Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By New Orleans High Society, 1718 Records/Slammin’ Media 2020.
It’s been some time since I’ve had a Trad Jazz record to review, it’s a Jazz form that feels very old school these days but I love it.
I grew up in a Jazz family. My dad played cornet as a young feller and, although he was no longer playing while I was growing up, his love of Jazz, and particularly Trad, was a shared joy.
We would sit together listening to his Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman albums as he air played each solo. They are wonderful memories and I love Trad to this day.
New Orleans High Society are a group of young New Orleans based musicians who have rediscovered Trad and the joy that it brings.
The nine tracks on this album are comprised of a selection of Trad Jazz standards combined with a few tracks that I’m unfamiliar with.
The ensemble sticks to the rules of the genre with the instrumentalists sharing solos; sax, trombone, trumpet, clarinet, bass, piano, drums, they each have their chance to shine before returning to the head to play us out.
While the album has Trad as its base there are many other influences that creep their way in including Gospel, and even some Trip Hop and a smidgeon of Latin/Cuban rhythm.
While these newer forms are there in the music they are subservient to the needs of the song. This is still a Trad Jazz album.
The album opens with their rendition of Down By The Riverside and includes other well-known standards such as Sunny Side Of The Street, Ice Cream (You Scream) Everyone Screams For Ice Cream, Sleepy Time Down South, and That’s A Plenty.
The band started out as a weekly gig in the birthplace of Trad in New Orleans and, as the line-up settled and the members got to know each other, a distinctive interpretation of the standards began to emerge.
Eighteen months later their gigs were becoming a hot ticket item and they decided to make their first record and while it’s only nine tracks in length it gives us a good idea of their wonderful abilities and interesting, but decidedly appropriate interpretations.
I hope we hear a lot more from this ensemble.
