My review column hasn’t visited the West Coast in a while, which would seem strange to readers who have had a jazz rag in their mailbox every month since the 1980s. The reality is the bands that once dominated the traditional jazz festivals are not cranking out albums like they used to. There is still a healthy scene out West though, with great musicians of all ages, and I do have several albums in my queue from West Coast jazz bands. The string of jazz societies that stretches from San Diego up into British Columbia has left a strong legacy by nurturing young musicians who leave to fill the jazz bands of New York, New Orleans, and even London, but often musicians who run off to find glory in the big city come home when it is time to roost.
Andrew Oliver was living in the UK when he first came to my attention as the pianist for several outstanding bands including The Dime Notes, The Vitality Five, and, with David Horniblow, The Complete Morton Project, a series of piano and saxophone duets. Oliver has since returned to his native Portland, Oregon, where he already had made a name for himself as founder of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and co-founder of The Bridgetown Sextet. He has frequently recorded with Hal Smith in recent years, as well as had several exciting solo piano albums. This is the first release with his larger Bridgetown group since 2015.
For a Rivermont release, Oliver could have called in a knockout set of musicians our astute readers would recognize. Instead, he has gifted us with the musicians of the actual working band, with all the chemistry that entails. Aside from guest vocalist Dee Settlemeir, who sings on one track, I recognize none of the truly excellent musicians in this septet masquerading as a sextet, “because it’s sexier.” Often when no one is known to me it is because the musicians have been focused on that band, which seems to be the case here. That is a refreshing situation when the joke in certain cities is there are 30 musicians and 200 bands. Putting your creative focus into one thing has its benefits.
The Bridgetown Sextet includes Andrew Oliver (piano), Sam Dechenne (trumpet and cornet), David Evans (tenor sax and clarinet), John Moak (trombone), Doug Sammons (guitar, banjo, vocals), Eric Gruber (string bass), and Tyson Stubelek (drums). They are joined on this album by guests Dee Settlemier (vocal), Garner Pruitt (cornet), and Chris Shuttleworth (tuba). These are musicians in their prime, no rookies, no one ready for the old folks home, and as I Google them, they are music teachers or otherwise deeply qualified. Colin Hancock’s liner notes give a line or two about each, but focus on a track by track analysis of the material. All I need to know is these cats can play.
Eleven tracks include “State and Madison,” and “Fickle Fay Creep” from Morton, “Functionizing” from Waller, and classics like “I Got A Right To Sing The Blues,” and “When Jenny Does Her LowDown Dance,” the last featuring knock out drums. The highlight of the album for me is “Arkansas Blues,” a favorite title of mine in an exceptional performance led by the stride piano of Oliver and near perfect vocal of Doug Sammons. The band is also on point throughout that cut, and as the second track it sets the tone for the rest of the album. Another great track is “Jimmie’s Mean Mama Blues,” recalling the meeting of the proto-country music legend Jimmie Rodgers and Louis Armstrong. Dechenne’s trumpet work on “Tight Like This” ends the album on a high note.
I discovered this band because of this Rivermont release, and I hope that it helps them find fans worldwide, as well as appearances at the West Coast festivals. They have three previous albums available on Bandcamp, going back to 2009, with five of the six musicians from their debut still present on Functionalizin’. The older albums demonstrate a consistent style for the band from the beginning, focused on natural high quality presentations of classic titles of the ’20s and ’30s without caricature. The reverence is real, the musicianship is central, but so is the enjoyment audiences are after. If anything differs on the latest release it is simply the higher production quality Rivermont offers.
The Bridgetown Sextet has a schedule of gigs on their website posted through April. But if you can’t make it to Bridgetown you can bring their sound home.
Functionizin’
Bridgetown Sextet
Rivermont BSW-2263
rivermontrecords.com
