Tired of the same old and moldy music of today, with incessantly long and cacophonous solos, flailing drums and melodies in so many directions you need a Garman Nuvi to figure out where the next turn is? Have hope! The newest craze has arrived, and I think it’s going to last awhile. They call it “New Orleans Jazz.” You’ve probably never heard it before, but this band lead by pianist Henry Butler and trumpeter Steven Bernstein have their finger on something, and it sounds like something you’re going to like.
The rhythm team of Reginald Veal/dr and Herlin Riley do this thing called a “two step” beat, and believe it or not, they make the music so you can DANCE to it? Who ever came up with THAT radical idea? Along with a violinist, guitarist and horn section, they make some wondrous sounds and arrangements that will make you want to get off your chair and grab a partner. A tune like “Viper’s Drag,” for example, has Butler doing this crazy new thing on the piano, I think they call it “stride,” and he wails on the ivories for some exciting and fevered solos between snappy horn themes. Then, there’s that incessant beat I was telling you about by Riley , and he beats the daylights out of his drums behind Butler on tunes like “Dixie Walker”ile the saxes by Michael Blake and Erik Lawrence wail like a holy roller on “Henry’s Boogie.” Butler also does some hip singing while the reeds do this crazy thing in unison (they call it “Polyphony”-what a concept!) on “Buddy Bolden’s Blues” and the whole band sings like a band of minstrels on “I Left My Baby.” And, instead of just having one guy solo for about 20 minutes with the drummer, this band does this thing that has the reeds and brass go back and forth, sort of like a call and response in a church service. This kind of stuff could catch on, and maybe make music… and here’s a new word also…SWING a bit. These guys are so ahead of their time, this is the real avant garde! Get ahead of the curve and try this disc out!
Impulse Records