[Dixielandjazz] Snip from NY TIMES article

[Stephen G Barbone]

Last night I hit Donna’s, an endearingly shabby joint on North Rampart  
Street along the northwestern edge of the French Quarter. The  
headliners were Evan Christopher, a clarinetist, and Tom McDermott, a  
pianist. They made the best music I heard yesterday.
Nate Chinen reviewed some N. O performances. Here's his snip on Evan  
Christopher.

Cheers,
Steve barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


Mr. Christopher and Mr. McDermott qualify as traditional jazz  
musicians, and their enthusiastic following consists of traditional  
jazz fans. But there’s nothing conservative about what they played  
last night, with their quartet. (During a new arrangement of the  
“Tishomingo Blues,” Mr. Christopher advised a percussionist to think  
“spacier, like Sun Ra.”) Whether they were playing Jelly Roll Morton’s  
“Mamanita” or a Brazilian choro tune, they made the music feel fresh.  
The rickety quality that haunts so much early-jazz repertory was  
nowhere to be found.

Mr. McDermott is an excellent pianist, assertive with his articulation  
and sprightly with his rhythm. He sounded great on the battered  
upright that serves as the house piano at Donna’s; a nine-foot  
Steinway wouldn’t have made the music better. As for Mr. Christopher,  
he’s a special kind of player in jazz: the effortless virtuoso, with  
an appealing tone at every region of pitch. He plays with historical  
awareness, but never appears buttoned-up. (He seems fully cognizant of  
his own rakish charisma, which helps.)

The spine-tingling moment of the set was a clarinet-and-piano  
performance of Scott Joplin’s “Pine Apple Rag,” alive with imagination  
and purpose. Mr. Christopher and Mr. McDermott have worked extensively  
as a duo – after Hurricane Katrina, they both expatriated to Paris for  
a while – and the depth of their bond is as obvious as their talent.