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The spirit of Jelly Roll Morton was definitely hovering as The New New Orleans Jazz Band presented its Twenty-fifth Annual Jazz Concert at The National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts. The New New Orleans Jazz Band is a group of professional men and women who play Dixieland Jazz to keep alive the traditional jazz style, for their own enjoyment as well as the pleasure of their audience. In 1984 the band had it's 4th performance. Up to now, it's had 1983 performances. They play acoustically; the only mic they use is for voice, there is no other amplification. Musicians are Eva Balazs piano/narrator, Bob MacInnis cornet, Bruce Burrell clarinet (no saxophones in early jazz,) Bill Zimmerman trombone, Bill Flaherty banjo, Rich Malcolm drums, and Larry Zuk, leader/tuba. They soared into Papa di dada. |
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Eva Belazs, a family therapist from Arlington (by way of Hungary) has a piano style that is rich, melodic, inventive, and she swings! She explained the origin of jazz in New Orleans, born from Blues and Folk. It was played in bordellos and churches, it has continued through the depression, through good times, the Big Band Era, WWII, the 70's, up to today. Pointing to the familiar audience, "You old folks know, you're old like me." |
| Taking an occasional nip of 'medicine' from a whiskey glass
set on the piano Eva continued, "Traditional Jazz began in New Orleans, a mixture
of gospel, blues, and folk music." The band played New
Orleans and Tiger Rag. "The first 40 years were the golden
age of jazz." Tin Roof Blues. "In the 50's, George Wein
experimented with a jazz 'get together' in a waterfront park in Newport, Rhode Island;
even
Duke Ellington brought his band. He explained he was playing at a
financial loss, but that jazz bands must play to live audiences to be
re-energized, the audience gets the best out of you." The Newport
Jazz Festival continues to this day. "In 1970, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation (http://www.jazzandheritage.org/) organized a 3-day jazz festival at the end of April. There were more people on the stage than in the audience, but It was a tremendous success and ignited a spark of interest that was far reaching. Now The Festival covers ten days every year the last week of April into May." |
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The 12th St. Rag re-energized the audience, with Bruce's fabulous clarinet backed by Eva on piano, Rich tapping on the wood block, single-string banjo pickin' and some "do whacka do". |
(After a sip of 'medicine') Eva spoke about how current societies started jazz festivals to keep Trad alive -- she mentioned some of today's
Jazz Festivals,
like the one in Sacramento, and the Great Connecticut in Moodus.
Eva listed Web sites like
http://home.comcast.net/~newenglandtradjazz where we could find out more about upcoming concerts
and festivals. This was followed by a restrained version of
Wild Man Blues with solos by Eva and Bruce. |
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Bob MacInnis, retired school administrator from Billerica, on muted cornet with such an arresting sound it gave us goose bumps on Mama's Gone, Goodbye. |
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Eva's talk turned to the Boston-area venues in the 70's -- she named a number of them, and many in the audience remembered them. Next, she listed current venues, including the Colonial Inn on Wednesdays, the Sherborn Inn on most Tuesdays, and the Lord Wakefield on Wednesday nights. |
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Drummer Rich Malcolm is an audio-visual specialist at Boston Conservatory of Music. He is capable of slam banging with the best of them, but he's unselfishly rooted in maintaining that beat. A rare gem, a real Traditional Jazz Drummer! (Teach it to the students at the conservatory!) Bill Zimmerman, formerly Superintendent of Schools in Wayland, now an educational consultant continued the New Orleans theme with fine tailgate trombone on Memphis Blues. Bill Flaherty, an independent businessman, introduced Bill Bailey with a fine vocal and rousing banjo picking. |
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Larry Zuk, a retired engineer and educator from Concord, played his heart out on tuba. Many aspiring New England traditional/ dixieland jazz musicians were launched from this band. (At right is how he manages the band from the rear.) |
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| The band played a
crisp, spirited rendition of "Weary Blues", with breaks taken first
by the banjo, then the tuba, and including a sweet clarinet solo.
The ending was an abrupt, pleasant surprise.
The band then
rendered "Up the Lazy River", with solos by Bruce, Bill Flaherty,
Bob, and Eva. The last chorus began in double-time, with the last 8
bars at the more relaxed slower tempo. Then Eva dropped
the bomb! This will be the LAST performance by the NNOJB at the
National Heritage Museum! The audience uttered a chorus of gasps,
followed by "No!", "What a shame!", "I can't believe that!". This 7-piece band will continue to play old time jazz, pulling from the repertoire with period instrumentation, playing with passion and devotion, so the styles are not lost to future generations. You can hear them Wednesdays 7-10pm at the Lakeside Pub and Eatery, Best Western Lord Wakefield Hotel, 505 North Avenue, Wakefield Massachusetts. The spirit of Jelly Roll Morton will be there. |
Updated November 18, 2008
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© New England Traditional Jazz Plus
PO Box 635, Milford MA 01757
http://www.nejazz.com
email
marce@nejazz.com
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