The Secret Six • There’s Something in my Eye and It’s You

The group that came to be known as the Secret Six (named after abolitionist John Brown’s Secret Society Of Six from 1859) originated during the pandemic in 2020 as a New Orleans sextet. They played all over the music-starved Crescent City for grateful audiences at a wide variety of outside venues. During that period they recorded their excellent CD called Secret Six. Now for their second release, the group, which was originally comprised of James Evans (clarinet, tenor, trombone and vocals), cornetist Reid Poole, trombonist Russell Ramirez, banjoist-guitarist-vocalist Hunter Burgamy, bassist-vocalist John Joyce, and Mike Voelker on washboard and drums, has been expanded to an octet with the addition of cornetist Satoru Ohashi and Jory Woodis on clarinet and saxophone. In addition, Heidi Evelyn Arnott takes two vocals including a wonderful imitation of Adelaide Hall’s wordless singing on “Creole Love Call.” On their website it says that the band specializes in stomps, blues, rags and no-frills hot jazz. Throughout There’s Something In My Eye & It’s You, they live up to that description. Each of their 15 performances is listed as being inspired by an earlier version, ranging from King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band (“Dippermouth Blues”) and Junie Cobb’s Hometown Band (“East Coast Trot”) to Hooks Tilford with Phillips’ Louisville Jug Band (the wild “Smackin