ORIGINAL DIXIE SONGBOOK - TIGER DIXIE BAND

ORIGINAL DIXIE SONGBOOK ( CVLD251 )

Performer : TIGER DIXIE BAND

Traces

1. Original Dixieland One-Step (Original Dixieland Jass Band)
2. South (Bennie Moten)
3. China Boy (trad.)
4. Skeleton Jungle (Original Dixieland Jass Band)
5. Down by the Riverside (trad.)
6. Fidgety Feet (Original Dixieland Jass Band)
7. Moten Swing (Bennie Moten)
8. At the Jazz Band Ball (Original Dixieland Jass Band) **
9. Maple Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin)
10. Somebody Stole My Gal (Leo Wood)
11. Alabama Jubilee (George L. Cobb)
12. Davenport Blues (Bix Beiderbecke)
13. Sadie Green, The Vamp of New Orleans (trans.)
14. Tiger Rag (Original Dixieland Jass Band)
15. Bill Bailey (Hughie Cannon)
16. Ice Cream (trans.)
17. Amazing Grace (trad.) ***
18. When the Saints Go Marching In (trans.)

Paolo Trettel: trumpet

Stefano Menato: clarinet

Fiorenzo Zeni: tenor saxophone

Luigi Grata: trombone (tuba on track 16)

Andrea Boschetti: banjo – guitar

Renzo De Rossi: piano (baritone sax on track 17)

Giorgio Beberi: bass saxophone

Claudio Ischia: drums

Notes

What significance do the pieces collected in this collection by the Tiger Dixie Band have today? It's a repertoire from the origins of jazz, now nearly a hundred years old, largely originating in the American South. It represents a music born from the fusion of different European and African cultures.

While preserving the essence of that period, jazz has developed its own original physiognomy, which we can truly define as authentically American.

In the 20th century, when it was brought to Europe, particularly Paris, it quickly attracted the interest of artists and musicians such as Stravinsky, Ravel, Picasso, and Matisse. The latter created his splendid graphic album titled Jazz, featuring works of rare beauty, complemented by reflections on art and the creative process, inspired by the new music from overseas. Matisse wrote in the album, drawing inspiration from the observant spontaneity of jazz: "The artist must bring all his energy, his sincerity, and the greatest modesty to avoid cliché in his work."

Why revive those pieces today? Perhaps because they have retained their freshness and communicative tension, despite no longer being able to shake up perceptual habits as forcefully as they did in the early twentieth century. Because, despite their apparent simplicity, they conceal refinement and a great variety of timbral textures, colors, and nuances. Many musicians developing an innovative approach today intelligently draw on those timbral experiences, on spontaneous polyphony, aptly defined as heterophony by some scholars, which transcends the individual soloist to reinvigorate collective improvisation. In general, because of the stimulation this music still has.

The Tiger Dixie Band brings together distinguished soloists from the Triveneto region, a region with a nearly twenty-year history. At times, the band has sought a forward-thinking approach, recording with musicians like Markus Stockhausen and infusing a contemporary sensibility into its performances. At the same time, however, the band has strived to maintain a rigor faithful to the original model. The balance between the two components imbues the offering with a sense of purpose and makes it enjoyable and contemporary. The soloists have metabolized that language through years of practice and immersed it in their own contemporary sensibility, achieving a fluid interpretation, rich in nuance and subtle humor.

With this background, the band approached this early classical repertoire, adhering philologically to those compositions and infusing them with new vitality. The strong interplay between the wind instruments in the front line is prominent: trumpet, clarinet, and trombone, in the New Orleans tradition, joined by tenor saxophone. Throughout many tracks, one hears the perfect distribution of parts, treated in spontaneous counterpoint, from the opening "Original Dixieland One-Step" to "China Boy," from "Davenport Blues" to "Bill Bailey," which conceals within itself, with delightful humor, "Stormy Weather" and "La Vie en Rose." The same attention is evident in the arrangements, which cover famous songs and make improvisation a precious resource.