Tag Archives: Al Bernard

Seacoast Stompers at the Acton Jazz Café, November 2, 2013

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 videos by Harold McAleer

taken from back of cafe, band up front, crowded tables

Seacoast Stompers at the Acton Jazz Cafe

Scott Philbrick Cornet, Dave Whitney trumpet, Craig Ball reeds, Lee Prager trombone, Frank Stadler leader/piano, Al Bernard tuba, Bobby Reardon drums

At The Jazz Band Ball, the Seacoast Stompers warned us in advance that this was going to be delectable hot Jazz, with another full house at the Acton Jazz Café.  They added some new songs, Why Do I Like To Myself About You? and included some old Dixieland Chestnuts, Royal Garden Blues, After You’ve Gone, Baby Brown.

Stadler makes full use of the Café’s beautiful Yamaha Baby Grand.  He plots a loose course, giving the musicians room to make suggestions, and they do – most of them are accustomed to leading their own bands.

Frank bent over keyboard of Yamaha Baby Grand

Frank Stadler leads band from the Yamaha Baby Grand

Bobby playing drums - bass drum has picture of his NH plate - KRUPA

Bobby Reardon keeps the band in time. Photo by Harold McAleer

 

 

Albie pushes with his powerful tuba, Jimmy’s single string banjo at high velocity, Bobby Reardon steering them discreetly.

 

 

 

Al Bernard in back wrapped in sousaphone, Jimmy Mazzy up front singing

Albie and Jimmy

 

 

With that fabulous rhythm behind them, the front line is free to explore with great solos and ensemble, mixing harmonies.   This Joint is Jumpin’!

Jimmy’s vocals come from the heart; as if he’s crying for his lost love.
If I Had You,

Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone, Old Fashioned Love, A Hundred Years From Today, Song of the Wanderer.

He’s scatting on Japanese Sandman.

Whitney interweaves innumerable snippets of tunes with his trumpet, and also does some vocals: the 1930’s tune Fats wrote on a restaurant bill, I’m Confessing, Mobile, Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby.   He’s scatting on Baby Brown.

Craig playing clarinet, Lee quiet in background

Craig Ball, leader of White Heat Swing Orchestra

 

 

The ensemble connects on Sheik of Araby.   Craig Ball’s clarinet is almost kissing the mic on Stevedore Stomp.  He’s in soft tone on I’m Beginning to See The Light.

 

 

Dave and Scott duelling on trumpet and cornet

Dave and Scott go at it!

 

 

 

Trumpet and cornet are teasing and testing each other on Devil and The Deep Blue Sea.   As Time Goes By Dave’s sweet trumpet is backing Scott’s cornet.  They take turns leading and comping on all the tunes.

 

Prager on trombone

Lee Prager fills in the short gaps

 

 

 

LEE  Lee Prager is constantly listening, filling in any gap. That takes talent!

 

 

 

We look forward to the amazing exchanges between the trombone and cornet.   There’s a friendly duel between Lee and Scott at least once in every session – trombone keeping up with the cornet’s myriad notes up and down the register.  It’s all in great fun!

By now the tension is so hot Jimmy loses it on It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing.   Trading fours scatting with the band, he bursts out with his infamous scream, signifying another winning session!

They will repeat it on the first Saturday of next month, December 8th.  Don’t miss it!

Seacoast Stompers tune list – Nov 2, 2013 – Acton Jazz Cafe

Set 1
1 At The Jazz Band Ball
2 As Time Goes By / Sleepy Time Down South
3 Royal Garden Blues
4 After You’ve Gone
5 Why Do I Lie To Myself About You
6 If I had You
7 Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
8 I’m Confessing
9 Song of the Wanderer

Set 2
1 Sheik of Araby
2 Mobile
3 Please Don’t Talk About Me
4 Old Fashioned Love
5 Baby Brown
6 All Of Me

Set 3
1 Joint is Jumpin, the
2 Hundred Years From Today, A
3 Stevedore Stomp
4 Japanese Sandman
5 Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby
6 I’m Beginning to see the Light
7 It Don’t Mean a Thing If it Ain’t Got That Swing

 

 

Seacoast Stompers at the Acton Jazz Cafe, October 5, 2013

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All but the piano, with Hal McAleer video-taping by the piano

Seacoast Stompers (with videographer Harold McAleer)

These musicians love making music, playing Jazz, and this audience loves listening to them.  It’s a symbiotic relationship – and never gets dull.  You never know what will happen next.   The Seacoast Stompers do not repeat songs – Frank Stadler has kept a list of every song they’ve played at the AJC in the last five years, so the tunes are seldom repeated.

