LINER NOTES

New Orleans style clarinet players are a special bunch. When they are not playing clarinet they are talking about clarinets. Most of them do not care for a new instrument. They are always in search for old clarinets, instruments with a history. Their goal is to obtain a sound similar to that of their famous predecessors. Among these people there is a very special sub-group, the metal clarinet players. There are not many of them and they are spread all over the world. Their unofficial chairman is Eberhard Kraut who lives in Germany. He not only owns and plays a metal clarinet, but he also has a whole collection of them and knows more about these instruments than any one else in the world. Sometimes members of this sub-group meet, often in New Orleans or else at some jazz festival somewhere on this globe. The two you hear on this CD could not live further away from each other. Jack McLaughlin lives in Australia, Kjeld Brandt in Denmark. They met for the first time around 1996 on the Bude festival in England. Later on their paths crossed again several times in New Orleans. Each time they met they would invite each other to sit in with their band.

Jack is known in New Orleans as the “purist”, a surname he wears with a lot of pride. Originally inspired, like so many other clarinet players, by George Lewis, he later fell in love with the so-called “primitive” clarinet players of New Orleans, people like Milé Barnes, Israel Gorman, Steve Angrum etc. He strives for the utmost simplicity in his playing. He already made several CDs, five of which he issued privately. Of these five three feature nothing but hymns, one has only waltzes and a fifth one looks back at the music from the old dance halls. This is his second recording for Jazz Crusade, the previous one being JCCD 3087 “Jack McLaughlin plays Eb clarinet” on which Jack played only the small clarinet usually used in brass bands. On this one he plays the regular Bb clarinet except on two numbers. In reviews of JCCD-3087 writers pointed at the old time charm of the music and they were right.

Kjeld Brandt leads his own band, New Orleans Delight, which is partly Danish and partly Swedish. It is one of the best New Orleans style groups today. The band has no regular trumpet player. On many of their concerts and CDs they work with a guest trumpet player, people like Norbert Susemihl from Germany, Derek Winters and Ken Pye from England, Chris Tyle from the States and Kid Bastien from Canada. In New Orleans the band played a concert at the Norwegian Seamen’s Church with Gregg Stafford, probably the most important traditional trumpet player in the city today. When the band toured in Denmark with the famous Australian singer Lee Gunness, Gregg was in town and insisted on sitting in on some numbers. Like Jack, Kjeld was originally inspired by George Lewis, but today has forged his own individual style. In a review of the CD with Kid Bastien one author heard traces of Milé Barnes style. It is not the first time Kjeld recorded clarinet duets. On the CD with Chris Tyle he plays duets with Chris on a couple of tunes, but then in the context of a full band.

When George Lewis recorded his hymns LP in 1964 he probably was not aware he was making history. It was not because it was the first time a New Orleans band filled a complete LP with religious material. George had done that before on the famous “Jazz At Vespers” LP for Empirical Records. No, it was because of the tremendous impact the hymns LP would have on future generations of New Orleans players. The hymns he played on that record can today be found in the repertory of most true New Orleans style bands. On one of the songs on that LP, “In The Upper Garden”, George can be heard playing a duet with himself by the way of re-recording. The beautiful music heard on that track might be the base of the CD you are holding now.

When Jack and Kjeld met again for the 2004 French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, they decided they should record an album together. Because they share the same dedication for old style New Orleans jazz and because they both love the simple, wonderful melodies of the traditional hymns, they came together on a Sunday morning, at 10.30 am - which is very early for New Orleans visitors - at Fritzel’s, the old German bar on Bourbon Street, and played a complete session of hymns. A small group of enthusiasts, who had heard about the plans, turned up to listen. They were a very attentive and polite audience. You can only hear them now and again with some discrete applause.

For the technically minded this: Jack played a Kohlertz metal Bb Albert system clarinet and a Pask metal Eb simple system clarinet. Kjeld played his 4 piece Silver King (99% pure silver), with a double bell, Boehm system clarinet. The master CD was made by Gerhard Wendisch in Germany, who specialises in acoustic old style New Orleans jazz.

For the romantics among you, bass player Craig Goeldner had proposed to pianist Rachel Hamilton on their 2003 visit to New Orleans. They were married at the beginning of April 2004 in Australia and flew direct to New Orleans for their honeymoon and to play at the festival.

The music on this CD has great beauty. Some songs are played in a solemn mood, others swing like the clappers. Two of them, ”Near The Cross” and “In The Garden”, are played in the original _ time. The secret of a successful collective improvisation is not to get in each other’s way. The golden rule is never to dominate but to leave plenty of gaps, listen to the others and play melody. Although both reed players started out with George Lewis and although the repertory here is largely based on George’s hymns LP, there was no attempt at all to copy. Both musicians want to be remembered for their own individual style, which, in fact, is very different. It is very easy to hear who plays what. If you have any doubts listen to track 2 first where Jack plays the Eb clarinet which has a somewhat different sound to the Bb one. After that you will have no problems anymore to distinguish the two musicians.

