“CRESCENT CITY SHAKERS” NOTES FROM the PREZ!

March 2014
Volume 39, Number 03
“CRESCENT CITY SHAKERS”
COMBINE USA & BRITISH COLUMBIA PLAYERS FOR
SUNDAY, MARCH 16
PSTJS CONCERT DATE
By Rod
Belcher
Top-notch jazz musicians from north of the international
border have long been favorite performers at our PSTJS concerts.
Those coming to mind over past years include the Phoenix Jazzers,
the Grand Dominion JB, Toni Blodgett’s groups, and bands made
up of those talented youngsters from Chilliwack.
One with old familiar names is booked for our March 16th
event. It’s Gerry Green’s “Crescent City Shakers,” a quintet devoted
to the originations of American jazz roughly a century ago.
Leader Green will play both clarinet and sax. The versatile
Jim Armstrong will double on trumpet and trombone as well
as offering his wide swath of blues and other vocals. The third
Canadian is solid banjo rhythm guy Bill Dixon. They’re joined by
the US duo of pianist Bob Pelland and string bassist Dave Brown.
The Shakers are proudly an improvisational group,
displaying great ability to grasp the intent of each tune
without the need for “charts”. You’ll hear familiar “Dixieland”
rousers, country-blues classics, gospel-based tunes as well as
an occasional venture into “swing” from the World War Two
era. In all, they offer something for everyone in the audience. Irishman Armstrong may even come up with a number or two
related to the next calendar day–St. Patrick’s Day.
WHERE: Ballard Elks Lodge, 6411 Seaview Ave. NW, Seattle.
WHEN: 1 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sunday, March 16th.
ADMISSION: $12 PSTJS members; $15 non-members. Pay only at door.
FURTHER INFO: Carol Rippey, 425-776-5072. Or - website: www.pstjs.org. Plenty of free parking; great view & dance floor, snacks, coffee, and other beverages available.
NOTES FROM the PREZ!
Hi everyone! Now’s the time for you to mention Jazz Camp
Heebie
Jeebies to your kids, grandkids, neighbors, anyone you
know who has a real interest in music and would like to attend
camp this summer. As always PSTJS pays the tuition for each
student, all they need to do is get there and back home six days
later. The funds received from the raffle tickets we sell each
month pay for the camp experience for each student. The dates for 2014 are July 6-12, which is one week later
than all former years. Please check out the camp’s terrific
website for all the details: www.campheebiejeebies.us. The
application and registration form are on the website. If your
student is interested, please have them fill out the info and
email it to me at [email protected]. You can also call me
at 425-890-6605 if you want more info. Students must be 12
years of age and can be any age after that, we’ve had students
in their 70’s, however the average age is 13-19 or so. This is
an opportunity for students to learn from the excellent faculty
of working musicians, and also meet new friends and have
fun. If you have any questions please contact me via email or
phone, jazz camp is one of my passions and I love telling folks
about it. Hope to hear from you soon. Cheers, Judy Jazz Soundings
March 2014
Puget Sound
Traditional Jazz Society
19031 Ocean Avenue
Edmonds, WA 98020-2344
425-776-5072 www.pstjs.org
UPCOMING EVENTS
Elks Lodge, Ballard, 6411 Seaview Ave N.W., Seattle
Mar 16
April 27
May 18
June 15
Crescent City Shakers
Sidewalk Stompers
holotradband
New Orleans Quintet
PRESIDENT Judy Levy
[email protected]
425-890-6605
VICE PRESIDENT Jack Temp
425-242-0683
SECRETARY Cilla Trush [email protected]
206-363-9174
TREASURER Gloria Kristovich [email protected]
425-776-7816
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Joanne Hargrave [email protected]
Leroy Johnson [email protected]
Jan Lemmon [email protected]
Edmunde Lewin Gary Lydum [email protected] George Oelrich [email protected]
Carol Rippey [email protected] George Swinford [email protected]
206-550-4664
206-772-4378
425-776-9763
360-297-6633
206-719-3955
360-793-0836 425-776-5072
425-869-2780
MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR
Carol Rippey [email protected] 425-776-5072
EDITOR
Anita LaFranchi [email protected] WEBMASTER
George Peterson [email protected]
206-522-7691
425-453-5218
Page 2
Gigs for Local Bands
BELLINGHAM TRADITIONAL JAZZ SOCIETY
1st Saturday 2 - 5 pm VFW Hall 625 N. State St
March 1Clamdigger Jazz Band
