THE HIGH SOCIETY NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND

LIVE AT BIRDLAND

Turtle Bay Records

Conal Fowkes, piano/vocals; Simon Wettenhall, trumpet/vocals; Harvey Tibbs, trombone; Tom Abbott, clarinet; Josh Dunn, guitar/banjo; Brian Nalepka, bass/vocals; Kevin Dom, drums.

This album begins with a slow dirge-like, funeral composition called “Flee as a Bird.” It’s the beginning of a medley of music (including “Oh, Didn’t He Ramble”) to represent the war between old, traditional jazz and the modern, progressive jazz of Dizzy Gillespie and his band of cohorts.  It was during the end of 1949 that Dizzy called the Armstrong, New Orleans music ‘Uncle Tom music for kids and the birds.’ Back then (1949) The Paris International Jazz Festival booked Sidney Bechet and Charlie Parker on the same bill.  That sparked great interest and was a test, so to speak. Who would the audience choose?

The result was, after Bechet and his New Orleans traditional music opened their show, the audience was completely responsive and excited by their music.  Unfortunately, the new music of Charlie Parker fell on deaf ears.  So much for Gillespie’s tirade.  This infectious New Orleans musical tradition is kept alive-and-well by The High Society New Orleans Jazz Band.

Co-leaders, Conal Fowkes and Simon Wettenhall are no newcomers to this cultural music. They served as members of Woody Allen’s New Orleans Jazz Band for nearly thirty years. Consequently, they strive to present an authentic presentation of some of America’s great music influencers including the music of King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, cornetists, Freddie Keppard and Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, Honore Dutrey, and Bunk Johnson, to list just a few.

A tune called, “Here Comes the Hot Tamale Man” is full of excitement and joy.  It was originally recorded by early cornet king, Freddie Keppard back in 1926. The band leaders, Fowkes and Wettenhall, are also the vocalists on this project.  They brightly sing the song’s ‘hook’ and make me want to join them.

“Dallas Blues” is historically heralded as the first true blues tune ever published. The lyrics paint a picture of someone about to leave Dallas for a Northern city where things go from bad to worse. Josh Dunn offers an emotional banjo solo that has the audience testifying. They tribute the music of Jelly Roll Morton by playing his legendary “Shreveport Stomp.”

If you are a lover of Dixieland music and traditional New Orlean jazz, you will enjoy every tune on this wonderfully historic album.  They are keeping the early 1900s jazz music alive and well. You hear it in classic rousing New Orleans tunes like their namesake, “High Society” that was first recorded in March of 1911 and became a jazz arrangement by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in 1923.  Every tune on this album is charmingly refreshed by The High Society New Orleans Jazz Band.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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