Recorded August 2001

Recording Engineer - Glen Hirst of Audio Live

In 1916, five white young men from New Orleans took New York by storm and ignited the American popular music scene. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band played in a raucous, brassy and, at times, corny style, and drew on the more complex, communal music that had evolved among black musicians in New Orleans. Its commercial appeal was recognised, the band cut the first jazz records, and the so-called "Jazz Age" was born. This "Dixieland" jazz became intermeshed with popular music, both influencing and drawing from it.

It is the jazzy end of the jazz-popular music interface that The Grovelanders explore in this CD. Three of the tracks revisit tunes recorded by the ODJB: Original Dixieland One Step, the commercial not ethnic Jazz Me Blues and the eternal sing-a-long Margie. Tin Pan Alley came out with novelty tunes like Coney Island Washboard. At a time when it was rare for a popular standard to be given to a black performer to record, Louis Armstrong had a hit with When You're Smiling. Everybody Loves My Baby was big in 1924 and Them There Eyes in 1930. From the "Swing Era" come the lovely ballad, I'll Never Smile Again, originally performed by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra when Frank Sinatra was band vocalist, and the Jimmy Dorsey 1943 hit Besame Mucho.

To balance this the Grovelanders give us a selection of evocative tunes with impeccable jazz pedigree and form and are integral to the classic jazz repertoire: Milenberg Joys; Chimes Blues; Buddy's Habit; Savoy Blues hastily written by Kid Ory for a Hot Seven recording session; That Da Da Strain; South; Finger Buster, Jelly Roll Morton's showpiece for pianists; and Paul Barbarin's rousing march Bourbon Street Parade.

Other songs on the CD include Sophie's Rag, You're Driving Me Crazy, Midnight in Moscow and It Don't Mean A Thing (If it ain't got that swing).

Jazz is a people's music; it excites, cheers and entertains. In doing this it transcends social boundaries and spreads good will. The Grovelanders is a popular Geelong-based Dixieland band that has carved out a niche playing festivals, jazz clubs, social clubs, balls, pubs, and markets. It is community music just as it was in New Orleans nearly a century ago. These performances keep alive and re-ignite interest in jazz. That can only be good.

Enjoy this memory of their music.

Dave Parsons, President, Geelong Jazz Club..

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