Raised in Melbourne, Australia, Simon Wettenhall rebelled against his family’s preference for classical music. “I was the renegade,” he says.
Once he heard a Louis Armstrong record, he dropped piano lessons and grabbed a trumpet. Wettenhall began a lifelong exploration of New Orleans jazz.
Over the years, he has performed with the Oceanic Orchestra, big-band vocalist Barbara Rosene and—most notably—with the Woody Allen and Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band. That combo, featuring the famous film director on clarinet, holds forth most Monday nights at the Carlyle Hotel in downtown Manhattan. They’re booked there now Mondays through Dec. 12.
A couple years ago, Wettenhall hooked up with an up-and-coming combo called the Baby Soda Jazz Band. Bandleader and bass player Peter Ford is mighty glad to have Wettenhall blowing for Baby Soda.
“He’s got a great ear and a great attitude,” Ford says. “And he plays his ass off!”
Here’s how Simon Wettenhall explained the difference between the Allen-Davis ensemble and the Baby Soda JB:
“The Davis ensemble plays music in the main recorded by bands using similar instrumentation. The style of those bands was well developed and reached a peak in the early- to mid-twenties and later was revived in the 1940s. It is this specific style the Davis band draws on. It is a style that contains elements of blues, marches,
