[Dixielandjazz] The Ear Inn

[Stephen G Barbone]

Here is the message Baglady posted, without all the clutter. For those  
in, or visiting NYC, The Ear Inn is a wonderful venue to visit on  
Sunday Nights when Kellso and friends are there. Great Bar, hip young  
crowd, GREAT BAND.

Very nice to see the New York Times music critics review Kellso.  
Indeed, NYC has a vibrant experimental jazz underground, but it also  
has the beauty of Kellso and friends.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

By NATE CHINEN, April 26, 2010, NY Times
Old-Time Jazz Swing, but Modern Metabolism


The New York jazz landscape has always been defined partly by its  
underground, with the tacit understanding that such a region is  
usually zoned for experimentation. That’s as true as it ever was, but  
it’s an incomplete truth because of all that it overlooks. One case in  
point would be the Ear Regulars, the traditional jazz cohort led by  
the trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso and the guitarist Matt Munisteri every  
Sunday night at the Ear Inn, on the westernmost edge of the South  
Village, near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel.



The weekly stand is coming up on its third year, and it’s still  
touched by a spirit of affable contrarianism. There’s nothing forward- 
looking about the Ear Regulars, but neither is there anything  
didactic, self-important, preachy or defensive. Mr. Kellso and Mr.  
Munisteri specialize in small-group swing and Dixieland, music  
regarded as old-fashioned even 60 years ago. But the clarity of their  
enthusiasm and the caliber of their execution add up to a present- 
tense transaction.



Context has something to do with it. The Ear Inn is a beloved old  
drinking house with its own clientele, and the band, wedged into an  
alcove near the door, doesn’t disrupt the metabolism of the place.  
Sunday’s first set was accompanied, typically, by a background hum of  
conversation. (A Mets game played on one of the televisions over the  
bar.) Yet there was an attentive hush in the immediate vicinity of the  
musicians, who had no problem projecting without a sound system in a  
manner both intimate and casual.



This time around the Ear Regulars included Harry Allen on tenor  
saxophone and Neal Miner on bass, and both played with poise. Mr.  
Miner’s bass lines properly framed and cushioned Mr. Munisteri’s chug- 
a-lug strumming, whether they were walking four beats to the bar or  
with a jaunty two-step feel. Their foot-tapping momentum was as much a  
factor on the songbook standard “I Can’t Believe That You’re in Love  
With Me” as on a New Orleans-pedigreed set opener, “Royal Garden Blues.”



For his part Mr. Allen was impeccable, stamping “Limehouse Blues” with  
unpredictable turns of phrase and bringing a Ben Webster warble to his  
reading of “September Song.” And he fell right into step with Mr.  
Kellso, digging into improvised counterpoint and on-the-spot riffs.  
During “Tea for Two,” their rapport lit up a series of four-bar solo  
exchanges before locking in on an ensemble figure and finally the  
outgoing melody.



Mr. Kellso maintained a neatly conversational tone in his solos,  
sounding mellow but to the point. Mr. Munisteri went in for more  
dazzle, though he too kept things drawn to scale. When they ended  
their first set neither musician had to take more than a step or two  
to mingle with the crowd.



The Ear Regulars perform every Sunday night at the Ear Inn, 326 Spring  
Street, near Greenwich Street, South Village; (212) 431-9750,  
earinn.com.