“Best of South Jersey” The Strutter 2008 - 2011! VOLUME 24 NUMBER 5 Traditional Jazz in the Philadelphia Tri-State Area NOVEMBER 2013 OUR NEXT CONCERT deliver it in an energetic fashion. But their repertoire goes well beyond that, featuring the Atlantic City Jazz Band prime output of the skilled Tin Pan Alley composers who dominated music through the 1930s and beyond, and their zesty, spirited instrumentals are punctuated by an occasional vocal to capitalize upon the catchy lyrics of the period. Their repertoire is always growing and includes pieces as old as Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton rags as well as pop tunes of the jazz era by George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. In 2004, band leader and since-retired trombonist Herb Roselle organized a touring band for a 10-day excursion to Italy and selected some of the finest musicians in the area. The band was well- received and decided to tour again the following year. Then, after a few more years of being a one- Sunday, November 24, 2013 time/one-tour band, Roselle and co-founder Bob 2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Rawlins decided to morph the band into a Community Arts Center permanent group - and thus, in the fall of 2008, the 414 Plush Mill Road Atlantic City Jazz Band was born. They have since Wallingford, PA 19086 become a fixture on the traditional jazz scene and in Directions on Page 7 the spring of 2009 released their first CD, "Making Waves." To hear the ACJB in action, please go to: Following their last TSJS concert in October, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SncLw8larQg reviewer Jim McGann reported: "Whether your taste was hot Jazz, popular song, or pure hokum, the Atlantic City Jazz Band provided for all, and left Concert Admissions our TSJS faithful happy." $10 First-time attendees and members $20 General Admission The Atlantic City Jazz Band (ACJB): High school/college students with ID and Franny Smith - Leader, Banjo, Vocals Bob Ferguson - Trumpet children with paying adult admitted free Bob Rawlins - Clarinet, Reeds Pay at the door Pete Reichlin - Trombone Nancy Rawlins - Piano In This Issue John McClernan - Tuba Chuck Harms - Drums Looking Ahead.................Page 2 Spitznagel Concert...........Page 3 The seven-piece ACJB is an authentic "tuba and banjo" ensemble and specializes in playing the Brief History of Jazz..........Page 4 music that swept the nation when the first jazz Music Committee..............Page 5 recordings were issued in 1917. The members are Future Concert Schedules.. Page 5 seasoned players who love the traditional style and The Strutter is published by Tri-State Jazz Society, Inc. - P.O. Box 896 - Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054 1 LOOKING AHEAD TO OUR Theaters, and has toured with Barry Manilow. She JANUARY 2014 CONCERT also has a great singing voice! Due to the December holidays, there won’t be a Tri- Well-known on the Philadelphia jazz scene, Sonny State Jazz Society concert during that month. Troy has been playing jazz guitar for 60-odd years. However we will be eager to get going again in He made his first record at age 11 with Frankie January with the Barbone Street Jazz Band concert Avalon--who was playing trumpet at the time. As a on January 12 from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. at the teenager, Sonny played in Las Vegas with Louis Haddonfield Methodist Church, Haddonfield, NJ Prima before joining Peggy Lee for an extended tour of the West Coast. He's worked with the Harry James Band, toured with Fabian, and eventually returned east to play lead guitar on the Mike Douglas Show. He's Bobby Rydell's and Frankie Avalon's first-call guitarist for local gigs. Drummer Mike Piper's father, Ray Charles' tour drummer, bought him his first drum set when he was 6. Mike cut his teeth on rock and roll before moving on to become a 35-plus-year regular on the jazz scene. He was with Paul Grant's New Orleans Swing at the Showboat Casino and has been energizing Barbone Street since 2008. Trumpeter Adam Hershberger and bassist Jonathan Steve Barbone - Clarinet, leader Davenport are members of Philadelphia's Cindy Vidal - Trombone Perseverance Jazz Band. According to veteran Steve Sonny Troy - Guitar Barbone, "Both of these men are in their 20s and Mike Piper - Drums are fine examples of the new blood that is interested Adam Hershberger - Trumpet in the hot jazz of Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Jonathan Davenport - Bass et al. The Perseverance Jazz Band has been performing for 3 years at swing dances, parties, Clarinetist Steve Barbone will lead one of the weddings and various clubs/restaurants. They have Delaware Valley's best-known and hardest- developed a growing audience of young people who swinging musical groups for an afternoon of hot listen and