Why play the same old hot jazz tunes from 100 years ago when you can fire up your own? That’s the idea behind the album by The Way Back Whens, featuring Dan Davis/cl-sax, Keith Rempel/sousaphone-b, Audrey Ochoa/tb, Eric Weiden/tp, Brett Hanson/banjo-g, Dan Stadnicki/dr, Dan Gervas/fi and of course the tap dancing beat of Barbara Vargasi.
Davis’ licorice stick is a mix of Edmond Hall and early Benny Goodman and swirling with joy on “One More Chance” and teaming up with a huffing and puffing Kempel on a two stepping “Sorry ‘bout Your Luck”. Just because the band has a trad collection of instrumentation, the team isn’t all about life on the Mississippi, as Rempel and Weiden team up for a funky and soulful “Mud Boggin”. The band also takes you to Sunday School as “Just A Closer Walk With Thee” has Davis’ clarinet preaching it, while the “Gospel Medley” opens with a reverent choir of horns before Davis’ sax hits the pulpit under Stadnick’s Pentecostal drums. The place really gets hopping when Vargasi comes tapping in around Gervas’ fiddle for a fun and festive “Ella’s Dance”. It’s hard to appreciate how good these musicians are when it’s also obvious that their having such a good time playing it. When are they hitting the road?