I've recently finished mixing the debut Ghost Train Orchestra album with producer Danny Blume (Klezmatics, Sex Mob). The album is called "Hothouse Stomp". New arrangements of dance music from 1929 Harlem and Chicago. I formed this band when Heather Kuhn, a programmer for the Regent Theater, a historic vaudeville theater in Boston, hired me as musical director for the theater's 90th anniversary. I was interested in 1929 in particular, that being a transitional year for jazz, and so I went about exploring, transcribing, and arranging this music from that era.
The album covers four of the most important (and I think overlooked) jazz bands of that year: Charlie Johnson's Paradise Orchestra, Tiny Parham and His Musicians, Fess Williams' Royal Flush Orchestra, and McKinney's Cotton Pickers. This music that has not been heard live for 80 years and the original recordings, if you can find them, are of very bad quality. Since the Regent Theater shows three years ago, I've been developing this band live at Barbes. I've retooled the original arrangements to add strings, musical saw, voice, and a few other surprises. Last November we recorded at Avatar Studios with Grammy-award winner Danny Blume (Klezmatics, Sex Mob) and just recently finished mixing. I've just posted three mixes up on the Facebook page. Enjoy.
On the last Ghost Train gig, Michael Attias and I were
talking about Don Redman. I was familiar with his work as the musical
director of Fletcher Henderson in the early 1920s. Redman was one of
the first great jazz arrangers. Michael was really excited telling me
about Redman's work with a band called McKinney's Cotton Pickers. This
was a band out of Detroit who nabbed Redman from Henderson in 1927. By
the early 1930s, Redman was leading his own band and in 1933, Dave
Fleischer hired him to score and appear as "special guest" in this
Betty Boop cartoon "I Heard". (Redman is the voice of the singing
waiter.) I think it's clear the Fleischer brothers enjoyed jazz
because they did something similar with Cab Calloway (not to mention
the fact that Betty herself loved jazz, being a flapper and all.)
Redman's
own compositions, including his "The Chant Of The Weed", featured here,
have a mysterious quality to them. McKinney's band played this piece
at about twice the tempo here. Check out this hilarious opening bit
with Redman's orchestra swaying as part of Betty Boop's saloon. Pee
Wee's Playhouse, anyone??
The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston will be presenting new
works by the most innovative of the New England animators, including
Lorelei Pepi, whose film Happy & Gay I scored and recorded with the Ghost Train Orchestra. Show times are Sunday, May 3 at 3 pm and Thursday, May 7 at 7:30 pm.
