ORIGINAL DIXIE SONGBOOK - TIGER DIXIE BAND

ORIGINAL DIXIE SONGBOOK ( CVLD251 )

Author : Zoltan Kodali; Bernhard Cossmann; Luigi Dallapiccola
Performer : TIGER DIXIE BAND

Tracks

1. Original Dixieland One-Step (Original Dixieland Jass Band)
2. South (Bennie Moten)
3. China Boy (trans.)
4. Skeleton Jungle (Original Dixieland Jass Band)
5. Down by the Riverside (trans.)
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 (trans.) ***
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 sax

Claudio Ischia: drums

Notes

What meaning do the pieces collected in this collection proposed by the Tiger Dixie Band have today? It is a repertoire from the origins of jazz, which is now around one hundred years old, which appeared largely in the South of the United States, which represents a music born from the meeting of different cultures, European and African.

In order to preserve the essence of that period, jazz has developed its own original physiognomy, which we can in all respects define as authentically American.

Years of the last century, when it was brought to Europe and in particular to Paris, it did not fail to attract the interest of artists and musicians such as Stravinsky, Ravel, Picasso, Matisse. The latter elaborated his splendid graphic album entitled Jazz, with creations of rare beauty, to which were added considerations on art and the creative process, inspired by the new music coming from overseas. Thus wrote Matisse in the album, taking inspiration from the observant spontaneity of jazz: "The artist must bring all his energy, his sincerity and the greatest modesty to avoid clichés in his work".

Why propose that music today? Perhaps because it has maintained that freshness, the communicative tension, even though it is no longer able to shake up perceptive habits as strongly as it did at the beginning of the twentieth century. Because, despite their apparent simplicity, they conceal refinement and a great variety of timbric mixtures, colors and nuances. Many musicians who today develop an innovative discourse intelligently reconnect to those timbric experiences, to spontaneous polyphony, appropriately defined as heterophony by some scholars, which overcomes the attitude of the single soloist to restore strength to collective improvisation. In general, for the stimulus that this music is still able to ignite.

The Tiger Dixie Band brings together worthy soloists from the Triveneto region, which has a history of almost twenty years, which at times has sought a futuristic approach, recording with musicians such as Markus Stockhausen and inserting a contemporary sensibility into its performances. But at the same time the band has wanted to maintain a rigor faithful to the original model. The balance between the two components ignites the proposal and makes it enjoyable, current. The soloists have metabolized that language in years of practice and have immersed it in their own contemporary sensibility, arriving at a fluid interpretation, rich in nuances and subtle humor.

With this background, the band approached this classical repertoire of the origins, adhering philologically to those compositions and infusing them with new vitality. In the foreground is the strong interaction between the wind instruments in the front-line: trumpet, clarinet and trombone, as in the New Orleans tradition, to which is added the tenor sax. In many songs you can hear the perfect distribution of the parts, treated in spontaneous counterpoint from the initial Original Dixieland One-Step to China Boy, from Davenport Blues to Bill Bailey, which hides within itself with a delicious sense of humor Stormy Weather and La vie en rose. The same attention is noted in the arrangements, which cover famous songs and make the practice of improvisation a precious resource.