Surprise! Frank announced that this afternoon  they would be doing EXACTLY the same set list as their first gig, 5 years 3 months ago at The Acton Jazz Café. Then it was at night at 452 Great Road, a six-piece band, with Frank Stadler piano, Jimmy Mazzy banjo/vocals,  Jeff Hughes cornet, Ben Goldstein clarinet, Steve Taddeo drums and Bob McHenry string bass (whose idea it was to getStadler on piano

Now on October 5, 2013, there was Frank leader/piano and Jimmy banjo/vocals, Scott Philbrick cornet, Dave Whitney trumpet, Craig Ball clarinet, Lee Prager trombone, Albie Bernard sousaphone, and Bobby Reardon drums at the new Acton Jazz Café, 103 Nagog Park.  It doesn’t get any better than this – as demonstrated by the full house.  Bob McHenry was sitting front and center, enjoying the band.

They started with their theme song, a blistering At The Jazz Band Ball, then  Mama’s Gone, Goodbye – Jimmy vocal, the four-piece front line melding seamlessly.

cornet,trumpet,clarinet,trombone

Front line
Scott, Dave, Craig, and Lee

Scott and Dave are always a combustible combination, Trumpet and cornet duet on From Monday On.  Baby Won’t You Please Come Home.   Combination playing vibrato on There’ll Be Some Changes Made. 

They slowed down for  Memories of You, Scotty doing cornet intro, Jim on vocal with almost imperceptible tuba and trumpet backup.

Mandy Make Up Your Mind – we never get enough of Jimmy Mazzy’s singing.  (For the few who are not aware,  he’s like olives – an acquired taste; people all over the world love Jimmy, especially in Europe) New Orleans, Hoagie’s favorite tune, heartfelt vocal by Dave Whitney.

Jimmy Mazzy on banjo and singing

Jimmy Mazzy

Whitney singing

Dave Whitney

Bobby concentrated on tom toms for Stealing Apples.  He has a different drum set for every genre of music, The Dixieland set has three toms, bass, snare drum, cow bell, top hat and a couple of cymbals.  He strives for simplicity, purity in his playing, and the energy and precision he lays down is undeniable.

Bobby Reardon and his Dixieland Drum Set

Bobby Reardon and his Dixieland Drum Set

Keeping Out of Mischief Now, Jim on vocal.  Craig Ball is in complete command of the upper register  on Ain’t Gonna Give You None of My Jelly Roll.

I’m Coming Virginia.

Bobby plays Saturday nights at the Kowloon in Saugus,  so he’s ready, always dressed in white shirt and black bow tie (untied)  but not tonight; black shirt – no tie.  He said he was in mourning because he couldn’t play his favorite tune.  So they deviated from the 2008 set list – and substituted Bobby’s favorite (and mine!) Limehouse Blues.

Rhythm Section, Al Bernard sousaphone, Jim Mazzy banjo, Bobby Reardon drums

Jim Mazzy, Al Bernard, Bobby Reardon, Rhythm Section

Al Bernard provides the drive and “punch’ behind the band, and plays solos with the dexterity, control, and articulation of the much smaller instruments.  Take Your Tomorrows, and Give Me Today. Joe Darensbourg’s  Louisian-I-A, dynamic clarinet backed by rhythm in stop-time.  Jimmy had the vocal on a HOT Kansas City. I Would Do Most Anything For You, Whitney vocal, and sneaking in snippets of songs with his trumpet.

Look out for Jimmy’s specials  – back in 2008, he substituted his own lyrics for the Banking Crisis with The Whiffenpoof’s Song (The Lambs Song).  This time he did a parody of the Tea Party, that we won’t go into here because we’ve already lost too much $upport.