April 5 Bob Storms’ Dixieland All-Stars
May 3 Combo de Luxe
June 7 Ain’t No Heaven Seven
FIRST THURSDAY BAND
1st Thursday, 7-10 pm, New Orleans Restaurant, 114 1st Ave S., Seattle, WA CALL TO SEE IF BAND IS PLAYING! 206-622-2563
GLENN CRYTZER AND HIS SYNCOPATORS
1st Sunday and 3rd Wednesday of the Month 9:30 pm -12:30 am Century Ballroom 915 East Pine Seattle, WA,
206-324-7263 NEW ORLEANS QUINTET
Mondays, 6:30 - 9:30 pm, New Orleans Restaurant, 114 1st Ave S., Seattle, WA
CALL TO SEE IF BAND IS PLAYING! 206-622-2563
GREATER OLYMPIA DIXIELAND JAZZ SOCIETY
2nd Sunday 1:00 – 4:30 PM Elks Club 1818 4th Ave, Olympia, WA
March 9 Uptown Lowdown Lite Jazz Band
April 13 Hume Street Jazz Band
May 4 Columbia Classic Jazz Band
June 8 Mudd Bay Jazz Band
PEARL DJANGO
March 2 2:30-4:30pm Poverty Bay Wine Festival, Landmark On the
Sound Event Center Sponsored by the Rotary of DesMoines 23660 Marine View Drive South, Des Moines, WA 98198 206-878-8434
March 8 TBA Highline Classic Jazz Festival, Banquet Hall at the
Landmark Event Center. See above for address & contact.
UPTOWN LOWDOWN JAZZ BAND
March 8 4:30 pm Highline Jazz Festival, Landmark On the
Sound Event Center 23660 Marine View Drive South,
Des Moines, WA 98198 206-878-8434
March 9 1 - 4:30 pm Olympia Elks - Uptown Swing
JAZZ SOUNDINGS
Published monthly except July and August by the Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society.
Anita LaFranchi, Editor, [email protected]
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Jazz Soundings
March 2014
Page 3
MUSIC ON A DESERT ISLAND
JIMMIE NOONE
By Ray Skjelbred
A few years ago Alisa Clancy (Clint
Baker’s wife and a musical star in her own
right) invited me to appear as a guest on her
radio program “Desert Island” on KCSMFM in San Mateo, CA, where I was asked
to bring seven recordings that I would like
to have available to play if I found myself
stuck on that island. The plan was that we
would play the recordings and I would
discuss why I chose them. Recently I have
been thinking that it might be fun to take
one of those recordings to explore in more
depth and consider what happens when a
band plays jazz and develops a style that
I really love to hear. I also thought that
maybe some people might like to listen to
that recording on their own and see what I
was hearing.
I am choosing Jimmie Noone’s Apex
Club Orchestra playing “Monday Date,” a
recording that is available on several CD’s
and also on YouTube. Noone was a skilled,
creative and passionate clarinet player
from New Orleans who, like many others,
rose to prominence through steady work
and recordings in Chicago in the l920’s. “A
Monday Date” is sometimes called “Our”
or “My” but it’s all the same and Noone
made his most noted version of this in
August, 1928 with his typical personnel
of Joe Poston, alto sax; Earl Hines, piano;
Lawson Buford, tuba; Bud Scott, banjo and
Johnny Wells, drums.
The first thing you hear is a powerful
swinging sound that is beautiful at the
same time. The first important realization
is that it sounds like a full band but there
is no trumpet or trombone. Of course there
were bands that had a trumpet, clarinet,
trombone front line at that time, but the
expectation that it would be standard in
“traditional” jazz is a much more recent
development. Saxophones were common
in early jazz. Even so, Noone had a
completely original way of arranging the
music for sax and clarinet. Joe Poston
played the melody. He improvised a little
around the edges but he mostly played it
straight. Then Jimmie Noone would weave
long creative lines around the melody.
Their teamwork was like a mongoose
doing a dance with a cobra.
Earl Hines really supplied the second
major “voice” in the ensemble, but
also provided trombone parts with his
powerful right hand tremolos. He was
always zigzagging through the melodies,
harmonies and rhythms.
Bud Scott on banjo played very straight
time (no syncopation) which allowed the
others more freedom to fool around with
their sense of time. Syncopation only
exists if there is a straight beat to serve
as a contrast. If everyone syncopates, the
whole thing disappears.
Lawson Buford had a big sound on
tuba! Big, but not loud. He was always in
the right place: dead center on the beat.
Johnny Wells, a heroic drummer to
me, kept it all together with his soft yet
dynamic playing. His brushwork was
impeccable.
