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My presentation at the New Orleans International Music Coloquium seems to have gone well. I've gotten lots of positive feedback, and an offer to publish it right after I finished giving it.

The weather has been beautiful, sometimes a bit cool at night but sunny and mild in the day.

This used to be the "down" weekend between French Quarter Fest and Jazz Fest, but has become very busy, with many events and fine out-of-town bands staying in town for the interveening week.

Tonight I'm playing in in the opening band for Monk Boudreaux's Red Black & Blue for the White Buffalo Day celebration at the Maple Leaf. With all the great local and visiting trad jazz bands in town, I expect "The White Buffalo Brass Band" (that was the going name last time I talked with the leader) will be an unremarkable thrown-together band, but it might be fun, and certainly the event and the band that follow us are. As a few of the Riverbend Radio Ramblers will be in the White Buffalo Band, we may have a chance to throw in a couple of our signature bits.

In a development that I personally consider inexplicable, it's looking like my most prominent role at Jazz Fest this year will be an apperance on stage not as an interviewer, nor a musician, nor a presenter-- but as a featured guest singer. I'm not sure what this says about either the bandleader who urged me to do this nor myself for agreeing to it.

Some friends of mine and I have also started rehersing our small combo to play 1920s (and late 1910s) style jazz. Tentative name: Spanish Fort Jazz Band. (Old Spanish Fort is a part of town where one of the musicians lives, and was also a noted local music venue back in the day.) While I'm personally fond of some of the fun names of groups of the era like the "Jazzola Novelty Orchestra" and the "Purple Derby Orchestra" (the latter of whom all performed in derby hats died purple, of course), others prefer we select a more serious name. I suggested we call ourselves "The Trad Police" (which is musicians' slang for those who object when they play in a style that is not sufficiently historically correct) and dress up in Keystone Cops uniforms, but that didn't go anywhere.

Hm, with so many groups doing cover versions of the famous tunes by the early jazz greats like Armstrong, Oliver, Ory, Bechet, Morton, etc, I wonder if we might be better concentrating on playing the neglected second rate tunes by the second rate early New Orleans bands, numbers like "Cocoanut Trot", "He's Had No Lovin' For A Long Long Time", and "Cross Word Mama, You're Puzzling Me"? Hey, it's a concept. I'll have to bring that up next rehersal.

If a collegue objects that I'm being too flippant, I can point to examples of the trombonist being somewhat obnoxious and wacky as being consistantly historically correct for the era.

Date: 2005-04-17 02:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jennconspiracy.livejournal.com
ROTFLMAO at "Trad Police" - that would be brilliant!

I wish I was making it to jazzfest this year but next year for sure! It'll be five years since my last jazzfest and that's just too darned long!

Trad Police

Date: 2005-04-18 03:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] infrogmation.livejournal.com
Maybe I'll use the "Trad Police" band concept eventually, with a group all playing period instruments, and some business about the musicians grilling eachoterh about being properly authentic to the period between tunes.

Yow, has it been 5 years since last you visited?! Too long! I miss you.

White Buffalo

Date: 2005-04-18 04:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] infrogmation.livejournal.com
The White Buffalo event was enjoyable. The band was like the third act before the main band. We were preceeded on stage by Rev. Goat and Chief Strong Buffalo, and a good guitar singer gal whose name I regret forgetting as we were preparting to go on. "The White Buffalo Brass Band" had trumpet (leader de jour Miguel, who also plays with the featured act Monk Boudreaux's Red Black & Blue band), trombone, sax, clarinet, guitar, tuba, and drums, which I think is close to optimal instrumentation for this type of music -- of course guitar and sit-down drums are "jazz band" not "brass band". I'd played with everyone in the band before in different contexts, but we'd never played together as a group, and I fear it showed. I didn't think much of our performance, we didn't really sound like a band and for some reason the tempos were rushed (I've heard all the members of the rhythm section doing much better other times, but they'd not worked together before). Self criticisim aside, the crowd seemed to like us and gave us a good reception.

I may have found a good name for the new small combo; We'll see Tuesday.

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