Trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis’s new release as leader of the 16-piece Uptown Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Party (Troubadour Jass Records) opens with New Orleans singer Tonya Boyd-Cannon asserting a salty blues riff on the title tune. Boyd-Cannon, a top-20 finalist on the popular TV show The Voice, has one of those instruments that can do most anything, it’s so powerful. She’s best known as a soul and R&B singer, though she’s classically trained and knows her way around a scat solo. Despite such diva credentials, however, when the trumpets join her on that opening riff she falls into the syncopated groove like a member of the horn section.
Regrettably, Boyd-Cannon sings only on the opening track. But while the album is light on sung vocals, the spoken word sections stand out for their exuberance. Dr. Brice Miller, an academic/musician/performance artist based in the Big Easy, contributes a light-hearted rap about the delights of his hometown: “I’m so New Orleans I know everything that makes my city special is black”, he intones on “So New Orleans”. And actor Karen Livers delivers a teasing monologue over the UJO’s bluesy vamp, “Mboya’s Midnight Cocktail”, promising to be “hot with just the right amount of sweet”. In and around all of these cheeky vocals, the UJO churns out its swinging, funky, dancehall-inspired tracks. Makes you want to be there.
While the UJO has been performing together regularly for almost a decade, Jazz Party is only their second album. They sometimes visit New York: Marsalis, Boyd-Cannon, and the UJO headlined at the Rockwood Music Hall just last month. But the best place to catch them would be at the Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where they play two sets most Wednesday nights. Reminder: Mardi Gras lands on Feb. 25 this year.
Like Marsalis and the UJO, French-born singer Elizabeth Bougerol loved the big-horn sound of vintage jazz bands and wanted to front one, so a little over 10 years ago she founded The Hot Sardines with pianist Evan Palazzo. Universal Music Classics/Decca Records now represents the tightly interwoven ensemble, which plays about 100 shows a year. Not bad.
The group self-recorded their latest disc, Welcome Home, Bon Voyage (Eleven) two years ago at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Joe’s Pub in New York. The album’s dozen tracks recall the early 20th century with their high-energy swing and Dixieland sounds; vocally, Bougerol switches easily between bluesy songstress (“After You’ve Gone”), coy vixen (“Everybody Loves My Baby”), and jazz doyenne (“Caravan”). Bougerol, too, honors the birthplace of her group’s classic sound—on the album’s final track, a reprise of “(Won’t You Come Home) Bill Bailey”, she added her own lyrics as a lead-in to an impromptu singalong with the Toronto audience. “I’ve never been to New Orleans”, she sang. “I’ve never met those voodoo queens—I wanna get some rice and beans”!
For those who might be inclined to sing along, Bougerol and The Hot Sardines will play Birdland Jan. 28-Feb. 1. But if you miss that one, the following evening, Feb. 2, Birdland will host another hot contemporary big band, the 17-person New Alchemy Jazz Orchestra, featuring Nicole Zuraitis on vocals.
Singer/pianist/educator Alexis Cole explores the foibles of modern romance in Love Me or Leave Me: Tin Pan Alley Talks Tinder, also at Birdland, on Feb. 17—two days after she completes a special Valentine’s Day run at the Cotton Club in Tokyo (Feb. 13-15). Here’s the rub: Because of the Tokyo engagement, Cole will have to miss her usual Valentine’s Day Jukebox gig at Arts Westchester in White Plains, NY. So she’s lined up two of her most promising students from SUNY-Purchase to sub: Lucy Wijnands, who recently completed a five-month residency with the Birdland Big Band, and Samara McLendon, this year’s winner of the Sarah Vaughan Competition.
More sweet stuff: In his seventh annual Valentine’s Day concert in New York, Gregory Porter returns to the Beacon on Feb. 14. Over at Blue Note that same weekend, Feb. 13-16, Roberta Gambarini offers up a Valentine’s Weekend Celebration, and in another homage to Cupid, JALC will present both Dianne Reeves (Rose Theater, Feb. 14-15) and Freddie Cole (Dizzy’s, Feb. 14-16).
Recent Israeli transplant to New York, scat master Tamuz Nissim will perform from her latest release, Capturing Clouds (Street of Stars) at Mezzrow Feb. 25, on the heels of an appearance at An Beal Bocht Café on Feb. 5.
(Reprinted from the February 2020 issue of New York City Jazz Record)