To create an authentic New Orleans Jazz sound, you need a group of musicians dedicated to preserving the great music of the early 20th century. Formed in 2005 by bandleader, Rollin Glaser, and now headed by Matt Schaffer, the Blue Notes Jazz Band's mission is to deliver the dynamic energy and contagious fun this style of music provides!
The Blue Notes Jazz Band plays New Orleans style as well as some other Jazz styles. The band is organized as the best of the great traditional Jazz bands were - eight instruments: clarinet, trumpet, trombone, tenor sax, piano, banjo, drums, and string bass. Each musician is a soloist and an ensemble player.
When the Blue Notes perform, the audience can't help but tap their feet, dance, smile, and sing along!
From the late 1800s to the early 1920's a highly-influential local brass band tradition came together with the blues and ragtime musical roots developed in New Orleans, Louisiana to create a new type of sound called "New Orleans" or "Hot" Jazz (also known as "Traditional Jazz") . This new music spread rapidly from New Orleans to Chicago, Kansas City, New York, and back across the Midwest into California. The traditional New Orleans style, most likely stemming from famous groups including "Jelly Roll" Morton Louie Armstrong, Jack Handy and other New Orleans, Chicago groups who made the first public recording of this style in 1917 gaining them international prominence as a result.
Common instruments in a New Orleans Style Jazz-Style group include clarinet, trumpet, saxophone and trombone. The rhythm section could include the banjo, piano, drums, tuba or a string bass (updated to electric bass). The music was often characterized by a steady, upbeat, tempo, 4/4 meter, and rhythms performed in an triplet swing style. The balance of the ensemble typically play melodies and countermelodies simultaneously and each take their turn soloing. The musicians often improvise melodies adding their own inflections throughout the song.
This New Orleans style os Jazz - with the steady beat of its distinctive, infectious rhythms; intricate, stylized melodies and phrasings; and the generous use of vibrato and glissando - all serve to give the music its warm and familiar character.
Matt Schaffer - Clarinet
Hal Askins - Trumpet
Peter McGrath - Trumpet
Chuck Attardi - Tenor Saxophone
Stephen Pratt - Trombone
Mike Killam – Piano
Jim Haag - Banjo
Ed Huddleston - Drums
David Fosdick - Drums (Alternate)
Nigel Clarke - Bass
Bill Podrazik - Tuba (Bass Alternate)