Sometimes this job makes me feel uneasy. Because it can’t be easy hawking jazz records at the best of times—which must seem a long, long time ago to most musicians—and reviewing contemporary trad and swing is a great chance to put new bands on jazz fans’ radars. But the title of “critic” does suggest that criticism will sometimes be levelled—even if it feels like kicking a band while they’re down, which most must have been lately.
Hopefully the following will feel less like a kicking than a hard prod of the toe. Because Hot Jazz for Hard Times is a decent album—like the spotted apples of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” (to borrow a metaphor from another genre) it’s got obvious blemishes, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want it.
It features ten toe-tapping traditional classics, most of them familiar crowd pleasers (e.g., “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” and “Limehouse Blues”). There’s nothing obscure, which makes sense for a live recording—though liberties are occasionally taken. “Dark Eyes” is one of my favorites, when played by Wingy Manone or Louis Armstrong. This version confused me, feeling loosely inspired by them—or perhaps by Al Bowlly’s version—with some recognizable chords but a vocal which skates wide circles around the famous melody.
Three members share singing duties, with mixed results. Bandcamp doesn’t specify which