Craig Ball on soprano sax

Craig Ball on soprano sax

 

 

Craig moved to a sweet  soprano sax, authentic Bechet sound, for  Singing The Blues.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Verne often gets to pick the last tune, a fine choice to end this evening of remembering 2008, with a barnstorming  Swing That Music.
Seacoast Stompers will return with the same personnel playing amazing Dixieland Jazz at the Acton Jazz Café, 103 Nagog Park, Acton MA, on November 2nd, the first Saturday of the month as usual.  See you there!

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Tunes on 2013-10-05 at AJC by Seacoast Stompers
       set 1
At The Jazz Band Ball
Mama’s Gone Goodbye
From Monday On
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home
There’ll Be Some Changes Made
Memories Of You
Mandy Make Up Your Mind
New Orleans
Stealin Apples
set 2
Keepin Out Of Mischief Now
Jelly Roll (Ain’t Gonna Give You None)
I’m Coming Virginia (W/Verse)
Limehouse Blues
Take Your Tomorrow
Louisi-An-I-A
set 3
Kansas City   request
I Would Do Anything For You
The Lamb’s Song (political diatribe)        jimmy special
Singin the Blues
Swing that Music

Seacoast Stompers at the Acton Jazz Cafe, June 1, 2013

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Four-piece front line & drum

Seacoast Stompers

videos by Harold McAleer

Piano and Leader – Frank Stadler, Reeds – John Clark, Banjo and Vocals – Jimmy Mazzy, Cornet – Scott Philbrick, Trumpet and Vocals – Dave Whitney, Trombone – Lee Prager, Sousaphone – Al Bernard, Drums – Bobby Reardon

Seacoast Stompers are a Traditional Jazz and Swing band led by pianist Frank Stadler.  Frank has a list of everything they’ve played in the nearly five years the Band as been at the Acton Jazz Café; he tries to avoid repeating tunes played recently.   Last month, they broke tradition by playing all their old favorite and most requested tunes.  This month it was back to normal, with no repeats of anything played for many months.

But they always begin with their theme song, At The Jazz Band Ball,  with Albie giving this one extra emphasis on sousaphone.  A medium swing tune followed, Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

John Clark on tenor sax

John Clark

 

 

You never know what will happen with Jazz musicians, that’s why this never gets dull.   John Clark took out a smokin’ Coleman Hawkins tenor sax – new instrument for John, making use of the rich lower register, keeping this listener enthralled all afternoon,  Beale St. Blues, Undecided.

 

 

Dave Whitney on trumpet

Dave Whitney

 

 

 

Dave gave New Orleans the respect it deserves with fine trumpet and a Whitney vocal.

 

 

John Clark on tenor sax

Jimmy Mazzy banjo, Al Bernard sousaphone

 

 

Jimmy’s unpretentious sincerity comes through with Porter’s Love Song to a Chamber Maid along with many quips that we can’t print here. Never give Jimmy a microphone!
Fidgety Feet had feet tapping, check out Lee having fun trading trombone with Albie’s tuba.

Frank Stadler on new Yamaha piano

Frank Stadler on new Yamaha piano

 

 

Frank was swinging from start to finish on the new Yamaha piano;  Rosetta, a tune that Earl Fatha Hines’ recorded in Chicago in 1939.

 

Eva Belazs sitting on tall stool with legs hanging down

Eva Balazs

 

Eva Balazs, tiny as she is, found a really high stool to perch on so she could clearly see his impressive piano fingers.  Her feet were dangling 2 feet from the ground, but she was enthralled.

There are four Sports’ TVs in the Café. Our Sport is Jazz – no one was watching the Red Sox or Bruins.

 

John Clark choose the next one, a scorching San, dazzling polyphony by the front line.  Bei Mir Bis Du Schoen, Sundown.

Carrie’s Mazzy’s choice was a lyrical I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling:

Fran D’Agostino, Tuesday night JazzJam host, took charge of the sound system.  He had his guitar with him, and sat in playing catchy riffs on Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.

Fran D'Agostino joins the band on guitar

Fran D’Agostino joins the band

Break time.  Sax and cornet soon returned with a trio on a hot Tuxedo Junction, with Dave Whitney on drums! You never know!

There’ll Be Some Changes Made, nice interchange between drum and tuba. Albie was featured with Jimmy’s vocal on Louisiana Fairytale, the theme song for This Old House and a Paramount Jazz Band favorite.