“Monday Date” begins with great
intensity. They burst out of the chute full
bore, but they are still not loud. They are
listening to each other. Right away you hear
a sense of direction, a sense of melodic,
harmonic and rhythmic continuity. On the
Above: Jimmie Noone
first chorus Poston plays a fairly straight
lead, Noone weaves around him but often
plays close harmony with notes a 3rd
interval away from Poston. And you can
hear Hines playing trombone harmony
with his right hand.
On the second chorus Poston keeps on
playing the lead, but looser, embellishing
a little more on the edges and Noone starts
flying up and down. The mongoose and the
cobra are dancing. You can also hear how
often Noone’s notes hit directly on the beat
so that he can syncopate with himself.
On the third chorus the tuba and banjo
suddenly drop out, and rightly so. Hines uses
the open space to explore broken rhythms
and alternate chord changes. When Hines
solos, the word “stride” doesn’t even begin
to define what he does. And Wells supports
him with subtle brushes.
On the fourth chorus the rhythm
returns and Noone solos for the first time,
now exploring the melody.
On the fifth chorus Poston returns and
the volume drops. Poston plays up high and
Noone adds drama with contrasting low notes.
Now they see the last chorus coming.
In the last couple of measures Hines kicks
it into high gear with syncopated octaves
and the band flares up as a single sound.
Though the chorus has ferocious swing
and Hines plays wild, high octave phrases,
the band drops down quietly again on the
bridge, measures 17-24, before they finish
in one last burst of madness to end the day.
In every way this is a remarkable recording,
a jazz classic. It is one of my favorites and
I learn something every time I listen to it.
Jazz Soundings
March 2014
Page 4
Ellington Memory 60 years later!
By Rod Belcher
Above: Duke Ellington
Reprint from Jazz Soundings – April 2001
With all the comment – both critical
and laudatory – having been spawned by
the recent Ken Burns documentary series
“Jazz,” it was bound to happen, I guess.
My own memory was jogged to recall
a happening of almost exactly 60 years
ago involving a special experience with
one of the central figures of the series:
Duke Ellington. I relate that experience
here without editorial comment, but it does
focus on “the way things were.”
It was March 1941, I was 20 and
excited as hell. So were many classmates
at Humboldt State College because “The
Duke” was coming to town on one leg
of a one-niter tour and there was no way
we would miss being there. “There”
was the civic auditorium in Eureka,
the principal city (town) in that part of
Northern California. Eureka just did not
get bands of that stature in its bookings
of cultural attractions.
Mind you, this was the Ellington
array of musicians now reverently
spoken of as the “Blanton-Webster
Band,” possibly the best in all Dukedom.
It was the group that had recorded
Cottontail, Jack the Bear, Harlem Air
Shaft, and Duke’s new theme – Take the
A Train, – among numerous other standout
tunes. (The reference was to the presence
of two recent additions, bassist Jimmy
Blanton and tenor sax man Ben Webster.)
Another recording by this group was
called Morning Glory, a soulful ballad
with the composer listed on the label as
Ellington’s cornetist, Rex Stewart. And
this is where I enter the story, via the back
door. It was an instrumental, and a few
weeks earlier, I’d decided I would try my
hand at writing a lyric to fit the tune.
As we drove toward the auditorium,
one of my bolder friends suggested I
should approach Stewart or even Ellington
and lay my creation (finished a couple of
days earlier) on them. My reaction was one
of horror – no way would I have the guts to
talk to someone so exalted!
The music offered by Ellington was all
we had hoped for. We were enthralled by
the solo work of Johnny Hodges, Barney
Bigard, Ray Nance, Lawrence Brown,
Stewart, Webster, Blanton and the others.
We were spellbound by the brilliantly
executed arrangements of the Duke and his
cohort, Billy Strayhorn.
Then as the first intermission was
winding up, my unbashful buddy informed
me of the unthinkable, “I talked to Rex Stewart
and he wants to hear your words – says for
you to come backstage at the next break.” Not
a chance I would have made the approach, but
he had done it and die was cast.
Stewart turned out to be jovial and
easily approachable. I was forced to
deliver a small voiced a capella rendition
of my lyrics. Next surprise came from
Rex – “Hey, let’s go talk to the Duke,
your stuff’s pretty good.” WOW! Meeting
Stewart was heady enough but Ellington!
Things were getting pretty scary.
So Rex made the introduction and
explained that Duke should hear my
Morning Glory lyrics. OK by him and we
walk over to a backstage piano where Duke
introduces me to Billy Strayhorn and says:
“Billy, Play Morning Glory, this young
man’s going to sing a lyric he’s written.”
Did it – not too well, but at least I
didn’t faint in the process. Duke was kind.
