These days we seem to be witnessing the sunset of traditional jazz. The number of traditional jazz clubs and festivals, along with that of their attendees, has been shrinking in recent years. In similar fashion, as demand has declined the output of CDs has diminished; in turn, so has the number of record companies and bands still issuing CDs. Many bands have turned to issuing digital downloads and streaming. So it was a very pleasant surprise to get this Mississippi Dreamboats CD in the mail recently.
Probably most The Syncopated Times readers will be, as I was, unfamiliar with this band, while a good number of our British counterparts will be acquainted with the band and its members. Spike (Mike) Kennedy, who sent me the disc, informed me that the band was organized by Liz and Paul Bacon in 2023. Of the personnel, I am only familiar with Sarah Thatcher and Spike, having met and heard them a few times while attending the Bude, Cornwall, festival on several occasions where they were playing with the Black Cat Jazz Band, which they formed and, Kennedy assures me, “are still running … although [it is] restricted to the local area due to band members’ reluctance to travel.” He goes on to say that they “also play in New Orleans Bump, a West Midlands band which gets out to quite a few of the surviving jazz clubs.” Before her late husband’s premature death, Sarah Thatcher al
