It is my pleasure to introduce Gavin Rice to our readers. Here at The Syncopated Times there is nothing that thrills us more than to learn that there is out here in the hinterlands a twenty-one year old making waves by wearing the clothes of the early 20th century and getting a band together to play music of that period. Rice is a student at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and has made a name in the night scene of Rochester’s East End. He has also started to make connections in New York City, that inevitable draw of talent that has become a necessary step in a music or arts career. If you can make it there you can make it anywhere, though we sure will miss you out here.
He won’t be busking if he lands in New York after graduation, at least not only busking. Gavin makes his Jazz at Lincoln Center debut on February 7, playing banjo, as part of a program focused on ragtime, hot jazz, and swing. Titled Jazz Americana, the program led by Wynton Marsalis and the JLCO also features Terry Waldo as a guest so he will be in good company. Not mentioned in his press materials for this release is the fact that he was presented with the Young Talent Award at last year’s Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party in Whitley Bay, bringing with him the banjo used by Bobby Gillette on the Wolverines’ recordings with Bix Beiderbecke. He brought the same instrument to Bix Fest last summer where he joined the Graystone Monarchs. This is obviously someone our readers need to keep an eye on.
He’s focused more on authenticity than the Lincoln Center sound when leading his band, Gavin Rice and His Famous Collegiates. All but one of the members is a current student at Eastman and I whole heartedly endorse the return of of collegiate jazz bands playing the hot stuff. I’m dropping all their names so you can say you heard it here first. I anticipate several will return to our pages in the coming years.
The band is: Misha Studenkov, piano; Addie Canning, tuba; Jack Kelly, drums; Will Millecchia, reed 1; Ian Oliver, reed 2; Carter Bowman, reed 3; Israel “Izzy” Stone, trumpet 1; Wyatt Pepper, trumpet 2; and Dan Atkinson, trombone.
The Collegiates are a big hot dance style group, large enough to require the rich arrangements provided by Gavin Rice. There was a time when Vince Giordano was rare in that focus on late 20s full size bands but for whatever reason many of the youngest bandleaders are drawn to this style. If he hasn’t met Vince yet he surely will.
Gavin Rice and His Famous Collegiates are releasing their first album on January 31st, available first as download only, with a limited edition signed and numbered CD coming later in the spring featuring bonus material. The download is five tracks from a set recorded live at Bop Shop Records, a record store hiding what appears to be a full size sit down venue, at least equivalent to the backroom of a New York bar. The set was recorded both with modern equipment and with analog tape, in both cases by skilled practitioners. The download features some tracks from each style while the CD will include both cuts for comparison as well as banter not heard in the download. If you want more there is a set on YouTube from a local TV station which features a highly entertaining medley of college fight songs.
The titles from Live at Bop Shop Records reveal how early Gavin’s interests go. “I’m Going to Charleston Back to Charleston,” “Puttin’ On the Ritz,” “When Erastus Plays His Old Kazoo,” “I’m More Than Satisfied,” and “That’s All There Is, There Ain’t No More.” Of these only “Puttin’ On the Ritz” is common—but is it though? At a certain point you can start playing things again and they sound fresh. “When Erastus Plays His Old Kazoo” is likely only to be familiar to ragtimers and those who gravitate to the oldest 78s in the bin. In my nearly a decade of reviewing trad jazz records, I have only crossed the title once from a current band, despite its widespread popularity at one time.
While short, this is a great set. Often I find this style over-arranged or the band flat but everything about this band has verve. Graduation may send them on their merry ways but there is something real here while it lasts and hopefully they all take a love of early jazz with them, Gavin Rice surely will. You should pick up this album to support them but also simply to enjoy it!
I almost missed this record in my inbox because the press material was too professional. That is uncommon in the genres we cover and it confused me. Most emails like that are for albums we would never cover. I’m guessing they teach you the ropes of self-promotion at music school. The deeper I dug the more I realized that Gavin Rice is someone this paper will be reading about long after the current leadership is gone. He will likely be on our cover soon enough. You don’t end up the places he has in the last year by accident. That drive for success, for treating it like a career, is something we need more of in the early jazz community. Gavin Rice is going places.
Gavin Rice & His Famous Collegiates
Live at Bop Shop Records
Bandcamp and Spotify
Joe Bebco is the Associate Editor of The Syncopated Times and Webmaster of SyncopatedTimes.com
