Woody Allen and His New Orleans Jazz Band in San Francisco from Cyrus Omoomian on Vimeo.
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Woody Allen and His New Orleans Jazz Band in San Francisco
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Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band w/ Jerry Zigmont & Woody Allen – Royce Hall, LA 2011
“The most consistently engaging soloists are Jerry Zigmont on trombone and Conal Fowkes,…” – The Hollywood Reporter
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Woody Allen and His New Orleans Jazz Band at UCLA:
Getty
The Bottom Line
While far from a clarinet virtuoso, the critically acclaimed film director has gathered a group of musicians whose combined talents are undeniably impressive.
Venue
Royce Hall, UCLA
Los Angeles
(Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011)
Woody Allen’s love of New Orleans Jazz is known to even his most casual fans. He used the music to score Sleeper, the early-20th century sounds not only playing counterpoint to the futuristic setting, but giving a nod to the silent comedies that inspired its madcap physical humor. In Manhattan, the list of things that make life worth living included Louis Armstrong’s “Potato Head Blues” (alongside Groucho Marx, Marlon Brando and the crabs at Sam Wo’s); and he has undertaken a fairly regular Monday night gig, playing clarinet with a group of like-minded musicians.
And that love animated the show that Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band performed at UCLA’s Royce Hall Thursday night. It’s a project (although hobby seems the more accurate word) that’s very close to his heart, and he performs the music with the respect it deserves, crafting a well-balanced mix of uptown and downtown, sacred and scabrous. But at times the evening felt like a scene out of one of his “serious” movies: modest, earnest, muted, studious and at times sounding like it was written (or played) in translation. But given the median age of the performers, it also resembled the Dixieland version of The Lavender Hill Mob.
That’s not a knock. With its mix of ensemble choruses and solo intervals, this is social music, and their playing has an evident affection and easy interaction that comes only after years of playing together. Allen is a modest presence, speaking to the sold-out crowd only a few times in typical, self-deprecating style, joking that he’s “shocked and amazed” when people come out to hear him play. And he does nothing to call attention to himself during the show — when he’s not playing, he sits, head down, tapping his foot, either holding his instrument across his lap or perched on his knee, declining to join in on backing vocals.
It’s not a false modesty, either. Allen is easily the weakest musician on stage, playing a difficult, unforgiving instrument. His tone is often aspirated and screechy, lacking the clarinet’s melted chocolate smoothness. But he’s surrounded himself with some fine players.
The most consistently engaging soloists are Jerry Zigmont on trombone and Conal Fowkes, while trumpeter Simon Wettenthal gained energy and fluidity as the night went on. Eddy Davis, an avuncular presence, sings plays the banjo and acts as musical director. Given the often relaxed tempos, the rhythm section of bassist Greg Cohen and John Gill on drums are not called on to overexert themselves, but they do nail their most important job: they swing.
While Allen’s New Orleans Band might not be the mightiest ensemble around, it’s hard not to feel good when hearing “Sweetheart of Sigma Chi” or “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” performed live. They certainly didn’t want to leave the stage, returning for two generous encores.
Whatever their shortcomings, Allen has, without meaning to, stepped into Armstrong’s shoes, becoming and ambassador for New Orleans Jazz. It’s hard to know what percentage of the audience knew much about the music upon taking their seats, but if even ten or twenty ticket buyers were inspired to check out Bix Biederbecke or Armstrong’s Hot Fives recordings, Allen has every reason to be proud.
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Woody Allen’s New Orleans Jazz Band – Royce Hall – 12/29/11
Christina Limson O’Connell
Woody Allen’s New Orleans Jazz Band
Royce Hall
12/29/11
Better than…Francis Ford Coppola playing the tuba.
Before the start of the European tour documented in the 1997 Woody Allen documentary Wild Man Blues, Allen tells his bandmates, “Theoretically this should be fun for us.” Last night, before a sold out house at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band concluded their six date tour with a night of old-timey jazz that, at the very least, certainly seemed to be somewhat amusing to them.
