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November 22 2008 at Barbes by Lucid Culture

Nine-piece band squeezed into the little back room playing hot jazz from the late 20s and early 30s, all of it good and much of it sensational. Much in the same vein as Michael Arenella, trumpeter Carpenter and his crew play boisterous three-minute Prohibition-era dancehall hits. While it was strange to watch the crowd simply sitting there while the band ripped through one tune after another - this is dance music, after all - it was a treat to be literally on top of the band, watching the interplay between musicians. Jazz snobs may scorn this stuff, but it's great fun. "This is Woody Allen jazz," one astute woman in the crowd remarked to her boyfriend between songs.

Minor keys are what this band does best, and that's what they opened with, a frenetic, somewhat klezmerish stomp from 1929 called Mojo Strut, Carpenter playing harp through a bullhorn to add the strange, carnivalesque edge that continued throughout most of their set. They did a couple of ridiculously catchy numbers written by Fess Williams (Charles Mingus' uncle), the best of these being Friction, driven by plinking banjo and soaring violin. The single best song of the night, the boisterous yet haunting Boy in the Boat had an early Ellington feel, its eeriness brought out most intensely by a sizzling violin solo and some expertly spooky work by One Ring Zero's Michael Hearst, sitting in on theremin.

Because the songs are short, this group's solos are brief: the only extended improvisations of the night were intros, duels in fact: first sax and trombone, then sax (Jessica Lurie bringing a modernist yet smartly melodic sensibility to the old stuff whenever she was called on) vs. clarinet.  A couple of times the banjoist began songs using a bow, building tension to the breaking point. After over an hour onstage, Carpenter - now playing slide trumpet - took them scurrying out the way they'd come in, dark and mysterious. Kudos to Barbes for squeezing them - literally - into the room. A band this good deserves a stand at the Vanguard. They'd bring out a lot of people out of the woodwork. Probably some ghosts too.

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July 24 2008 at MOMA by Audrey Henkin, Gay City News

The sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art has been one of the city's secret venues to hear jazz for decades; well, maybe not secret given the couple of hundred people there July 24 watching Brian Carpenter's Ghost Train Orchestra, but less known than the usual major and minor jazz haunts. The museum hosts music throughout the summer in front of its huge bay window, a grandiose setting to be sure.  Access to the concerts comes with museum admission and the music is drawn into the scope of the artwork. This season's programming is under the auspices of "Dalí: Imagined Musical Landscapes," with special emphasis given to the late surrealist as "a proponent of the 'anti-artistic' in art," according to the series brochure.

As with almost any academic notion, creative perspective can adapt almost anything to its guidelines; thus the Ghost Train Orchestra, a ten-piece band playing works from jazz's early history in the '20s, has its nostalgic bent turned into a sort of socio-musical commentary.  That frankly may be pushing it a little as there are many ensembles happily exploring "primitive" sources without a hint of irony.  Much of the music that the Ghost Train Orchestra presented came from Chicago, a melting pot of blues, early jazz, and other folk musics. Short, punchy renditions of tunes like "Slide Mr. Jelly Slide," "Dixie Stomp," and "Hot Temper Blues" played well with a crowd that more than likely wandered outside from an afternoon of art-gazing.

For some reason, large ensembles are always more popular for casual crowds and also project far better in an outdoor environment like the sculpture garden. Carpenter, who leads while sporting either a traditional or slide trumpet, has gathered together some of the modern New York jazz scene's brightest players, an opportunity for them to go out by coming back in. Special mention should be made of saxist Briggan Krauss, trombonist Curtis Hasselbring - playing a comic style far removed from his usual approach - and drummer Rob Garcia, who was also featured on washboard.  Evocative touches like banjo and tuba - Andrew Stern and Ron Caswell, respectively - made for a rounded boisterousness. Violist Jordan Voelker put down her instrument to bow a saw for one number.  The only original played was written by Carpenter to accompany a burlesque act. The band's polyphony was both updated Dixieland and proto-klezmer.

Carpenter is also known for writing music for cartoons (including Lorelei Pepi's queer revisionist history "Happy & Gay") and that is telling. As with the scores - most notably by Carl Stalling - that accompanied early Loony Tunes, Carpenter's music is multi-purpose. It can entertain kids in the crowd dragged there by their parents as well as seniors dragged there by their grandkids. If you're looking for shtick, look elsewhere; there might be some schmaltz, though, if you ask nicely.