dance to our kind of music. They are both Dixieland Jazz. Steve Barbone has been playing EXCELLENT jazz musicians and I am pleased to be clarinet for 60 years and has shared a stage with, working with them in both Barbone Street and in among others, jazz legends Coleman Hawkins, Roy Perseverance Jazz Bands." Eldridge, Yank Lawson, Walter Bishop Jr., Gene Schroeder, Roswell Rudd, Sidney Bechet, You can learn more about the Barbone Street Jazz Thelonious Monk, Bob Haggart, Pee Wee Erwin Band, and hear samples of them in action at: and Miff Mole. He's been a mainstay in New York, http://www.barbonestreet.com/. Philadelphia and European Jazz Clubs including To hear Adam and Jonathan in action, go to: Nick's, Eddie Condon's, The Savoy, the Cinderella https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=07af2 Club, the Melody Lounge, the Stuyvesant Casino, 638c4&view=audio&msgs=1417a2df04d648bd&atti Ortlieb's Jazz Haus, Le Cave, the JazKeller and the d=0.1&zw Vieux Colunbier. Cindy Vidal has been a professional jazz musician for more than 15 years. She has a master's degree in music, with a trombone major, from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, plays regularly in the pit orchestras at the Walnut Street and Prince Music 2 MARTIN SPITZNAGEL medley (consisting of "Chim-Chim-Cheree," "Feed CONCERT REVIEW the Birds" and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"), a literally light keyboard exercise of Zez Confrey's The Tri-State Jazz concert on October 20 at the "Dizzy Fingers" and two food related items - Haddonfield Methodist Church featured Martin "Pickles and Peppers" by Adeline Sheppard and Spitznagel, noted Ragtime pianist from Alexandria, "Pork and Beans" by one of the Titans of the era - VA. the diminutive “Luckeyth” Roberts. The second set, while not as jam packed as the first, had some interesting moments as well. The set began with a brief explanation of Ragtime. Spitznagel defined it as taking the oompah bass sound of the marches and adding syncopation to it, comparing the two in side-by-side little pianistic demonstrations as "Throw it Away" and "Take Out the Garbage." Three Spitznagel originals were performed, "Whippersnapper," "The Seagull Shuffle" and "The Newbie Eubie," the latter a tribute to Eubie Blake, and featuring his trademark "Walking Bass" and "Double Bass" effects. Spitznagel, who has a background in graphic design, and claims that Ragtime is an "avocation" for him, The concert ended with a performance of George described Ragtime as "the Rap music of the day." It Gershwin's "Swanee," concluding a great afternoon was a departure from proper, classical music at the of Ragtime with Martin Spitznagel. time. In Spitznagel's performance, it is easy to see Jim McGann why Ragtime went over so big in the early 1900s. In most Ragtime performances, emphasis is focused on Ragtime composers and popular Ragtime compositions. While Spitznagel acknowledged composers like Eubie Blake, Scott Joplin, et al, a considerable portion of the program was devoted to Spitznagel's own compositions, and in some cases, QUIZ TIME popular songs performed in a Ragtime style. It was By Rabbi Lou Kaplan a welcome change. The big band era lasted from approximately 1930 to Another welcome change was the ever-so-slight 1950. George T. Simon's "The Big Bands," fourth swing of the Rags. Tex Wyndham once summarized edition (New York: Schirmer Books, 1981) is the the difference between Ragtime and Stride: "One definitive work on the subject. How much do you swings, and the other doesn't." Every number on know about the music in that exhilarating time? the program, save for the non-ragtime "A Melody for New Life," had a little stride to it. Ragtime Can you match each of the following bandleaders compared to stride has a tendency to sound with his group's theme song? rhythmically stiff. Not at this concert. Bandleaders: Larry Clinton, Tommy Dorsey, Skinny Ennis, Glen Gray, Horace Heidt, Stan Kenton, The first set contained a potpourri of works by Claude Thornhill. Eubie Blake, Scott Joplin, the Sherman brothers (read on!), Adeline Sheppard, “Luckeyth” Roberts, Theme songs: "Artistry in Rhythm"; "Got a Date Zez Confrey and Spitznagel himself. The standouts with an Angel"; "I'll Love You in My Dreams"; "I'm of the set were the rarely heard Joplin tune, "Easy Getting Sentimental Over You"; "Smoke Rings"; Winners," an original Rag by Spitznagel - the two "Snowfall"; "The Dipsy Doodle." themed "Theresa's Novelette," a Mary Poppins Answers elsewhere in this issue. 3 A BRIEF HISTORY OF JAZZ Morton, the fiery soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet (both Creoles from New Orleans) and the Simply put, the music of the Tri-State Jazz Society lyrically creative Bix Beiderbecke, a white cornetist is jazz played in the style of its originators and their from Davenport, Iowa.