As pianist Conal Fowkes began a solo introduction to “It Had to Be You,” Allen strode onto the stage to wild applause, clarinet cases in hand. After the remaining members joined in, they proceeded to play almost nonstop for over two hours.
Following the first tune, Allen briefly addressed the crowd, promising them a night of “church music and whorehouse music.” Midway through “When You Wore a Tulip” drummer John Gill got up from his kit and sauntered up to the microphone to sing a chorus, before resuming his percussive duties.
“Girl of My Dreams” drew impassioned growls from Allen, and he briefly uncrossed his legs in order to fully project his sound. A rousing “Down By the Riverside” featured trumpeter Simon Wettenhall taking a vocal turn and bassist Greg Cohen’s lone solo for the evening. This drew loud roars from the audience as he slid and slapped across the strings. The band closed with a gentle “Til We Meet Again” before returning for three encores and a total of seven more songs.
| Christina Limson O’Connell |
To start the first encore Allen took the lead on “Swinging on a Star,” inspiring a sea of cell-phone pictures from the foot of the stage. With little resistance from the ushers, a crowd of about fifty remained there to get a better look at the 76-year-old film legend. Twenty-five minutes after initially leaving the stage they closed with a slow blues that featured a collective improvisation from the horns as Cohen’s bowed bass held things down.
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Dec
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Woody Allen’s New Orleans band at Royce Hall
A little bit of Gotham came west Thursday night, as Woody Allen’s New Orleans band played at UCLA. Though the music wasn’t as momentous as the Eddie Condon Town Hall concerts of the 1940s, you’d never know it from the audience. Three generous encores and you’d think it was Woodstock and they’d just seen Hendrix.
Were they discerning jazz fans? Likely not, though one of the world’s most celebrated filmmakers pursuing his hobby is apparently enough to nearly fill Royce Hall. Allen’s brief and humble remarks made it clear that the music was the star. This outfit, which plays weekly at New York’s Cafe Carlyle, has a good time while playing well, and transmits its enthusiasm. College students, revved up on an 80-year-old jazz style, just might investigate it further.
They are fine musicians, save one. Cornetist Simon Wettenhall was a consistently rewarding soloist–touching Bix Beiderbecke’s tone here, Jabbo Smith’s tailspin flights there. Trombonist Jerry Zigmont was an exuberant tailgate preacher throughout.
Strictly speaking, Allen and company didn’t confine themselves to Dixieland repertory: Jelly Roll Morton’s “Milenberg Joys” and “Down By the Riverside,” yes, but “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi,” “Swinging on a Star” (a Bing Crosby hit) and “Oh You Beautiful Doll” are old Tin Pan Alley fare. They must be great fun to play on.
Banjoist Eddy Davis, pianist Conal Fowkes, and bassist Greg Cohen form the ensemble backbone. (Drummer John Gill underplays, as though walking on eggshells.) Fowkes’s contrary motion, Davis’s substitute chords, and Cohen’s arco work indicate there’s much they’re not telling in this context.
Allen’s clarinet won’t make anyone forget Sidney Bechet, Barney Bigard or Evan Christopher. His piping tone and strings of staccato notes can’t approximate melodic or lyrical phrasing. Still his earnestness and the obvious regard he has for traditional jazz counts for something.
It’s tempting to pine for a charismatic frontman-singer, like the late George Melly, to lead these fine talents in a more forceful, focused stage direction. But that would change the casual chemistry of this group and make it into something that it’s not.
If this same group, even with a more proficient (albeit lower profile) clarinetist only played a local Moose Lodge each week, it wouldn’t be able to fill Royce Hall. That makes the Woody Allen band a curio — entertaining and occasionally delightful — but a curio nonetheless.
