The Jungle Jazz Band: The Animule Dance

Last August I highlighted albums from several hot young jazz groups in Europe. I took special notice of The Dizzy Birds, a group that I felt captured the earliest sound of jazz. Unfortunately, by the time we went to press the group had, after becoming one of the most recognized on the European scene, disbanded. They were a part of the Berlin Syncopation Society, a collective of artists helping to promote each other and American roots music. While the Birds may have flown, their musicians play on. A new band has formed with the horn section and drummer of the old Dizzy Birds at its foundation;  Laurent Humeau (tp), Eldar Tsalikov (reeds), Carlos Santana (tb, p), François Perdriau (dr). They are joined by Quentin Bardi on banjo and Jack Butler on tuba.  Already the band has been busy playing the dance events where pre-swing rhythms predominate. Called The Jungle Jazz Band, they have just released their first EP, The Animule Dance. They took an opportunity to record that presented itself while they were playing for a circus varieté show in Holland last summer. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the name they chose or the album's title theme, but it makes you wonder. There is a certain circus brassiness to their lively playing, and I'm not someone who says that about all early jazz. They are all gifted musicians and really jive together. Eldar Tsalikov, born in