SWEET LULLABIES IN THE DARKNESS: VALERIE KIRCHHOFF, NICHOLAS PENCE, ETHAN LEINWAND (Frisco Barroom, St. Louis, June 21, 2024)

They cast a spell. Valerie Kirchhoff, voice, ukulele; Nicholas Pence, guitar; Ethan Leinwand, piano.

and

I’m looking forward to the next time I will see and hear them perform. I know you can understand why.

May your happiness increase!

JOY-SPREADING: VALERIE KIRCHHOFF, ETHAN LEINWAND, ANDY SCHUMM, T. J. MULLER, RICHARD TRALLES (St. Louis, MO: June 20, 2024)

Oh, my, yes.

and

The place: General U.S. Grant’s home; the creators: Valerie Kirchhoff, vocal, ukulele; Ethan Leinwand, piano; Andy Schumm, clarinet; cornet; T.J. Muller, cornet, trombone, guitar, washboard; Richard Tralles, double bass. Valerie cautions anyone in the audience (now, anyone in cyberspace) about destructive behavior, even if born out of affectionate exuberance:

There will be more music from these lovely Mound City creators.

May your happiness increase!

A DREAM BAND IN REAL LIFE: T.J. MULLER’S SWING SEVEN, COMPLETE, featuring VALERIE KIRCHHOFF, with ANDY SCHUMM, JACOB ZIMMERMAN, JONATHAN DOYLE, ETHAN LEINWAND, CLINT BAKER, HAL SMITH (Redwood Coast Music Festival, October 8, 2023)

Sometimes combinations of wonderfully talented musicians don’t work well in reality. Styles, approaches, egos, what you will. But this band exemplified hot synergy in its purest form: that is, the eight singular personalities on the stand felt the same way, so even though they were reading T.J. Muller’s charts for the first time, they soared and rocked like a working band circa 1940. They amazed me. And this was my first exposure to Valerie, Ethan, and T.J. in person: three transcendent experiences.

This band hit me, to borrow from Larry Eanet, like Cupid’s arrow. They are T.J. Muller, banjo-guitar and arrangements; Clint Baker, double bass; Hal Smith, drums; Ethan Leinwand, piano; Jonathan Doyle, tenor saxophone and clarinet; Jacob Zimmerman, alto saxophone and clarinet; Andy Schumm, cornet; Valerie Kirchhoff, vocal.

I have posted seven of the fourteen songs the band offered — as discrete gems — already. But I thought there might be some people who had missed them, and that perhaps they would shine even brighter in context. So make yourself at home; prepare to be dazzled.

Their version of JIVE AT FIVE would make the 1939 Basie heroes smile:

Willie “the Lion” Smith’s STREAMLINE GAL:

Valerie asks us WAS HAT THE HUMAN THING TO DO?:

but she then suggests that there are other things to do FOUR OR FIVE TIMES:

Ellingtonia: SATURDAY NIGHT FUNCTION:

T.J .sings Nat Gonella’s BLACK COFFEE:

Valerie explains a cure for those dark moods, WHEN I GET LOW:

and then she offers the most tender DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME:

Wingy Manone said he composed TAR PAPER STOMP, which became a Swing Era classic:

HARLEM BOUND, in spirit if not geography:

For those feeling carb-deprived or needing a snack, how about GOOD OLD BOSOM BREAD?:

The classic jazz reproach, SOME OF THESE DAYS:

and for a skyscraper-scaling climax, KING KONG STOMP:

I’ve been out and about listening to live jazz for a long time (1967, 1971-1982, 2004-onwards: you can add up the numbers) but when this set was through, I said to Valerie that I hadn’t heard anything like this in thirty years. nd watching these videos now, I stand by it, with all respects to the musicians I revere who weren’t on this particular bandstand.

Without any false subtlety whatsoever, I’d like this set to stand as a vibrant advertisement for the Redwood Coast Music Festival — in Eureka, California, where the mighty redwoods grow. The OAO and I will be there this October, but the videos I hope to bring back are no substitute for this experience in real life, in real time. And if you dance . . . heaven awaits!

