[Dixielandjazz] Struttin With Some Barbecue?

[Stephen G Barbone]

If you are in or near NYC, this group may be worth hearing. While  
perhaps not for the "purists", This show which highlights OKOM tunes  
with some modern jazz touches,  may interest those who believe OKOM  
should evolve. Note that the first two shows of "Struttin With Some  
Barbecue " were sold out.  Hmmmmmm.
Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


January 1, 2010 - NY TIMES - By Nate Chinen

A Band Has Its Contemporary Way With Old-Time New Orleans Hits

Among the assorted black-and-white photographs in the entry stairwell  
of the Jazz Standard, one has stood out since the club opened in its  
current form eight years ago. It’s a snapshot of Louis Armstrong in  
his dressing room at the Paramount Theater, in May 1937. He’s in a  
thin black skullcap, sleeves rolled back, gnawing on a rib bone. He’s  
holding what appears to be a goblet of beer. The look on his face is  
wary, distancing, maybe a little admonitory. He looks like a guy who’d  
rather be enjoying his meal in peace.

The image bears some relevance to “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue,” a  
New Year’s booking at the Jazz Standard. Named after one of the  
immortal sides made by Armstrong’s Hot Five — “the Old Testament of  
classic jazz,” as Terry Teachout rightly observes in “Pops: A Life of  
Louis Armstrong,” his scrupulous new biography — the engagement  
features two proud sons of New Orleans, the pianist Henry Butler and  
the alto saxophonist Donald Harrison. Joining them is a wrecking crew  
of musicians with current or former ties to the Jazz at Lincoln Center  
Orchestra: the trumpeter Sean Jones, the trombonist Wycliffe Gordon,  
the bassist Ben Wolfe and the drummer Ali Jackson.

Their focus for the week is traditional jazz, but with a fairly loose  
adherence to protocols, judging by the first of two sold-out shows on  
Tuesday night. The set opened, brightly if dutifully, with the  
jostling cheer of its namesake tune. What followed were other staples  
of old-time jazz repertory: “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Bourbon Street  
Parade” and as a send-off, Duke Ellington’s “C Jam Blues.”

Beyond their melodic expositions, though, most of these tunes took on  
a modernistic sheen, with the rhythm section cruising four beats to  
the bar. And aside from the endlessly charismatic Mr. Gordon, whose  
solos were stout marvels of anachronism, the musicians drew from a  
contemporary storehouse of ideas. Mr. Jones evoked Armstrong’s  
effulgent tone, but his harmonic logic suggested more recent  
influences. Mr. Harrison juxtaposed tart phrases with dartlike bebop  
lines and the open-faucet flow of John Coltrane. And then there was  
Mr. Butler.

Percussive in his attack, ostentatious with his technique, he was the  
picture of stubborn mischief — and, not coincidentally, of New Orleans  
pianism. He obliged the spirit of the occasion with his own stylistic  
consommé: billowing whole-tone glissandi; furrowed, Monkish hiccups;  
boppish two-handed octaves; flare-ups of funk and Chopin. He was also  
responsible for calling a lone postwar outlier in the set list: “All  
Blues,” from the 1959 Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue.” (It felt  
imported from another gig.)

And between songs Mr. Butler, who has been blind since birth, kept  
joking that he was the band’s bus driver. There was something corny  
and oddly credible in this — he has in fact had success as a  
photographer — but also something withering and self-protective, about  
as far from ingratiating as it gets.

Performances continue through Sunday at the Jazz Standard, 116 East  
27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net.




Steve Barbone

www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband