PRETTY / HOT: DUKE HEITGER’S “HOT JAZZ SEPTETT” in GERMANY (May 9, 2011)

Don’t worry about the details just yet.  Just bathe in the sweetly hot sounds of DIANE.  It comes into the ear like honey:

Here are the details for those who require them:

The session was recorded on May 9, 2011, at Duisburger Hof, Germany, in a series called Bernd Albani’s JAZZ LIVE — featuring these heroes: Duke Heitger, trumpet, vocal; Dan Barrett, trombone, vocal; Evan Christopher, clarinet, tenor sax, vocal; Bernd Lhotzky, piano; Dave Blenkhorn, guitar; Kerry Lewis, string bass; Jeff Hamilton, drums.

More?  You’d like more?  I agree wholly, so here’s the WABASH BLUES:

Extraordinary playing from everyone!

LINGER AWHILE!

And the eternal plaint, BABY, WON’T YOU PLEASE COME HOME? — in a performance that’s full of surprises, and I don’t mean the key change at the end:

“Sweet, soft, plenty rhythm,” said Mister Morton.  And he was so right.

These four wonderful videos are gifts from “ulivids”    and YouTube — thank you, dear benefactors!

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COLIN BOWDEN’S SINGING DRUMS

 I first heard Colin Bowden on a session the late Humphrey Lyttelton and Kenny Davern did for the Calligraph label — THAT OLD GANG OF OURS — so long ago that I had a vinyl copy.  And I admired Colin’s wonderful beat and the sounds he got out of his drums.  I haven’t changed my mind.  Too many times, when the drummer in a jazz group begins an extended solo, the other members of the ensemble leave the stand — not to give him more room, but because they know that six or seven minutes of pounding all around the drumset awaits the unwary.  A half-dozen drummers are exceptions to this, and Colin is one of them.  Here’s his feature on THAT’S A PLENTY recorded on September 20, 2009, with the Delta Jazz Band — comprised of the UK veteran Pat Halcox (tp), Terry Giles (cl), Mike Pointon (tb), Andy Maynard (bj), John Sirett (b).  It was recorded (expertly) at HundertMeister Duisburg (Germany), and posted on YouTube by “ulivids.”  

To some this style of drumming may seem archaic — too much Baby Dodds and Zutty Singleton.  But if you can free your mind from the neat boxes of Styles and Categories, perhaps you can better appreciate and enjoy Colin’s enthusiastic way of making those pieces of wood and calfskin (or plastic) sing.  And I despair of the person who could watch this clip without jiggling around in the chair.

LADY, BE EXQUISITE

This LADY is well beyond GOOD — as the Swinging Fundus (new to me) live up to their name, and helped immeasurably by master Dan Barrett, take the Gershwin song through a number of its jazz permutations, helpfully delineated in subtitles — ending with Lester Young’s 1936 solo. 

The band is from Bonn (say that quickly), and Dan often joins them.  This performance was filmed on August 14, 2009  at Jazzclub Mülheim (Germany).  The musicians are Armin Runge (b), Stefan Kurze (reeds), Oliver Richters (p, arr), Volker Albrecht (tb, voc, arr), and guest Rudolf “Pluto” Kemper (g).  And the band’s website is www.swinging-fundus.de

Deep thanks to the musicians for their easy heartfelt playing and to “ulivids” on YouTube for sharing this with us!