, but with an elegant classical restraint balanced against an essential gaiety. The music is dense but appears crystalline. The astute listener will also hear he is not bound by older harmonic conventions (as in the coda Chris creates for IT HAD TO BE YOU). I hear subtle hints of Waller, Hines, Tatum, Nat Cole — but the sound Chris gets from a piano is singular and recognizable. And the result is floating melodies in a wonderful pastoral setting.
IF I HAD YOU:
Another sweet Twenties classic, IT HAD TO BE YOU:
A taste of SUGAR:
Visit here to learn more about Chris. Thanks to Merrilee Trost for making Jazz at Filoli a continuing pleasure — memorable music in the most welcoming surroundings. More videos to come.
Another jazz gift from some brilliant musicians, ably captured by Rae Ann Berry!
MKG and Friends, on February 6, 2010, at the Sounds of Mardi Gras in Fresno, California.
That new acronym, translated, adds up to MARC Caparone, cornet; KATIE Cavera, guitar; GEORGIA Korba, bass; along with Mike Baird, alto sax; Chris Tyle, clarinet and vocal; Ray Skjelbred, trombone; Jeff Hamilton, drums; and Carl Sonny Leyland, piano.
They were intended to perform as a trio, but this happy aggregation just grew, in a friendly way. The overall ambiance reminds me of a late-Thirties record session (the Varsity Seven with Benny Carter, Joe Marsala, Coleman Hawkins, and George Wettling), or a Lionel Hampton Victor, perhaps a Keynote band — the same loose, groovy feeling. Two of the musicians are happily and ambitiously playing instruments they aren’t always associated with: Ray is well-known on piano, Chris on trumpet and drums. But their knowledge and love of the music comes through powerfully.
Speaking of “powerfully,” might I suggest that readers who aren’t on the West Coast or who aren’t familiar with his work need to pay close attention to Marc Caparone, whose hot playing is a highlight of this set and of the New El Dorado Jazz Band. Rough or polished, intense or pretty, he’s a great trumpet player, subtle or driving. He loves the obvious Masters, but you’ll hear a good deal of those glorious eccentrics Red Allen and Jim Goodwin in his ferocities.
And I’ve singled out the nifty Jeff Hamilton for praise at other times in this blog — but he’s having a wonderful time here, getting the sounds out of a drum kit that say Swing Is Here.
Here is a spirited reading of Walter Donaldson’s MY BUDDY, originally written as a lament — but that was before Hawk (in France) and Hamp (in the US) latched on to it. Wow!
Here’s another lament, defined by Katie Cavera as “the saddest song” she knows — NOBODY CARES IF I’M BLUE. It’s not true, Katie — we would worry about you if the lyrics were true. Could we make you some soup or a cup of tea?
I delight in her girlish angst, as if Annette Hanshaw had somehow found herself in the Vocalion studios circa 1937, and in the ghosts floating through this performance — not only Pee Wee Russell and Red Allen but Sandy Williams or J. C. Higginbotham.
DO YOU EVER THINK OF ME reminds me of Vic Dickenson, who liked it, and of Jon-Erik Kellso, who continues to do so. A rocking performance of a sweet old tune, it has the sound of a Condon Town Hall Concert — with Jeff’s splashing cymbal summoning up Mr. Dave Tough, his accents suggesting Wettling or Catlett.
Here’s something pretty and winsome from the singular Dawn Lambeth, who takes AS LONG AS I LIVE at the easy, convincing tempo she likes (with deep-down work from Marc, who seconds the emotions). Nobody sounds like Dawn, and the embellishments she creates in her second chorus are delightful:
Time for something slow and romantic, a dance for the lovers, explicated by Dawn: hold your Beloved tight as Dawn and the band do BLUE MOON:
For the pastoral poets among us, a song I associate with Duke Ellington, Louis and the Mills Brothers: IN THE SHADE OF THE OLD APPLE TREE. Dawn brings Nature inside for a few minutes:
A rocking boogie-inflected version of ST. LOUIS BLUES:
Finally, a swinging version of LINGER AWHILE, entirely in the spirit:
“Groovy!” I thought to myself, in its pre-1967 meaning. You could look it up.
JAZZ LIVES 