The French Preservation New Orleans Jazz Band* was founded some twenty-five years ago by reed man J[ean]P[ierre] Alessi. During that time the group has issued over twenty CDs, some of which I have been privileged to review, and as an examination of the personnel of the CDs shows, only a few of the same musicians appear on several of them. While most jazz bands experience personnel changes from time to time, not many have a complete turnover during their existence. The French Preservation New Orleans Jazz Band does, however, as one can see by comparing the personnel of several CDs, such as BS01, URCD299D, FPCD15, where the only constant presence is that of Alessi himself.
Alessi assembles these groups of musicians with a careful eye (and ear). Each musician is a master of the collective improvisation that marks the traditional New Orleans style that Alessi aims for, each having long made careful study of the New Orleans pioneers who developed the style. Accordingly, the line-up in each case is frequently international, as it is in the CD under consideration. Alessi is French, Turnock English, Van Pelt Dutch, Roelant possibly Dutch, de Smet Belgian, and Upravan Laotian/French. At other times the band has included Fred Vigorito (America) on cornet, Kjeld Brandt (Denmark) on clarinet, Sammy Rimington (England) on clarinet, Soren Sorensen (Denmark) on tenor saxophone, to mention a few. Re
Trumpeter James O’Donnell: The Motor City Jazz Maestro
Brian Sheridan
