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New
York City has always had the most vibrant jazz scene in the world,
and in the last few years that scene has been re-energized by a
younger generation of jazz artists with a penchant for music of the
1920s and 30s. For the last 10 years, cornetist, arranger, and
vocalist MIKE DAVIS has been at the forefront of the traditional
jazz movement.
Davis
is a bandleader and an in-demand sideman. He is now releasing his
first album, THE NEW WONDERS, which is also the name of
the band he fronts. The album comprises 13 tunes that pay homage to
the original, traditional music style but with a fresh sensibility.
The album appears on Scott Asen’s Turtle Bay Records label. Asen is a
fan of early jazz and created the label to give contemporary artists
a platform to share their interpretations of the music with a wider
audience.
Joining
Davis on THE NEW WONDERS are some of the
leading lights on the New York City traditional jazz scene, including
RICKY ALEXANDER (clarinet, alto sax, vocals), JOE McDONOUGH
(trombone, JARED ENGEL (banjo), DALTON RIDENHOUR
(piano), JAY RATTMAN (bass sax, vocals), and JAY LEPLEY (drums,
vocals). Davis named the band The New Wonders for the model of
cornet played by Bix Beiderbecke, one of the most influential jazz
musicians of the 1920s.
Both
of Davis’s parents were in the Seattle Symphony, and he started
studying the cornet at the age of nine. He performed in different
school bands throughout high school, and his parents encouraged him
to go to college if he wanted to pursue music as a career. So when he
was 18 years old he left Seattle and enrolled in the Manhattan School
of Music. The academic experience, however, did not live up to his
expectations.
Davis
wanted to work as a commercial musician, but he felt the music he was
being taught swung between two opposite poles: it was either too
complex with too many rules or too free without any rules at all. He
appreciated the talent and innovativeness of modern jazz players, but
the music itself did not resonate with him. It wasn’t until he heard
old 78 rpm records that something clicked. He felt an ineluctable
pull to play traditional jazz.
Davis
set out to be a craftsman as well as an artist. He listened to and
absorbed a lot of old records, studying the different personal styles
each player brought to the recording. The music became part of his
identity, and he even began dressing in the style of the period,
right down to the bespoke suits and pencil mustache.
Mona’s
Bar in Manhattan is a hub for traditional jazz musicians. Every Tuesday
night, they host a late-night trad jazz jam session that lasts into
the wee hours. Davis became a regular, meeting other like-minded
musicians.
He wrote down every tune he heard, looking for hidden gems and
learning about each song. With precise technique and broad knowledge
of traditional jazz, it did not take long for Davis to become a
sought-after sideman. He has been a member of Terry Waldo’s Gotham
City Band for 10 years and has worked with stalwarts like Emily
Asher’s Garden Party, Glenn Crytzer, Baby Soda, Dan Levinson, and
many other traditional jazz and swing bands. He also began fronting
his own band, The New Wonders, with a rotating cast of musicians.
Although
he has incorporated the styles of many musicians, he cites Red
Nichols, Louis Armstrong, and Bix Beiderbecke as foundational
influences. Davis says, “I was particularly taken with Bix
Beiderbecke for his pure sound and ability to play extended solos
that told a story, which was not the norm at the time. “
Davis
does not try to imitate the past masters and merely re-create their
recordings. Rather, he studies their techniques and incorporates them
in his own improvisations. And he does not necessarily use, for
example, a Beiderbecke technique in a song made famous by the cornet
master. Instead, he may base his solo on a Louis Armstrong style or
an approach he heard on a Paul Whiteman record. The tunes have the
vibrance and feel of the originals but are re-imagined with Davis’s
extensive music vocabulary.
Davis
also sings on several tunes. The timbre of his voice sounds much like
a singer in Ted Lewis’s band. Davis says, “When I sing, I really
don’t try to sound like anyone in particular. It’s just a happy
coincidence that my natural timbre hews so closely to vocal stylings
of that period.”
Traditional
jazz has mostly a light-hearted, danceable feel, and for THE
NEW WONDERS, Davis mined tunes that were performed by famous
bands, like “I’d Rather Cry Over You” by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra,
“I’m More than Satisfied” by Bix Beiderbecke, “The Baltimore” by
Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra, and “Jungle Crawl” by Tiny
Parham, featuring an arrangement Davis wrote for a burlesque show.
Other
tunes came from early cinema, like “Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!” from a
1931 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short, and "She's
Funny That Way," which was composed for the short film Gems
of MGM in 1929 for Marion Harris, and also recorded by Billie
Holiday in 1953. As women began expressing themselves more freely in
the 1920s, dancing the Charleston and smoking cigarettes, vamp songs,
i.e., songs about naughty women, were popular, and Davis includes
“Flamin’ Mamie” by the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra and
“Clorinda” by the Chicago Loopers. Davis and the band also perform
two songs by The Goofus Five, “Poor Papa” and “I Need Lovin’.” The
Goofus Five are not well- known today but were quite popular back
then. The “goofus” was a saxophone-like instrument that was like a
mouth-blown accordion.
As
the old saw says, “Everything old is new again,” and that certainly
holds true today with the renewed interest in music that was written
and performed nearly 100 years ago. As evidenced on THE NEW
WONDERS, talented musicians like Mike Davis and his band have
put a fresh face on this cornerstone of American popular music.
# # #
THE NEW WONDERS will
be released on September 22, 2023, on Turtle Bay Records and will be
available at Turtlebayrecords.com and on all platforms.
Online:
Mike-Davis-Jazz.com
Facebook.com/mikedavisjazz
turtlebayrecords.com
YouTube:
@turtlebayrecords9686
IG: @turtlebayrecords
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