June Gardner & the Fellas
This band featured June Gardner on drums, Leroy Jones on trumpet, Lucien Barbarin on trombone, Chuck Bailey on bass and Thaddeus Richard on piano. Thaddeus' father Leonard Richard sat in on piano for the last number. The band's set included Wolverine Blues, Way Back Down in Honky Tonk Town, What a Wonderful World, Sweet Georgia Brown, Tin Roof Blues and Royal Garden Blues.
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band was the first band to record, cutting Original Dixieland One-Step b/w Livery Stable Blues on the Victor label in 1917. The band was led by Nick La Rocca, whose son Jimmy La Rocca now leads a band of the same name. Jimmy is quite proud of his father's accomplishments - too proud sometimes, in my opinion. Nick La Rocca was an important figure in the history of jazz, and the band developed and recorded many numbers that have become jazz standards. He was just one of many pioneers, though, and despite what some people (including Jimmy La Rocca) say, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's first record didn't sell anywhere near a million copies. Very few records sold more that a couple of hundred thousand copies in those days, and that first record was not a top-seller (if it were, more copies of it would survive today - it isn't rare, but it's far from a common record).
The band included Jimmy La Rocca on trumpet, Tom Fischer on clarinet,
(someone) Smith on trombone, John (someone) on piano, Alfred J. Bernard
on bass, (someone) Hanson on drums and Joanette Downing on vocal. The
set included Float Me Down the River
to New Orleans, Livery Stable
Blues, Fidgety Feet, Lazy Sunday, Valentine Stomp, For the Last Time and Tiger Rag.
Andrew Hall's Society Brass Band
Brass bands are a New Orleans tradition that probably pre-date jazz, and may have been brought over by the Sicilian immigrants who settled in the area. Brass bands are best known for playing at jazz funerals, although they perform at other types of events. They usually have a very "loose" sound, and include hymns and marches in their repertoires. Brass band music has been modernized by such groups as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, but the ones that play in Economy Hall are more traditional.The band's personnel included Wayne Brunious and Andrew Hall on drums, Chris Clifton, Clive Wilson and Vernell Brunious on trumpet, Tom Fischer on alto sax, Joseph Torregano on tenor sax, Chris Burke on E-flat clarinet, Freddy John and Wendell Eugene on trombone, Bill Yeager on tuba and Andrew LeDuff (?) as grand marshall. The set included Just a Little While to Stay Here, Oh, Lady Be Good, Sweet Feelings, 452 (a slow dirge for which the original title has been lost), Oh, Didn't He Ramble, Salvation March, Joe Avery's Piece, It's a Long Way to Tipperary, When the Saints Go Marching in and The Star Spangled Banner.
Jamil Sharif's New Orleans Jazz Professors
This is a new band (to me, anyway). Their material included a lot of swing, featuring music by Fletcher Henderson (one of the original old-time jazz band leaders who did a lot to develop the swing band sound in the thirties). The band's personnel included Jamil Sharif on trumpet, Calvin Harrison on alto sax, Earl Bonney (?) on tenor sax, Rick Trolsen on trombone, Larry Siebert on piano, Dewey Sampson on bass and Stan Joseph on drums. Their set included Struttin' with Some Barbeque, Christopher Columbus, Rhythm of the Tambourine, Potato Head Blues, Sing You Sinners, Mahogany Hall Stomp, Boston Scuffle, St. James Infirmary, Caldonia and Bourbon Street Parade.
Kustbandet of Sweden
This band has been featured on Prairie Home Companion. They had last played at Jazzfest in 1973. Their set included a lot of swing and proto-swing from such historic bandleaders as Bennie Moten and Luis Russell. I didn't get the names of the band members as I don't know Swedish. Their set included We're Going to Town, I Ain't Got Nobody, Rhumba Negro, Sweet Savannah Sue, Puttin' on the Ritz, The Mooche, Sunshine, After I Say I'm Sorry, Miffology, After You've Gone, Hop Head, Love Is Love and Panama.
Banu Gibson featuring The Palm Springs Yacht Club
Banu Gibson is a singer and all-around entertainer who lives and
works in New Orleans and performs at Jazzfest every year. She usually
has a guest performer - this year it was the Palm Springs Yacht Club
(for those whose sense of geography is weak, Palm Springs is an
unlikely place for a yacht club, as it's in the middle of a desert).
The performers were Banu Gibson on vocal, John Reynolds on steel guitar
and banjo, Lee Westenhofer on bass, tuba and vocal, Dan Levinson on
clarinet and tenor sax, David Bodinhouse on piano and Bungee Johnson on
drums. The set included Swing,
Brother, Swing, Jeepers
Creepers, Moonglow, Dinah, At the Codfish Ball, When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba,
Be Optimistic, Avalon, Edelweiss, Palm Springs, the William Tell Overture (on
sousaphone!), I Thought About You,
I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling,
Diga Diga Doo, Hummin' to Myself, That's My Weakness Now and What a Little Moonlight Can Do.
