The father of jazz gets an especially impressive tribute, compliments of Ostwald and his crackerjack musicians who showered some of his favorites with a boisterous elan.
Christmas came a day early in the cozy confines of downstairs’ Birdland Theater on 44th Street just west of 8th Avenue. The holiday-bedecked elves in David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band provided the kind of Yuletide cheer that had a packed crowd of early era jazz fans loving every minute.
Santa Ost-wald kept the joint jumpin,’ aided by fellow bandleader Vince Giordano, assaying a sideman chart for the evening’s set of sleigh bell songs and Satchmo specials.
This has been a banner couple of years for Louis Armstrong, with a big Broadway musical celebrating his life just a few blocks north at the old Studio 54 following up last year’s Apple TV documentary about the trumpet master featuring rapper Nas and Wynton Marsalis.
At Birdland, the father of jazz gets an especially impressive tribute, compliments of Ostwald and his crackerjack musicians who showered some of his favorites with a boisterous elan. All that and “Jingle Bells,” too.
Besides the redoubtable Giordano on banjo and tenor guitar, Ostwald’s Eternity Band features trumpeter Joe Boga and trombonist Jim Fryer, the later doubling on baritone horn a/k/a euphonium.
Will Anderson—one of the virtuosic Anderson brothers, Juilliard grads who do or will hold down most every reed chair in town—covers the clarinet and alto charts. Ostwald on tuba and drummer Alex Raderman lay down a sparkling beat to drive the music forward.
Kicking things off with the Armstrong favorite “Sleepytime Down South,” Ostwald and the band charged right into “(Back Home Again in) Indiana,” with Giordano providing the vintage banjo licks and hearty vocals. Anderson’s sweet clarinet traded measures with Boga channeling Satchmo himself. Fryer used his plunger mute to coax a soulful sound from his instrument. Even Raderman got in on the action with a punching drum solo, all of it built around the tuba foundation Ostwald laid down with aplomb.
Next up, the Duke Ellington ballad “Creole Love Call” colored the room blue with Boga nursing his mute to get every last drop of soul out of the piece. “Santa Claus is Coming To Town” got a rollicking recitation with a jolly vocal by Fryer, who would go on to sing a number of the evening’s holiday chestnuts.
Dorothy Fields and Jimmy Mc Hugh’s composition “Digga Digga Do”—an Ellington standard—gave Giordano a chance to flex his pipes and play a nifty banjo solo, while Anderson supplied a sweet showcase of his own on the clarinet. Switching to alto, Will soared on a smoothly sentimental “White Christmas,” a highlight of the evening.
Back to the Great American Songbook went the Eternity Band with one of Armstrong’s most beloved hits “A Kiss to Build a Dream On.” Fryer got thru the vocal, slipping into a little Satchmo-ese sandwiched between sections of Boga’s poignant horn solo. “Jingle Bells” found Vince scatting in “Elvish Presley” mode, wrapping up the proceedings with Armstrong’s “Swing That Music,” a tune Satch recorded with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra. Once again, Anderson soloed like a force of nature, working up and down his instrument while the band glided along.
Led by Seattle-based saxophonist Steve Treseler and Bellingham-based trumpeter Kevin Woods, In Motion Quartet releases their debut album The Grind, an adventurous set of original music exploring propulsive grooves and the avant-garde.
With a nod to the chord-less groups of Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman, and Lee Konitz, the instrumentation allows the band the freedom to stretch harmonically and melodically, while maintaining an emphasis on rhythmic interaction and improvised counterpoint. Treseler and Woods seem to communicate telepathically, with a great sense of élan, curiosity, and vitality.
Saxophonist Steve Treseler is embedded in Seattle’s jazz and creative music scene and travels for performances and residencies throughout the U.S. and Europe. His collaboration with the lauded trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, Invisible Sounds: For Kenny Wheeler on Whirlwind Recordings was named one of DownBeat’s best albums of 2019 and featured in the New York Times. When Woods and Treseler met in 2014, the two connected over a shared affinity for Wheeler’s music.
Trumpeter, composer, and educator Kevin Woods is the director of jazz studies at Western Washington University. Victory Music Review describes his playing as “warm, expressive, and engaging” and has recorded six albums as a leader, notably Signals by Trio Linguae with guitarist John Stowell on Origin Records. Kevin is part of ongoing collaborative projects in the Pacific Northwest.
Treseler and Woods formed In Motion Quartet in 2019 with a monthly residency at Seattle’s Royal Room, exploring original material with a rotating rhythm section. In 2021, Treseler connected with King Dahl (bass) and Jerry Steinhilber (drums) through their former mentor, legendary saxophonist George Garzone. King and Jerry, who recently relocated to Bellingham, WA, have played and recorded together for decades since meeting as classmates at Berklee College of Music.
Treseler says, “We all studied and played with Garzone, instantly connected through a shared aesthetic—freely moving between bop, lyricism, and Dimension X. Our first gig as In Motion gelled instantly.”
Highlights include the album’s opener, Treseler’s angular free bop composition “Ricochet,” which showcases the quartet’s ability to weave through open forms and collective improvisation with a straight-ahead feel. The title track, “Forward Motion a.k.a. The Grind,” expresses the struggle of our day-to-day lives through a mysterious groove, interactive collective improvisation, and the deep woody timbre of Treseler’s bass clarinet. Contrastingly, Woods wrote the playful “Little Boo” for his toddling daughter. A contrafact on Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm,” features a fluctuating tempo and frenetic solos.
The Grind takes us through the poignant melodies of Wood’s “Ballade #2″ and Treseler’s “Western Oracle,” and abstract sound textures in Treseler’s “Magic Mode.” Steinhilber contributes the hard-hitting tune “Blue Note Maki.” Originally written for a project with George Garzone, “Blue Note Maki” pairs hard bop grooves with ferocious and adventurous solos.
All accomplished artists as individuals, In Motion Quartet, is greater than the sum of its parts, letting intuition, big ears, and sense of adventure forge a unique voice in the jazz landscape.
