The first New Orleans jazz revival took place in the 1930s and ’40s. It was sparked by a book called Jazzmen that led to the reappearance of first generation jazz musicians including Bunk Johnson, George Lewis, Jim Robinson, Kid Ory and Mutt Carey. They made a major impression in New York, Los Angeles, Europe, even [...]
If you are interested in the history of New Orleans jazz, here’s an opportunity to own a piece of it. Papa Celestin was one of the key figures in the New Orleans revival of the 1940s and ’50s. There is a photo in the liner notes of a banner advertising Celestin’s band outside the old [...]
In a city graced with a good number of first class jazz guitarists, Warren Battiste remains a standout. Though thoroughly grounded in R&B, rock ’n’ roll, and traditional jazz (his father played banjo at Preservation Hall), Battiste decided that the music of people like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and guitarist Charlie Christian was what he [...]
Let’s start with what would ordinarily be the fourth or fifth paragraph in a review of this kind: The version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “New Orleans” done here by veteran Pfister Holley Bendtsen and veteran piano accompanist Amasa Miller is simply magnificent—one of the most moving versions of this classic that I have yet heard. In [...]
You could call it rugged. You might say boomy. Even crusty. It’s a big rich sound that Jerry Jumonville gets out of his tenor sax, that’s for sure. He lists a lot of jazz greats as influences—Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Don Byas, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis—but the fact is that Jumonville has been doing it long [...]
Seva Venet has been an active side man on the New Orleans trad scene for about five years now with a pleasantly recognizable sound of his own on banjo and steel guitar, the latter of which he often plays with a “Hawaiian” style slide. It’s refreshing to find that he has been able to utilize [...]
It is nearly as much of a challenge to review a recording like this as it is for George Buck to issue it and expect to get his money back. This is music played and enjoyed by a small but fiercely loyal set of traditionalists: Musicians and fans for whom the New Orleans jazz revival [...]
British born jazzman Barry Martyn is a grand storyteller, a good drinking companion, and just the person to have around if you’re new to New Orleans and care about traditional jazz. It’s perhaps because of Martyn’s “regular guy” image that those of us who know him tend to forget his remarkable level of achievement. After [...]
The Firecracker Jazz Band from Asheville, North Carolina, bears a remarkable resemblance to the Hollywood bunch that used to call themselves the Firehouse Five. What’s unsettling is the feeling that they really want to sound this way. They go so far as to actually use a fire alarm on one of their numbers, “Sweet Georgia [...]
“Incredible” is the word that keeps coming to mind when contemplating this masterful compilation of musical anomalies that seems to take on a life all its own. “Incredibly hip” is the way it has already been described by some reviewers. And “hip” indeed is a word that has long been used to characterize the work [...]