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Woody Allen at the Carlyle Hotel
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EDDY DAVIS & HIS NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND WITH WOODY ALLEN 2011 USA TOUR
Here are the US Tour dates for December 2011. This is a complete schedule with NO additional dates to be added.
December 2011 – United States Winter Tour
12/20/2011 – Miami Beach, FL – The Fillmore
12/21/2011 – Tampa, FL – Ruth Eckerd Hall
12/26/2011 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theater
12/27/2011 Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
12/28/2011 San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom
12/29/2011 Los Angeles, CA – Royce Hall – UCLA
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Jerry Zigmont Bio Clip with Woody Allen
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“Runnin’ Wild” – au Grand Rex – Paris – 02/avril/2011
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For one spring night, Rome was The Carlyle on the Tiber.
U.S. film director Woody Allen plays the clarinet during a concert with The New Orleans Jazz Band at the inauguration ceremony of the Niemeyer Center in Aviles, north of Spain, March 25, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Eloy Alonso
ROME |
(Reuters Life!) – What’s a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn doing helping to raise money for a Catholic hospital owned by the Vatican in a city where until 1870 the papacy required Jews to live in a ghetto?
If that nice Jewish boy is Woody Allen, the conundrum is resolved by a four-letter word: Jazz.
“Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band” charmed a packed house in Rome’s Conciliazione Auditorium three blocks from the Vatican and just across the Tiber River from Rome’s synagogue.
The band, made up of Allen on clarinet and six other top-notch jazz musicians steeped in the New Orleans tradition, belted out more than a dozen tunes over nearly two hours at the benefit for the Bambino Gesu,Italy‘s top children’s hospital.
“We love to play jazz music and we are always thrilled when anyone comes to hear us — thrilled and surprised, actually,” he told the audience in his trademark self-deprecating style.
That was it for one-liners, almost as if he wanted to step out of the shoes of Woody Allen the actor/director/comedian and into those of Woody Allen the musician.
“We are going to play songs from New Orleans from the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s — songs that were popular in the churches, parades, brothels and dance halls of New Orleans so sit back and we will do our best to entertain you,” he said.
And entertain they did, with numbers such as Louis Armstrong’s “Someday You’ll Be Sorry,” “Muskrat Ramble” by Kid Ory, “At The Jazz Band Ball,” “That’s A Plenty,” and “Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet.”
There was also a sublime and moving rendition of the spiritual “Take My Hand Precious Lord” — fittingly, perhaps, if one considers that the world’s largest church — St. Peter’s Basilica — was just down the street.
As a testimony to the band’s wide appeal, the capacity audience on Saturday night ranged in age from teenagers in torn jeans who arrived on scooters to elderly couples in elegant black whose limousines were double-parked outside.
Less better dressed was the band itself. While Allen wore his trademark casual style of pants and an open shirt, the rest of the band had to forego their usual dress jackets because their luggage had been lost in transit from Spain.
The audience, which included composer Nicola Piovani — who won the 1998 Oscar for best score for the film “Life is Beautiful” — did not notice or care about how the band was dressed. They howled for more and were rewarded with a long encore of three more songs that almost seemed like a second act.
The band further endeared itself to the local public by playing swinging New Orleans-style renditions of “Ariverderci Roma” and “Bella Ciao,” the World War Two anti-Fascist resistance ballad that is almost part of the national psyche.
Besides Allen, the concert offered exuberant, uplifting performances by Jerry Zigmont on trombone, Simon Wettenhall on trumpet, Conal Fowkes on piano, John Gill on drums, Greg Cohen on bass and musical director Eddy Davis on banjo.
“We play a new program every night so the experience is highly creative and spontaneous,” Zigmont told Reuters. “We love to come back to Rome and play. Every time we perform here, the people are warm and generous and that makes us play our best.”
When it is not touring, the band, which was the subject of the acclaimed 1998 documentary film “Wild Man Blues,” plays every Monday night at the Carlyle Hotel in New York.
For one spring night, Rome was the Carlyle on the Tiber.
