Giant City Sextet Entertains at ATJS Concert
By Dan Augustine
"So Tired" they weren't. That was the title of the first tune the Giant City Sextet played, but their performance and the music were the opposite, full of life and energy and fun. The occasion was a concert at the Capital City Comedy Club on October 19, 2008, hosted by the Austin Traditional Jazz Society. Leading the band and handling the announcing chores (in his best Velvetta Room voice) was Ryan Gould, master of the string bass. He was joined by seasoned professionals Freddie Mendoza on trombone (or as Ryan Gould said later, on the 'trombonamaphon'), Jon Doyle on clarinet and tenor sax, Joe Cordi on piano, J. D. Pendley on guitar and banjo, and Paul Schlichting on drums. (The usual Giant City Sextet players Oliver Steck on trumpet and Mark Gonzales on trombone were not available for this concert.)
"So Tired" opened the festivities with a good beat and Jon Doyle playing a great solo on clarinet. Freddie Mendoza (co-coordinator of the Jazz Studies Department at Texas State University-San Marcos) next played a nifty solo, with stop-time afterbeats by the rest of the band. No one in the toe-tapping audience (including your reviewer) seemed to have heard this song before, but it was written in 1927 by Arthur Sizemore and has been recorded a number of times by well-known bands (such as Jean Goldkette, Hoagy Carmichael, Bix Beiderbecke, and Fats Waller). "Body and Soul" is not a song many bands would choose for a traditional jazz concert, but Giant City made believers out of doubters, with Jon Doyle's sensitive solos on both clarinet and tenor sax, Freddie's solo with some Frank Rosolino-like figures, and some inventive multiple-line thirds in J. D. Pendley's solo. More usual programming followed with "Struttin' with Some Barbecue", featuring some nice chalumeau-register playing by Jon Doyle, and stop-time afterbeats behind a clarinet-trombone duet. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Professor Joseph ("the Italian cupcake") Cordi of Aunt Ruby's Sweet Jazz Babies, pianist Joe Cordi favored the audience with a vocal on "Sunny Side of the Street". In fact, at various times the Giant City Sextet seemed to show flashes of that other group, perhaps like an aural palimpsest.
Billed as having "the coolest car in the parking lot" (with 'POW' in bright yellow on the right front fender), Paul Schlichting switched to wood blocks behind Jon Doyle's solo in "Over in the Glory Land" (a great old gospel tune), followed by "Ain't Misbehavin'". In an homage perhaps to the Hoosier Hotshots, Ryan Gould sang "Have You Ever Been in Heaven?" (by Jimmie Davis), which song is also coincidentally performed on YouTube by (you guessed it) Aunt Ruby's Sweet Jazz Babies.
During the last song it occurred to your reviewer that the ceiling lights over the audience might be too bright, and the thought sprung unbidden into my mind that, especially on a Sunday, we could dim some (even if we aren't Chinese).
Thus endeth the first set, not with a bang, but a whimper (mine, after that last line). Tom Straus and Dave Stoddard of the ATJS Board of Directors then made announcements and raffled two CDs. Ben Conroy played some fine boogie piano in intermission.
During the break, ATJS Board member Bill Padgett furnished the intelligence that two of the strings on Ryan Gould's string bass are multi-colored weedeater-cords (the green G-string and the red D-string). Mr. Gould confirmed this information to me, adding that this is best done on a high-action bass, using lots of rosin on the cords.
The second set opened with Freddie Mendoza using a straight mute in his trombone solo on "Basin Street Blues". Prefaced by "Favorite of Dan Augustine", the next song was "If I Had You", with Ryan Gould bowing his bass both as accompaniment and in a solo. He then sang "April Showers" (not your standard 'dixieland' tune -- what other band would dare to play this and bring it off so well?). "Red River Valley" was next, in a fast 4-beat with a guitar intro, using a quiet isorhythm behind a low clarinet solo. Mr. Gould pointed out that this tune is also sometimes known as "Walking through the Streets of the City", and a little research shows that the Ambrosia Brass Band has recorded the song, which refers to the city of New Orleans and the custom of playing this song on the way back from a funeral.
Another non-standard, but haunting and welcome, song was "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" written by Brooks Bowman in 1934 and recorded by many jazz groups such as Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughn, Lee Wiley, and Louis Armstrong. Mr. Gould then announced "another Dave Stoddard favorite", "Just a Little While to Stay Here", with J. D. Pendley on his tenor banjo (which reportedly was a wedding gift to him by ATJS President Tom Straus) and good solos by Ryan Gould on bass and Paul Schlichting on drums. A slow clarinet and guitar introduction morphed into a fast rendition of "Exactly Like You", in which Joe Cordi slipped in a reference to "Take the 'A' Train", followed by an amazing clarinet solo by Jon Doyle, who must be considered one of the best clarinetists in Texas (or anywhere, for that matter). The song and set ended with Ryan Gould doing some fast triple-slapping on his bass solo and a four-bar drum tag.
The third set opened with the old favorite dance-tune from 1913, "Ballin' the Jack", manifesting such goodies as Freddie Mendoza's fast triadic triplets and some stop-time rhythms. Ryan Gould sang "Taking My Sugar to Tea", and Freddie had a fine solo on "Georgia on My Mind". A tune new to the Giant City Sextet was next, "The Big Parade", and a good tune it was (also recorded by the Dukes of Dixieland and by The Black Dogs). Dave Stoddard then unlimbered his valve trombone and joined the band for another of his putative favorites, "When the Saints Go Marching In", which halfway through switched to a minor key, then back to major, then modulated up a fourth, then modulated again. A rouser this was, prompting some audience members to stand up and clap loudly and cheer. The concert ended with a rambunctious reading of "That's a Plenty" (Ryan Gould: another "Dan Augustine favorite"), with nice solos by Dave Stoddard, a duet by Freddie and Jon by themselves without accompaniment, then Dave Stoddard joining in to make a trio (in which he played more of a tuba-part, which is no wonder, as he also plays that instrument). The band then sped up the tempo for a big finish and the crowd gave the band a standing ovation. Great concert!
