After the minimalist musical joy that was reviewing a pared-down album, I was ready to hear something just a bit more symphonic. Enter stage left—and right on cue—Mutiny In The Parlor: the latest release by Janet Klein and Her Parlor Boys. Unveiled just a month ago, it’s the twelfth full-length release by the veteran vocalist/ukulelist and her band and oy, it’s got me eager to explore their whole back catalog.
Klein has been performing early jazz since 1996, when I was still in short trousers. (Speaking of which, I was delighted to discover that the California-based singer has also voiced characters in two of my favorite cartoons: Adventure Time and Over the Garden Wall.) Vaudeville is in her blood, being a descendent of 1940s stage magician Marty Klein. She has collaborated since 1998 with guitarist John Reynolds (grandson of silent movie starlet ZaSu Pitts), peddling a combination of popular and lesser-known classics of the American and Jewish American jazz canon.
Their latest joint effort has an undeniable manouche flavor to it with Reynolds’ strumming, Benny Brydern’s violin and Marquis Howell’s bass dominating many arrangements. But with Randy Woltz at the piano (and occasionally xylophone) while Corey Gemme, Gareth Price, Geoff Nudell and Brian Clancy drop in and out on cornet, drums and saxes akimbo, the record’s tone swings gaily from ukulele solo to octet an
