CD REVIEW by Bert Thompson
New Black Eagle Jazz Band 1971-2011—CELEBRATING THE BIG 40 (OWN LABEL: BE(CD)4001, 4002, 4003). Total playing time: 202m. 02s. BE(CD)4001: Folsom Prison Blues; Memories; Special Delivery Blues; Bogalusa Strut; Long, Deep, and Wide; White Ghost Shivers; Misty Morning; Diga Diga Doo; Tree Top Tall Papa; Dreaming the Hours Away; One for the Guv’nor. BE(CD)4002: Tipi Tin; Chimes Blues; Rosetta; Jelly Bean Blues; Shake It and Break It; Red Man Blues; Dusty Rag; All Night Shags; Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland; Copenhagen. BE(CD)4003: Louisian-I-A; Working Man Blues; Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone; In the Sweet Bye and Bye; Climax Rag; Home; Delia’s Gone; When I Leave the World Behind; Out of the Galleon; Papa Dip; Joe Avery’s Piece. Recorded on various dates between Nov. 1971 and Jan. 2011 in several locations.
Collective Personnel: Tony Pringle, cornet, vocal; Doc Cheatham, trumpet; Billy Novick, clarinet, alto sax; Tommy Sancton, clarinet; Hugh Blackwell, clarinet, alto sax, soprano sax; Brian Williams, clarinet; Brian Ogilvie, clarinet; Stan McDonald, clarinet; Stan Vincent, trombone; Jerry Zigmont, trombone; Bob Pilsbury, piano; Peter Bullis, banjo; Jesse Williams, bass; Barry Bockus, bass; Don Kenney, bass; Eli Newberger, tuba; C. H. “Pam” Pameijer, drums; David Hurst, drums; Billy Reynolds, drums
There can’t be many traditional jazz fans who have not heard of the New Black Eagle Jazz Band from New England—after all, they have been around for forty years, such an anniversary being marked with the release of this CD set as well as a celebration held at the Collings Foundation in Stow, Massachusetts, on September 18, 2011. They have recorded prolifically and also toured extensively, having “played many times in Europe, Canada, all over USA, and in Singapore,” as we are told on the band’s website.
If any reader is unfamiliar with the band, then this set will be an excellent introduction. For the rest of us, it is a fine supplement to whatever NBEJB CD’s are on our shelves since none of the tracks have been released previously and a good number of the titles do not appear on any other of the band’s CD’s.
Over the four decades the band’s personnel has been remarkably stable. Five have been members since the first year (1971) and are still present—Pringle, Bullis, Vincent, Pilsbury, and Pameijer—and Novick has been part of the group since 1986. Newberger was a member for the first thirty years. Subs. also are “steady,” the result being that they can slip seamlessly into their respective chairs. So the band has been blessed with relatively little turnover.
There’s not much that can be said about the band that has not been said before, and what we have in this set of CD’s is a tour of the band’s history, beginning on the first CD with a selection from a very recent performance and then tracing back through the years to the last track on the third CD: a performance from the first year of the band’s existence—1971.
From the most recent track to that early one, the band gives a superlative performance. Almost every tune is played with a pulsating four beat, even on the fastest numbers, the rhythm section providing a solid base for the front line. While there are solos, the emphasis is on ensemble, as befits the New Orleans style. Add to this attention to dynamics, especially on the out choruses that build and build and build some more, and the constant shouts of approval and encouragement soloists are given by the other musicians, and the result is tremendous excitement and tension. It is difficult to stay in one’s chair, and at the very least one’s foot will be tapping furiously. Most of the songs have a duration of at least five to six minutes, but one is hardly aware of that, being so swept up in the music.
Tempting as it is to say something about each track, I have to resist and mention just a few highlights. The opening track of CD1, Folsom Prison Blues, does Johnny Cash proud. It also clearly illustrates the excitement I just spoke of, resulting from that driving four-beat rhythm, and it gets the proceedings off to a rousing start. (I should also add that most of the tracks are live performances, and one can hear the audience response at the end of the track—they, too, were obviously caught up.) Also from this CD, Diga Diga Doo contains some fine riffing behind the sax solo, followed by a dramatic drop in volume in the next chorus to provide great contrast and interest. The last track, One for the Guv’nor, is a very nice Pringle original in tribute to the late Ken Colyer. Why this tune has not been picked up by other bands (other than the Albion, of which Pringle is the cornetist) is a mystery to me.
On CD2, Jelly Bean Blues is a standout, played “down” in all senses—volume low, clarinet in chalumeau register, tuba searching for the lowest note possible. The piano solo is so typical of Pilsbury. Everyone lays out but he, and while he plays a “broken” rhythm, he never loses his place, but has one hanging on his every note. One could hear a pin drop during his solo. Time passes unnoticed here, so captivating is the rendition even though it is ten minutes long! This is the first track in the set to have Newberger on tuba for the bass, and it should be said at once that his tuba playing in no way impeded the drive of the four-beat rhythm but rather contributed to it. So often—perhaps even most often—the tuba in a band plays two- beat. But Newberger almost always maintains the four-beat, even during the fastest tempos, clearly illustrating that he had mastered circular breathing since he never once stops, in any tune, to take a breath. Another fine rendition of a tune is that given Red Man Blues. The rhythm section is immaculate here, especially the tuba and drums.
The last CD, which takes us back to the band’s beginnings, has a number of standouts for me. In the Sweet Bye and Bye swings mightily, the musicians calling out approbation and encouragement to each other, followed by a neat duet between cornet and banjo, the others all having laid out. The band then makes its way back to ensemble, Pameijer having throughout punctuated the tune with judicious tom tom fills, the whole swinging to and through its coda. And since I mentioned the very first, most recent, track on the first CD, it is fitting to comment on the last, which is actually the earliest, on this CD. Few will not have heard Joe Avery’s Piece, but probably not as it is done here. The tempo is brisk, and the interest in the piece is heightened by the several instruments—tuba and especially drums—following the banjo’s lead of playing the stop time rhythm behind the rest of the ensemble or the soloist. All great fun.
So there it is—a superb three-CD set to commemorate the four-decade anniversary of a superb band. While I don’t know how many copies were made, I should think they will go fast. On the band’s web site www.blackeagles.com one can find ordering information.
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