John took out his clarinet for a Slow Boat to China, which was anything but!  It sizzled! He’s the youngest in this crowd.  He was drawn to jazz in the Library at Connecticut College when he became immersed in its vast collection of Traditional/Dixieland Jazz, and absorbed every recording.   (Thank you, Jeff Barnhart!)

You never know what’s coming. They tried S’Wonderful with NO sound system, which is generally the norm for our Trad Jazz Bands, and sounded just fine to me.  But they couldn’t hear the piano and banjo from the back of the Café.

Scott Philbrick on cornet

Scott Philbrick

 

 

Sound on.  Something between Dixie and Swing – Scotty began  I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate, fun tune.  Whitney took the vocal on The Preacher.

 

 

 

They closed with a fiery, wild Somebody Stole My Gal.

The Seacoast Stompers are an imaginative and versatile Traditional Jazz and Swing Band.  You never know what they will do next.  The Band is here at the Acton Jazz Cafe on the first Saturday of the month for the rest of this year – next one is July 6th.  Join us for some fun Jazz and Swing!

Jazz Jesters at the Sherborn Inn, May 28, 2013

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The Jazz Jesters

The Jazz Jesters

Jeff Hughes trumpet, John Clark and Craig Ball Reeds, Ross Petot piano, Jim Mazzy banjo/vocals, Al Bernard tuba, Steve Taddeo drums, and special guest Bob MacInnis on cornet.

This is My Lucky Day – always is when the Jazz Jesters start their theme song and bring Hot Dance music of the Jazz Decades to the Sherborn Inn; plentiful 20’s and 30’s early Bix and Bunny Berigan.  We were especially delighted to have a surprise guest sitting in!

Ross playing stride piano

Ross playing stride piano

 

Dot Prescott was remembered with Ross Petot featured on stride, But Not For Me.  The first time they ever played it was in concert at the Prescott Traditional Jazz Library at UNH, with Johnny Battis.

 

 

 

Radio – remember radio, when the DJ would play something familiar, then sneak in something new?   Jesters played Breakaway, and sneaked in Con Conrad’s Broadway Melody.

What’s the Use is one of Steve Taddeo’s favorites, by Isham Jones.  Bobby Hackett recorded it on the Commodore label.  Craig was featured on clarinet with Three Little Words.

Craig on tenor sax, John on alto sax

Reedmen Craig Ball and John Clark

The dynamic reed-men Craig Ball and John Clark are as expressive as the multi-reeds sections of a Big Band, changing combinations, saxophones on Song of India, clarinets on East Coast Trot.  They inspire each other, alternating alto and tenor sax and clarinet, and challenge the leader by changing the program on him.

The charts you see are just suggestions for chords.  No one tells these spirited Jazz musicians how to play, (although Jeff sometimes gets head arrangements to work).

Bob MacInnis on cornet

Bob MacInnis

 

Surprise treat was the appearance of Bob MacInnis on cornet.  He’s back!!  Better than ever! Eight-piece band, with trumpet and cornet, played fantastic ensemble on Bix’s Deep Down South.

 

 

Steve tapping on choke cymbal

Steve Taddeo

 

Taddeo was behaving himself with sensitive, smooth brushwork, and soft tapping on choke cymbal.  He’s getting the hang of this Trad Jazz!

Jeff let him loose on Irving Berlin’s 1927 Russian Lullaby, then Steve’s inherent Gene Krupa materialized, backed by the band in stop time.  Fabulous!

 

 

 

Jimmy singing and playing banjo, with Al Bernard and Steve Taddeo in background

Jimmy Mazzy, with Steve Taddeo and Al Bernard

There Ain’t No Land Like Dixieland, Melody From The Sky, Cabin in the Pines, Jimmy Mazzy vocals.   Eat your heart out, Europe!

Jeff gave Jimmy his choice from the myriad collection of tunes stored in his genius brain.  They ducked for cover,  never knowing what Jimmy will come up with.  This time it was  Sam the Accordion Man.

Pardon My Southern Accent, Jeff Hughes taking a very expressive vocal.   MacInnis added “Another one I don’t know”, but jumped right in.

They closed with a WILD Fats Waller stride tune.  Dismissing us with Fats is a good choice, making sure we all return – Zonky.  We’ll come back September 24th and November 28th to hear more of these outstanding Jazz Musicians!