Festival Review: Hot Steamed Jazz Festival 2003

I usually try to spend a day at each of the fine traditional jazz festivals happening in Connecticut every summer. The first of these, the Hot Steamed Jazz Festival, was held in Essex on the weekend of June 27-29, and I made the Sunday performance which included the Roof Garden Jass Band and the Peter Ecklund Quartet. I have written previously on this page about Roof Garden, a repertory group that plays the book of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and other ensembles from the dawn of jazz.

Roof Garden’s leader and reedman Dan Levinson made mention of how much he appreciated having drummer John Gill back on the stand after 16 years, referring to him as "my first choice" in the relatively small circle of players adept in 20's style music.

Gill’s playing bolstered the authenticity of the music, the style of which employs martial snare drum work, syncopated bass drum figures, and the absence of a high hat to "cut" the time. One of the criticisms of the so-called Dixieland variant of traditional New Orleans and Chicago style music is that it has a two-beat feel rather than a syncopated four-to-the -bar. I watched Gill play from behind the stage and his playing was decidedly in the latter feel.

For this performance Gill used a period drum set that featured a 28 inch bass drum with a landscape mural on the head, a 15 inch gut snare, and a Chinese tacked head tom-tom. Rounding out the set were an oversized wood block and cowbell plus an inverted "Chinaboy" cymbal with rivets for the sizzle effect.

 I spoke to him following an excellent set during which the band played in addition to the ODJB, a number of tunes by the Original Memphis Five, the Louisiana Five, and a number of other "Fives" that employed the cornet, clarinet, trombone, piano and drums combination popular at the time. Gill is modest about his accomplishments in traditional music. He said he learned from some of the originals who were still playing around New York during the traditional revival period that began in the 1940's, but that there is also an intuitive, improvisational aspect to his playing, despite the use of written scores that lay out the numerous stops and starts characteristic of the style.

Levinson has written charts for the band’s repertoire, though with drum recording techniques being as primitive as they were in the 20's, it’s difficult to get a transcription of the drum parts with complete accuracy. The drums tended to overwhelm the recording process in the early days, so drummers were sometimes restricted to playing on wood blocks or at some great distance from the rest of the ensemble, factors which hindered the transcription process.

When Jelly Roll Morton did his recorded interviews for the Library of Congress he alluded to something called the " Spanish Tinge" or habanera, a syncopation prevalent in early jazz, that didn’t come through on recordings. The habanera or clave’ rhythm is believed to be an Africanism that made its way into American music from the folkways of West African slaves in the Carribean islands and ultimately transported to New Orleans. It is the feel-good ingredient of New Orleans music, and its absence in some Dixieland may be at the center of the two beat/four beat controversy.

Cornetist Peter Ecklund managed the feel-good factor without any drums. Though very different in approach, Roof Garden and Peter Ecklund’s quartet both include members of Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, the all star trad band that plays Mondays and Thursdays at the Cajun Restaurant in NYC. For this performance, Ecklund stayed within a repertoire of swing tunes from the 30's and 40's, with a band that included Dan Block on reeds, Cynthia Sayer on banjo, and the ubiquitous Vince Giordano on upright bass, tuba, bass sax, and ambidextrous high hat.

Giordano has his arsenal of large bass-clef instruments arranged around him in true stand-up fashion, enabling him to alternate between them within the same tune, something he does often and with the utmost musicianship. Hearing and seeing him in this quartet, it’s easy to understand why his is one of the most successful long-running bands in New York.

One final observation on this festival experience. I’ve been going to Hot Steamed and the Great Connecticut Jazz Festival in Guilford for several years now, and I’m always astounded that this is one of the few settings in which I’m one of the youngest people in attendance. And I’m 55. I think it’s sad that appreciation for this music might be going by the wayside, and that so many fans apparently think of the early styles as passe’. For me it’s all part of a continuum; the best of innovative new music is informed by what came before it. My appreciation for more modern styles is enhanced by an awareness of history.

                                                                   Richard Mayer (July 2003)

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