Aunt Ruby's Sweet Jazz Babies, an Austin Phenomenon, Played for ATJS on April 20

By Dan Augustine

On a pleasant Austin Sunday afternoon from 2 to 5 pm on May 20, 2008, Aunt Ruby's Sweet Jazz Babies entertained the audience at the Capital City Comedy Club in a concert hosted by the Austin Traditional Jazz Society.  As the Babies' own website says, "Aunt Ruby's Sweet Jazz Babies is an Austin, Texas based collection of talent and artistry that seeks to embody, in today's terms, the very essence of the hot jazz and swing music prevalent from the 1910-1940's." (http://www.arsjb.com/)  No mention is made of exactly who Aunt Ruby was, but internal evidence of the music points toward an Auntie Mame kind of character.

    The purveyors of this music included the event coordinator, announcer, and public relations representative, Frank Lee Devine on resonator guitar and vocals; General Ryan Gould on double bass and vocals; Tartan Purry on clarinet; King Crazy Oliver Steck on trumpet; Speedy Gonzales on trombone; and Professor Joesph Cordi on electronic piano.

    The first set included songs like "Is It True What They Say about Dixie", "I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight" (vocal by Gen. Gould), "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" (vocal by "Italian cupcake" Prof. Cordi), and "Let's Misbehave" by Cole Porter (vocal by Mr. Steck).  All members of the group tooks solos, with Gen. Gould displaying amazing slap-bass dexterity and Mr. Purry weaving melodic lines with tones sometimes reminiscent of the great Edmond Hall.  Mr. Gonzales demonstrated inventive solos on his trombone (sometimes with a mute, which he used to great effect), and Mr. Steck's energetic trumpet and dancing pleased the audience.  Mr. Cordi's piano solos and vocals were highly effective, and Mr. Devine's vocals and guitar solos lent a sophisticated continental touch to the music.

    Highlights of the second and third sets included "My Honey's Loving Arms", before which Mr. Devine cautioned the audience to "fasten seat-belts on chairs"; "Every Little Breeze Seems to Whisper Louise" with a vocal by Mr. Cordi (and many dancers took advantage of the tempo); "When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along" with a Gen. Gould vocal and deft musical bobbings by Mr. Purry; and "Daisy Bell" (perhaps better known as "A Bicycle Built for Two", with an Oliver Steck vocal).  By using a (thankfully empty) water-glass as a mute on "When Your Lover Has Gone", Mr. Steck imitated another Texan, Jack Teagarden (and another local trombonist could be seen in front of the band video-recording the band and bobbing in time to the music).  One group of dancers that seemed to enjoy the music very much came up later and bought the ARSJB CD called "Stompin' Through the Tulips" (http://cdbaby.com/cd/auntrubyssjb), and they left talking to each other in French.

    During the breaks, ATJS Vice-President Dave Stoddard (sometimes confused with occasional ARSJB player Lord Mondegreen on valve trombone and brass bass) mentioned other local jazz-events, such as the third-annual Texas Community Music Festival at Central Market and Scholz's Garten.  Treasurer Malcolm Rodman presided over the drawings for the CDs given away and announced tentative plans for bands in the coming year.  The next ATJS events will be the Jazz Pharoahs on May 18 and the ATJS All-Stars on June 22.     Aunt Ruby's Sweet Jazz Babies demonstrated one of the many dimensions of 'traditional jazz', which also includes West Coast Revival (two-beat) Style (like Turk Murphy), Eddie Condon (four-beat) style, New Orleans jazz, hot jazz (like Jim Cullum's Jazz Band), and many others.  ARSJB also partakes of some elements from that special kind of popular entertainment seen in bands like the Hoosier Hotshots and the Corn Cobblers (see http://www.hoosierhotshots.com/index.html).  But let's not get too picky about definitions of styles.  As Eddie Condon said more than once in response to the question about what they played, "We called it music."