Band names don’t get much grander than The Intercontinental Jazz Ambassadors. But then lockdown-driven remote recording projects don’t get much more ambitious than the tri-continental, sixteen-musician spectacular represented by Diplomacy in Swing. That’s exactly what is achieved here, inspired by a similar effort one year earlier (House Bound Jazz, by Andrew Oliver and Friends) which featured many of the same performers. Two numbers on that album included vocals by Doug Sammons and Dee Settlemier, who return on Diplomacy to deliver ten tracks of twenties and thirties hot jazz and blues.
These include songs made famous by Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, and Judy Garland, running the gamut from slow drags to breathless stompers. Doug and Dee helped pianist and arranger Andrew Oliver, who heads up the project, choose the tunes. Their very fine versions include “Take It Easy, Greasy,” which compares favorably with the 2014 take by Naomi and Her Handsome Devils familiar to swing dancers worldwide. I’m a bigger fan of Dee—who evokes Smith in “Singin’ the Blues” as well as she does Garland in “On the Bumpy Road to Love”—than I am of Doug, and there’s something a little quirky about his harmonies when duetting. Still, their versions of “Lookin’ Good But Feelin’ Bad” and “Root Hog or Die” are great fun, and I can’t wait to dance to them one day.
Their mu