“Very nice. You should talk to Fat Stuff (his
pet name for Stewart) after the show.”
Next Surprise: Stewart’s words – “I
like what you wrote, but you know what?
I wrote the song, but I lost the rights to it
to Duke in a poker game! I’ll talk to him
about it, however I seriously doubt he’ll do
anything with it. He doesn’t often go out of
his way to help white guys. Stay in touch;
we’ll be in L.A. for a while and you can
contact me there.”
No, nothing ever came of it. Stewart
never answered my inquiries while the
band did the show. “Jump for Joy” in Los
Angeles that summer. I did see him one
more time, at a University of California
dance one week before the Pearl Harbor
attack. He was friendly and suggested I
try to write something for another of his
instrumental compositions, and that was
about it. There was no second meeting with
Ellington himself.
The band played in top form for
the Berkeley college crowd. They even
jammed for some 10 minutes on the
old standard Sunny Side of the Street
with chorus after alternating chorus by
altoist Jonny Hodges and vocalist Ivie
Anderson. Never heard anything like it
before or since.
But I want to backtrack to the
Eureka performance for one more vivid
remembrance. There were just two first
rate hotels in Eureka in 1941. Neither
would accept the band because of their skin
color! The Ellington charter bus wound
up depositing them at a far from first-rate
motel on the edge of town.
Talk about being aghast! This was not the
deep south. This was supposedly progressive
California, and Northern California, at that.
One more postscript. Two of
my friends and I were rehashing the
wonderful music we had just heard, sitting
at the bar in the second of the two “good”
Eureka hotels, when who should walk in
and register for rooms? Barney Bigard
and Juan Tizol of the Duke’s band. No
Problem – Tizol (a Cuban) and Bigard (a
Creole) of course had skins that passed
the visual screening of the night clerk. We
looked at each other, speechless.
And that’s how it was in 1941 with
one of the greatest jazz figures of all time
and his fabulous orchestra.
Jazz Soundings
March 2014
Page 5
Puget Sound Traditional Jazz Society
19031 Ocean Ave., Edmonds, WA 98020-2344
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B A N D S , C O N TA C T S
AIN’T NO HEAVEN SEVEN Leader: Terry Rogers
[email protected] 206-465-6601
COAL CREEK JAZZ BAND Leader: Judy Logen, 425-6411692 Bookings: [email protected]
COMBO DE LUXE Bookings: Candace Brown
www.combodeluxe.net [email protected] 253-752-6525
CORNUCOPIA CONCERT BAND Leader: Allan Rustad
www.comband.org 425-744-4575
DUKES OF DABOB Bookings: Mark Holman, 360-779-6357, [email protected]. DUWAMISH JAZZ BAND Bookings: Carol Johnston
[email protected] 206-932-7632
EVERGREEN CLASSIC JAZZ BAND Leader: Tom Jacobus
email: [email protected] ph: 253-852-6596 or cell 253-709-3013
FIRST THURSDAY BAND Leader: Ray Skjelbred,
[email protected] 206-420-8535
FOGGY BOTTOM JAZZ BAND Leader: Bruce Cosacchi
360-638-2074
GRAND DOMINION JAZZ BAND Bookings: Bob Pelland
[email protected] 360-387-2500
holotradband Leader: Dave Holo email: [email protected]
www.holotradband.com
HOT CLUB SANDWICH Contact: James Schneider
www.hotclubsandwich.com 206-561-1137 HUME STREET PRESERVATION JAZZ BAND
Bookings: Karla West 406-862-3814
JAZZ UNLIMITED BAND Leader: Duane Wright
[email protected] 866-337-2111
JAZZ STRINGS Bookings: Candace Brown
[email protected] 253-752-6525
LOUISIANA JOYMAKERS! Leader: Leigh Smith
[email protected] 604-294-9464
THE MARKET STREET DIXIELAND JASS BAND
Ansgar Duemchen: 425-286-5703 Tim Sherman 206-547-1772
www.marketstreetdixielandjass.com
MIGHTY APHRODITE Co-leaders: Bria Skonberg, Claire
McKenna [email protected] 405-613-0568
NEW ORLEANS QUINTET Jake Powel 206- 725-3514 [email protected]
RAINIER JAZZ BAND Manager: Randy Keller
[email protected] 206-437-1568
RAY SKJELBRED
[email protected] 206-420-8535
RONNIE PIERCE JAZZ ENSEMBLE
[email protected], 206-467-9365
UPTOWN LOWDOWN JAZZ BAND Leader: Bert Barr
[email protected] 425-898-4288
WILD CARDS JAZZ Leader: Randy Keller
[email protected] 206-437-1568