And my seeing and hearing T.J., Ethan, and Valerie has inspired me: I might be taking a trip to St. Louis before long, to see them in their native habitat. When I do, I will have a backpack full of cameras and the heavy things they require. So stay tuned.

May your happiness increase!

PROFESSORS KIRCHHOFF and LEINWAND’S ZOOLOGY SEMINAR (Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival, Sedalia, Missouri, May 31, 2024)

You might think that a ragtime festival would be an unusual place for a presentation on zoology.

But Valerie Kirchhoff and Ethan Leinwand, voice and piano, are earnest in their efforts to advance learning about all the oddities of the animal kingdom. Please take notes: this will be on the final:

For those who wish to do deeper research, and that is something this course encourages, the author of the text is one “St. Louis Bessie,” and this particular volume is the “Creepin’ Eel Blues.”

Professors Leinwand and Kirchhoff will gladly answer any questions.

May your happiness increase!

“OR ELSE!”: VALERIE KIRCHHOFF and T.J. MULLER’S SWING SEVEN (ANDY SCHUMM, HAL SMITH, JONATHAN DOYLE, JACOB ZIMMERMAN, ETHAN LEINWAND, CLINT BAKER) at the REDWOOD COAST MUSIC FESTIVAL, October 8, 2023.

Although SOME OF THESE DAYS doesn’t have a clearly defined deadline in it, it’s as significant as the packed suitcases in the hallway. Lingiusts would call it a splendid “If . . . then” construction. “You’ll miss me, honey,” is a definite warning from the singer that behavior modification has to start happening now, and visibly. That the song swings like mad in many tempos doesn’t negate the OR ELSE of the lyrics.

However, no one in the audience was threatened by Valerie Kirchhoff’s performance with T. J. Muller’s Swing Seven at the Redwood Coast Music Festival. Even her husband, the brilliant pianist Ethan Leinwand, didn’t lift his hands from the keys in anxiety once. Everyone was having too good a time.

Valerie is a thrilling singer, genuine and emotive. And she’s accompanied by an stellar band: T.J. Muller, banjo-guitar resonator hybrid, arrangements; Hal Smith, drums; Clint Baker, double bass; Ethan Leinwand, piano; Andy Schumm, cornet; Jacob Zimmerman, alto saxophone, clarinet; Jonathan Doyle, tenor saxophone.

If I may suggest, PLAY IT LOUD.

This magic interlude was created at the Redwood Coast Music Festival, October 8, 2023. Blessings on all the people who made it happen.

and you did know, didn’t you, that all this magic — the stuff that makes people holler EUREKA! — is happening in 2024? Never too early to plan . . . .

May your happiness increase!

SISTER VALERIE SENDS THE SERMON: VALERIE KIRCHHOFF and T. J. MULLER’S SWING SEVEN at the REDWOOD COAST MUSIC FESTIVAL (October 8, 2023)

I’m delighted to present another musical interlude from the 2023 Redwood Coast Music Festival, featuring the wonderful singer Valerie Kirchhoff with T. J. Muller’s Swing Seven. I knew Valerie and pianist Ethan Leinwand from their two memorable CDs (as “Miss Jubilee and the Yas Yas Boys”) but hearing them in person was a seriously life-changing experience.

T.J. assembled a genuinely all-star band: he played banjo-guitar resonator hybrid and did the arrangements; Hal Smith, drums; Clint Baker, double bass; Ethan Leinwand, piano; Andy Schumm, cornet; Jacob Zimmerman, alto saxophone, clarinet; Jonathan Doyle, tenor saxophone. From the way Andy looks at his chart, they were all (perhaps except Ethan and of course T. J.) playing this for the first time, and how splendidly they do it. They take FOUR OR FIVE TIMES much faster than Don Redman and Co. did, but there are no complaints as Valerie convincingly enacts an expansive life-philosophy. If you suffer from anhedonia, return to this text as needed.

Don’t miss T. J.’s request to the audience: the mark of true wisdom:

I feel better already. Where’s that collection plate? I need to make the appropriate donation.

And looking towards the future, my story on the 2023 Redwood Coast Music Festival appears in the December issue of THE SYNCOPATED TIMES (pages 20-21). The 2024 RCMF is being planned as we speak, and it will be a doozy, a honey, a transformative experience (pick your phrase).

May your happiness increase!

“DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME”: VALERIE KIRCHHOFF and T.J. MULLER’S SWING SEVEN: ANDY SCHUMM, JACOB ZIMMERMAN, JONATHAN DOYLE, ETHAN LEINWAND, T.J. MULLER, CLINT BAKER, HAL SMITH (Redwood Coast Music Festival, October 8, 2023)

Such a pretty tune, dating from 1931. I grew up with renditions by Mama Cass, the Decca 78 by Ella and Louis in my heart, but this impassioned live performance moves me just as much.

Here’s passionately wistful singing from the wonderful Valerie Kirchhoff, accompanied by T. J. Muller’s Swing Seven, assembled for the 2023 Redwood Coast Music Festival: T.J., banjo-guitar, arrangements; Ethan Leinwand, piano; Clint Baker, double bass; Hal Smith, drums; Andy Schumm, cornet; Jacob Zimmerman, alto saxophone; Jonathan Doyle, tenor saxophone. This performance is a showcase for Valerie, who imbues every phrase with authentic emotion, but also for the fine band’s sweet romantic swing. The two saxophones at the start, followed by Andy, playing sweetly, make me melt. And then there’s Valerie, wooing us in swingtime:

I was busy behind my camera, and so I have no way of measuring, but I would bet on a definite increase in soulful glances and hand-holding during this performance and after the set, with the sweet encouragement to all to share their dreams. Love(ly) music!

Valerie and friends will be at the 2024 Redwood Coast Music Festival, October 3-6. Certainly you should make plans to be there, and given this music, it would be a fine idea to bring your own personal sweetheart as well. Or you could be boldly hopeful and find someone in Eureka for a dreamy relationship that would last as long as the redwoods.

May your happiness increase!

“COOL IT IF YOU CAN”: MISS JUBILEE and the YAS YAS BOYS (Bigtone Records, 2020)

Some twenty-first century efforts to evoke the vanished past — well-intentioned for sure — have the goofy effect of watching a child dressed up in adult clothes.  You want to applaud, but the clothes are hilariously too big and the child has not  grown into them.  Come back in fifteen years.

Other times, the musicians have so internalized the sounds that, although you know “it’s not the original,” it is captivating, with its own energy — evoking that once-lost world.  Late-night dancing, nickels in the jukebox, poignant singing to the accompaniment of a small band or a groovy pianist, hard times and deep fun.

That’s the case with this new CD (recorded in April 2020) by Miss Jubilee and the Yas Yas Boys, COOL IT IF YOU CAN.  I was immediately pleased by a few things (even before playing it): a band that takes its CD title from a performance by Frankie Half-Pint Jaxon is already showing the right credentials, and the inclusion of MURDER IN THE MOONLIGHT, homage to mid-Thirties Red McKenzie on Decca, was further reinforcement.  Could I pass up a CD where one of musicians doubles on “trash can”?

I’ve admired the work of Miss Jubilee and her band before here — their compelling joyous authenticity that never strains to be authentic.  They just are.

Their new CD has the fierce playfulness of a good loud party (not the one your neighbors are having while you are trying to sleep).  There are pots of delicious food on the stove, there’s plenty of ice for the drinks, you are encouraged to have a second helping of everything.  And the music is swinging.  Hear for yourself:

The band is Valerie Kirchhoff, vocal; Ethan Leinwand, piano; Richard Tralles, string bass; Kenneth Cebrian, trumpet; Ryan Calloway, clarinet; Ryan Koenig, washboard, guitar, banjo, trash can; Nick Pence, guitar, washboard.

