Email this article | Printer friendly page Leroy Jones:
|
"The way I play New Orleans traditional jazz is not exactly in the traditional way," says trumpeter/vocalist Leroy Jones. "I think it's where the traditional music has evolved."
Jones, whose second album on the Colombia label, Props for Pops, a tribute to Louis Armstrong, will be released in Europe this month and the U.S. in January, has seen and been a part of a similar evolution on the brass band scene.
"The same thing happened when I used to play in brass bands. I had the Hurricane Brass Band, which I founded back in 1974 and that band consisted of musicians who went on to create the Dirty Dozen Band," explains Jones, who earlier also led the influential Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, established by jazzman Danny Baker. "We were beginning to play outside of the tradition stylings and a lot of the older musicians didn't like it very much."
For the most part, the jazz community at large has accepted that two forms of brass band music -- traditional and contemporary -- can exist side-by-side. Though Jones says he now finds audiences accepting of his more modern approach to traditional jazz, when he was working the Bourbon Street circuit with his band New Orleans finest, back in the mid-80s, he admits it was "hard."
Growing up in the late '60s and a teenager is the '70s, Jones, 38, has naturally had a variety of music influence his style. "If you're playing jazz, whatever you've been influenced by comes out. I just can't see playing jazz without any blues influx, without soul, I think that's the meat of the music. To me it's got to be soulful. I don't like corny. I don't like Dixieland. I get insulted when people say 'Oh, you play Dixieland.' No, I don't play Dixieland because Dixieland is nothing about the blues. That's the difference between Dixieland and traditional jazz."
Both on the road and locally, Jones leads his own versatile quintet while maintaining his position in more traditional settings. Friday nights are his at Preservation Hall, fronting the house band with Shannon Powell on drums. He's with fellow trumpeter, veteran Wallace Davenport four nights a week at the Maison Bourbon. That's when, of course, he's not performing at any number of American and European jazz festivals.
As heard both on the new disc, and Jones' debut, 'Mo Cream from the Crop, as well as at his live performances, the trumpeter is conscientious about when and how he uses either the older and more modern jazz elements. Appropriateness is the key. For instance, he'll often keep the style pure for an important part of a song, as heard on the introduction of "West End Blues." "Of course I play that just like Louie. There's no other way to play that. That's a classic piece. You don't change that."
Jones also has a tendency to arrange the endings of songs in traditional forms, often employing those older-style "four-bar tags" or "double endings" as heard on his rendition of "Struttin' with Some Barbecue." Jones' modern influences are definitely most apparent during his solos and to some extent through the ensemble work. He lets his solo fly on the upbeat "Jeepers Creepers," an Armstrong number he's been playing since his years with the New Orleans Finest.
The members of Jones band -- trombonist Craig Klein, pianist Glenn Patscha, bassist Kerry Lewis, and drummer Gerald French -- are also younger guys who have been exposed to many styles which affect the music, particular in the rhythm section. (Also heard on the new album are pianists Harry Connick Jr. and Thaddeus Richard, bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Shannon Powell).
"The styles during that period [early traditional jazz] had to be different because Louis Armstrong never danced to James Brown and I did," laughs Jones. "There was no R&B in the '20s and '30s."
An unusual aspect of the Leroy Jones Quintet is that the group is playing this music minus a reedman; there is no clarinet or saxophone as is heard in most traditional ensembles. This was not a conscience decision at first but an economic one. It began when Jones was playing on Bourbon Street in the '80s and the pay scale went up. Because he and Lucien Barbarin, his trombonist at the time, were enjoying playing together, he decided to let the reedman go and keep the trombone.
"It caused us to have a particular sound, and I like it," says Jones. He, therefore, has stuck with that brassy sound, teamed now with trombonist Klein. "The clarinet is really not missed because I play a lot of the 16th notes, the fast stuff I can play on the trumpet and normally the clarinet would be doodling in that manner. The clarinet usually doodles, or plays what is called counter melody, the trumpet plays the melody and the trombone tailgates, that's the typical function of the three-man front line."
Jones and Klein are very much a team, playing off each others lines and solos. "He's listened to all the great New Orleans trombonists plus trombonists like J. J. Johnson, Kai Winding, and Vic Dickerson," says Jones of Klein, who like Jones and Barbarin worked in Harry Connick Jr.'s Big Band. "We all inspire one another."
People often talk about New Orleans drummers and piano players having a very special, very recognizable sound, a sound not easily duplicated by those born outside of the city. Listening to Jones sing on tunes such as "Someday You'll Be Sorry" or "Sleepytime Down South," his voice drips with New Orleans.
"It's 'cause I was born and bred here," Jones laughs, adding, "it's probably because I'm a trumpet player first." Starting out on guitar and then moving to tuba and baritone horn, Jones didn't begin singing with the New Orleans Finest. "You're hearing the essence of the New Orleans sound which is rooted in blues and in gospel and R&B. I'm very sensitive about my singing because I know that I've spent
more time trying to master the trumpet and the voice is an instrument as well.
Classic jazz compositions are a staple for Jones both in live performances and his two recordings. But Jones' talent also shines as a composer of both brand new traditional styles and more modern fare. On the new disc, he includes his own contemporary "You Must Not Be Hearin' Straight" as well as a slow dirge called "Louie's Lamentation" followed by the upbeat "Armstrong Parade."
"'Louie's Lamentation' displays, I guess, my brass band roots. It's a lament, so it's very sad, and it's meant to be sad. Louis Armstrong was very unhappy about a lot of things that were happening in this country, especially during the civil rights movement. I saw some video footage of him and I could see the sadness in his face and him talking about it. He loved everyone, he didn't care what color, what nationality. So that's in reference to that. And then the last song is a jovial happy piece. You want to end with something happy."
The New Orleans Nightcrawlers also included a Jones composition on their debut album, the fine "Parlor for the 'Crawlers," a tune written especially for the band. It too, represents Jones' deep understanding in tradition as well his modern flair.
"I want my music to make people move, dance and feel good," says Jones, who practices what he preaches, often steppin' to the rhythms. At the same time he would like his music to represent what's really going on here, to dispel the myths about New Orleans, it's association with Dixieland, Cajun, and just what and how people here play.
"I love this music, I love the style we play. I think it's fresh and I think it is going to get a chance. My heart is in jazz. I love to swing."
The Louisiana Music Collective
Authentic New Orleans and Louisiana roots music resources.
