Ce Biguine! by Charlie Halloran
When I'm preparing for a review I often write the artist for a comment. If I'm lucky I get a nice quote for background. I wrote Trombonist Charlie Halloran about his recent album of Caribbean music. It features a full cast (cask?) of New Orleans traditional jazz musicians, including Tom McDermott and members of Tuba Skinny. His response leaves me no reason to paraphrase, it could serve as liner notes to the album:
The music is all from Martinique and Guadeloupe around the 1950s. It's the music that evolved in those islands with a lot of the same influences as jazz in the states. However, traditionally there isn't trumpet so the trombone and clarinet front line is particularly percussive. The recordings from the 20s typically have violin and banjos, then through the 50s and 60s it follows the same path as jazz, by and large. Moves to guitar, loses the violin, bebop language is incorporated, eventually electric bass and keyboards, clarinet moves to saxophone. I love the parallels with jazz, just with a tropical flavor.
I made this record directly to 78rpm acetate disc on St. Claude Ave in New Orleans. So no editing, no mixing, no extended solos. I really wanted it to sound like an album from before the extended play era, recorded in a live room. We set up with the loudest instruments far away from the mic and recorded one or two takes each. Add
