[Dixielandjazz] What a Wonderful World (was Oh Yeah Day)

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi All,

Surely it's a case of Tain't Whatcha You Do, It's the Way Whatcha You Do It? WWW is a pretty tune with nice changes, so it's down to the players to come up with something new to say on it. The CD which my band, The Classic Jazz Orchestra, made with Duke Heitger (Lake Records LACD 286 - available from all good record dealers, if you can find any, and available for download from Lake's website) closes with WWW. It consists of just one chorus of trumpet over CJO's 5 horns and no vocal apart from the very last line and a gentle "Oh Yeah!" from Duke to round it off. When I was writing the chart, I could hear in my mind Gil Evans-type voicings for the backgrounds, although they seem to have vanished in the process of committing it to paper!

Judy also mentioned that Duke Heitger will be appearing at the Bude Jazz Festival 2 weeks from now. My band will also be there for the first time. We're doing a concert of the music of Jelly Roll Morton on the afternoon of Sunday 28 August and later the same day, we're presenting a concert of the music of Benny Carter with the world-class English saxophonist and raconteur, Alan Barnes. We recorded some of this programme with Alan for his Woodville record label and that CD is due for general release on August 22nd. It's already had some marvellous advance reviews and will be available to buy or for download from the Woodville website

The following day (Monday 29th) we'll be working with the afore-mentioned Duke Heitger in a programme of music associated with Louis Armstrong. It's a tough programme, especially for Duke, drawn from every era of Louis' 48-year recording career and it will end with WWW, so we'll add our belated contribution to "Oh Yeah Day." If any listmates are going to be in Bude, please come up and say hello - we don't bite unless provoked!

Cheers,

Ken Mathieson