This is a set that every Syncopated Times reader should become familiar with. Remember those? Back when every fan shared a cannon of material they had heard, not Morton’s Hot Peppers, I mean albums from current artists they all followed? I’m too young to have that memory, and so are the musicians on this album, but we can start it up again by telling our friends in the trad jazz community “You’ve really got to hear this record!” It isn’t all about what came before—history is happening now, jazz is alive. There are great sets to be celebrated, and this is one of them. If you want a few more to look up drop me an email.
What makes this album worth collectively enjoying is that it captures traditional jazz at this moment, as played by some of the hardest working musicians in the New Orleans trad scene, along with some of the most knowledgeable players of the new generation. (Here’s looking at you, Colin Hancock.) It reflects the interests and sensibilities of those players, and even the long shadow of Tuba Skinny. Led by Hunter Burgamy (guitars, banjo, and most vocals), it lets a lot of blues into the New Orleans sound. This isn’t the polished dance music of dime store records, it’s sweet and low down. It has much of what I like about Frog and Henry, in both feel and in the remarkable period vocal of Burgamy.
It is hard to pin down what this developing sound of “J