And the repertoire, which comes from the aforementioned Mr. Jaxon, Clara Smith, Victoria Spivey, Red McKenzie, the Missourians, the State Street Swingers, Big Bill Broonzy, the Modern Mountaineers, the Harlem Hamfats, Lil Johnson, the Famous Hokum Boys, and Bob Howard — runs the gamut from what I think of as deep Black Chicago to good-time barbecue music, from acoustic Columbia blues moaning to let’s-get-drunk-and-truck.  You’ll figure out your own associations when you hear the songs: YOU DO ME ANY OLD WAY / MURDER IN THE MOONLIGHT / MOANING THE BLUES / MISSISSIPPI SANDMAN / FAN IT / DON’T TEAR MY CLOTHES No. 2 / I’VE GOT SOMEONE / WEED SMOKER’S DREAM / PRESCRIPTION FOR THE BLUES / COME ON IN / THAT BONUS DONE COME TRUE / ANY KIND-A-MAN / No. 12 LET ME ROAM / THERE AIN’T GONNA BE NO DOGGONE AFTER AWHILE.

The disc is available here, where you can also learn more about the band and their previous — as they would say in 1940 — “waxings.”

In 2o18, I wrote, “They make the best noises.”  Do they ever.

May your happiness increase!

 

THEY DO THE THING, AND SPLENDIDLY: ETHAN LEINWAND / VALERIE KIRCHHOFF

If you don’t get to St. Louis often, these two people may be unfamiliar to you.  But they make excellent music.

You say you’d like to hear some?  Consider this — a short film by Bill Streeter:

and this, which pairs Ethan with Valerie Kirschhoff:

A friend told me about Ethan and Valerie, and I’ve been listening to their CDs with great pleasure.  I know that comparisons are not only odious, but they cause one to lose friends, but Ethan and Valerie, together or singly, have got it.  By “it” I mean a certain easy authority and authenticity: when they perform their special music — the low-down St. Louis blues, rags, and pop of the time — I don’t feel as if they are children playing at being adults, nor do I feel that I am listening to copies of 78s.  (However, if they’d been born a century ago, you would, I am sure, know them from their recordings on Paramount, Bluebird, and Decca.  They’re that much in the groove.)

Ethan and Valerie have a certain brash tenderness that is very much appealing, and although I hear echoes of certain performers (famous and obscure) I hear the personalities of these two — in this century — coming right at me.  This is rare and delicious, and even when they perform songs that are by today’s standards “ancient,” they seem full of emotion and fun.

And they are not shallow: by that I mean that certain young “stride” pianists have taught themselves AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ and four other tunes; certain young singers know GOD BLESS THE CHILD and FINE AND MELLOW . . . and then it’s time for a break.  One of the pleasures of the three CDs I have on hand: THE ST. LOUIS STEADY GRINDERS, MISS JUBILEE: “THROW ME IN THE ALLEY,” and Ethan’s solo piano offering, THE LOW-DOWN PIANO, is the scholarly breadth of their chosen repertoire.  It’s not simply a non-stop parade of twelve-bar blues (incidentally, the closing video of this blog shows Valerie, with ukulele and friends, including Marty Eggers, making a meal of MURDER IN THE MOONLIGHT, which belongs to Mound City hero Red McKenzie, although Marty Grosz has brought it back in recent times).

In his solo recital, Ethan plays compositions by Romeo Nelson, Little Brother Montgomery, Jabo Williams, Montana Taylor, and others in addition to the expected heroes; I was familiar with two of the sixteen compositions on the GRINDERS CD, and MISS JUBILEE dips happily into Thirties ephemera, including THE DUCK’S YAS YAS YAS and JERRY THE JUNKER.  (In fact, on that CD — with friends — the overall effect is somewhere between Clarence Williams and the Lil Hardin Armstrong small groups, with a dash of the Washboard Rhythm Kings, and completely refreshing — a kind of hot elegant rawness, a wild oxymoron that will make sense with the first listening.)

I am not writing as much as I might, because I’d rather listeners go to the videos and sound samples to enjoy for themselves.  Ethan and Valerie have put up many videos on YouTube, and they have an expansive online presence, as one must these days.

Here is Ethan’s website. And here is the site for MISS JUBILEE — the aptly-named group Valerie and Ethan co-lead.  And the Facebook page for the ST. LOUIS STEADY GRINDERS — who also live up to their proud title, never faltering or hesitating.

You can listen to excerpts from and buy MISS JUBILEE’s CDs here and the same is true for Ethan’s solo piano CD  here.

They are very welcome: they make the best noises, and they spread joy in all directions.

May your happiness increase!