New Orleans
Jazz Asconia
Ascona
Journal III by W. Royal Stokes
Monday July 3,
2000
One is not truly
into the scene here until one follows the
Ambrosia Brass Band of Milan, Italy, as it
winds down one narrow vicolo after another, a
hundred or so fans dancing in its wake to the throb
of the bass drum, the springy press rolls of the
snare, and the now joyous, now somber melodies of
"Down By the Riverside," "Just a Little While to
Stay Here," and "St. Louis Blues" executed by the
band's four brass, lone clarinet, and banjo. Out
front was Earl Conway, a Grand Marshall of New
Orleans, in beret, white swallow-tail coat, black
trousers and patent leather shoes, and a
multi-colored and sequined over-the-shoulder sash
with designs thereupon of musical notations. A
world-class "eccentric dancer," Conway's repertoire
of bows, dips, swaying of the posterior, and fancy
footwork that would trip up a lesser man was
something to behold. He was half the show, but your
reviewer hastens to affirm that the other half was
that no-holds-barred octet, the street beat and
ensemble combustion of which kept one's feet in
happy abandon.
Old
Stoariegler Tschässband, on the
Seebühne Piazza stage, an Austrian septet,
provided a set that combined the 1920s Chicago
Style of the Austin High gang and European genres,
for the latter offering a nod to Beethoven and a
polka enlivened by sirens, whistles, and an
astringent Kletzmer-style clarinet. Leader Hannes
Bauer, a raconteur of talent and a trumpet player
of crisp execution and considerable drive,
introduced each selection with apparently risible
commentary, to judge by the appreciative audience
response, but my German is weak, unfortunately, so
the jokes escaped me. "That's a Plenty," with its
abrupt stop-and-start breaks, splendidly captured
the nervous energy of the Eddie Condon school of
jazz, "Basin Street" had the vocal cadence, slurs,
and pauses of Jack Teagarden down pat, and Martin
Nestle's hailstorm solo, replete with cowbells and
woodblock punctuation on "Back Home in Indiana"
delightfully recalled the explosive drumming of
George Whetling.
There is a world
of difference between a good and satisfying musical
performance and one that is unmistakably in the
realm of higher art -- and we all know whom to name
as providing a sublime experience of the latter
description. At Meeting Point, for your reviewer's
sensibilities, Le petit Jazzband de Mr.
Morel established itself as joining the
pantheon of artists who re-create early jazz.
Drawing their inspiration from combos and small
bands of the 1920s and early '30s such as those of
Clarence Williams, Tiny Parham, Jelly Roll Morton,
Duke Ellington, and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings --
but not copying so much as a lick from or using
more than outline, "head" arrangements -- Le petit
Jazzband has fashioned itself as an interpreter of
and improviser in the style of that classic era of
jazz. To an individual, the musicianship of the
band's seven members is extraordinary, and their
feeling for the idiom of that time equips them to
leap back seven decades or so and convincingly
assume the musical ethos of those whose music they
favor. Utilizing a four-horn front line lead by
cornetist and band founder Jean Pierre Morel, Le
petit Jazzband passed solos around, sustained
multi-horn riffs beneath those soloing, and
executed intricate patterns that came of as -- and
I am sure were -- spontaneous ideas. The band's
book contains such tunes as Williams' "Red River
Blues," Ellington's "Stevedore Stomp," and Thomas
Dorsey's "Tight Like That." In addition to its
leader, the members of Le petit Jazzband de Mr.
Morel are reed players Alain Marquet, Daniel Huck,
and Michel Bescont, sousaphone player Gérard
Gervois, pianist Bernard Thévin, and
banjoist Francois Fournet. The
Californian/Australian brass and reed player Tom
Baker sat in on the set on trombone, showing
himself to be fully fluent in Le petit Jazzband's
musical dialect.
With a storm
threatening -- and later occurring -- Seebühne
Torre had begun filling up an hour before curtain
time for Portrait of Duke Ellington, and the
high expectations indicated by the fully packed
house were clearly met and then some by the
international octet of festival all stars that
emerged from the wings at 11 p.m. "Take the 'A'
Train," with its familiar melody, nicely set the
mood for the exemplary program of small-band
Ellington that followed. "Squatty Roo" had
phenomenon Tom Baker getting into the nooks and
crannies of his plumber's-helper-muted trumpet for
rips, squeezes, and smears worthy of a Cootie
Williams. The overall movement of the number
simulated a steam-powered train, a signature
element of the Ellington organization, and Frank
Roberscheuten's tumultuous statement on tenor
saxophonist was delivered over a stalking riff
pattern of the other horns. Pianist Christian
Hopkins was left alone on stage for an ingenious
remodeling of the early Ellington band version of
"The Mooche," maintaining an insistently hypnotic,
yet remarkably unobtrusive, modified stride bass as
a vamp for his creative variations on the tune's
haunting melody. It was altogether a mesmerizing
tour de force. Dan Barrett's feeling for things
Ducal was abundantly displayed as he ranged across
the diverse roles of that so important instrument
in the Ellington scheme of things, equally at home,
for example, with the silken balladry à la
Lawrence Brown and the human-voice-like muted
expression of Tricky Sam Nanton. The set-closing
shoot-out on "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got
That Swing" featured the unique, and often
unbelievable, scatting skills of alto saxophonist
Joep Peeters, whose sudden leaps into falsetto and
head-over-heels velocity of delivery were carried
off over the unison "doo-wat-doo-wat-doo-wat" vocal
foudation of his fellow band members, who before
the number's end mischievously departed the stage,
all the while continuing their refrain, leaving the
unblinking Peeters to fend for himself a capello,
which he carried off without loosing a beat and
with commendable panache.
--W.R.
Stokes
Ascona
Journal
VII
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