Just like on George’s hymns LP, the rhythm section keeps thing simple. Rachel Hamilton, in her own personal way, follows the example of Joe Robichaux. John Van Buuren maintains his devotion to the old style acoustic New Orleans sound as can be heard in the bright solid notes he extracts from his tenor banjo, while Craig Goeldner plays a rock solid bass.

Some people go to church on a Sunday morning to praise the Lord, others do it their way by playing music. Unlike that New Orleans bishop, who once stopped the music on Jackson Square because there was praying in the cathedral, I believe that playing music might be the best way of praying.

Marcel JOLY




Hot Jazz Channel - Broadcast Album Review by Brian Harvey

This excellent value (like All of Jazz Crusade's releases) 74-minute CD is a recording of a unique morning session at Fritzel's bar on Bourbon street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The session was unique because it coupled together two of the world's leading players of metal clarinets - Australia's Jack McLaughlin and Denmark's Kjeld Brandt - the latter the leader of the superb band New Orleans Delight. The two give us a superb concert of near sacred music in that almost all - if not all - the tunes are hymns. Backed by a sympathetically bouncy rhythm section of John van Bauren on banjo, Rachel Hamilton on piano and Craig Goeldner on string bass the overriding factor here is that both clarinetists are `gentle' players in that they caress rather attack the melodies, they seduce them rather than ravage! And this not only means that their solo work here is eminently listenable but also that the ensembles are woven with great craft and never bore.

CD Title: Of A Sunday Morn In Olde New Orleans
Year: 2005
Record Label: Jazz Crusade
Style: Traditional Jazz

Musicians: Jack McLaughlin (Bb metal clarinet, Eb metal clarinet); Kjeld Brandt (Bb metal clarinet); John van Buuren (banjo); Rachel Hamilton (piano); Craig Goeldner (string bass).

Review: Most traditional jazz festivals around the world feature some type of Sunday morning non-denominational religious service. New Orleans offered jazz on Sunday morning at the 2004 French Quarter Festival and this hastily rehearsed little band filled the bill.

Jack Mclaughlin is regarded as the Purist by New Orleans musicians. Like many other players, he was influenced by George Lewis. However, unlike the rest of the crowd, Jack fell under the spell of a number of the Crescent City “primitives” as well. The music of folks like Milé Barnes, Steve Angrum and Israel Gorman fell under McLaughlin’s scrutiny. The Australian jazzman usually plays both Bb and Eb metal Albert System clarinets.

From the other side of the world comes one of the premier Danish clarinetists in the New Orleans style. Kjeld Brandt is leader of the successful band, New Orleans Delight. While following the tradition of some of the Crescent City notables like George Lewis and Louis Cottrell, Brandt’s great love of the music is apparent at every gig. He plays a Boehm system metal clarinet. Like McLauglin, Kjeld is extremely generous with his time when it benefits traditional jazz. Both musicians travel broadly at their own expense.

Jack McLauglin runs his own outfit in Australia and has five or more CDs to his credit. The band heard here is his own and includes pianist Rachel Hamilton, her new husband bassist Craig Goeldner and John van Buuren on tenor banjo. Rachel and Craig became engaged in New Orleans at the 2003 festival. They married in Australia just in time to enjoy their honeymoon at the 2004 event when they recorded this CD.

Kjeld Brandt runs an outfit with an unusual twist. New Orleans Delight is a band without a trumpet player. The fact that they always operate with a guest trumpeter really keeps the band fresh. They have recorded for some years with invited horn men Norbert Susemihl of Germany, Brits Derek Winters and Ken Pye, America’s Chris Tyle and Canada’s Clifford “Kid” Bastien.

Both clarinetists are well versed in the art of hymns and spirituals. Their styles may differ but the resulting collaboration is both interesting and engaging. The two veterans play off each other perfectly. It’s hard to realize that this session was put together with minimal rehearsal time. The two had met and played together before but they live thousands of miles apart.

The clarinetists themselves will admit that this album is not for everyone. The music is somewhat primitive by intent. Some may say that it’s too “rough and ready” for their tastes. Of A Sunday Morn In Olde New Orleans conveys exactly what the musicians and producer intended. It’s a fine representation of the way things were many moons ago. In that manner, it’s quite enchanting. Check out the sound samples on the Jazz Crusade website.

Tracks: Where He Leads Me; Sometimes My Burden Is Hard To Bear; Near The Cross; In The Sweet Bye & Bye; In The Upper Garden; Just A Little While To Stay Here; The Last Mile Of The Way; Nearer My God To Thee; Sing On; Does Jesus Care; At The Cross; Down By The Riverside; His Eye Is One The Sparrow; I Shall Not Be Moved; In The Garden; Lord, Lord, Lord; When I Move To The Sky; Royal Telephone.

Record Label Website: http://www.jazzcrusade.com
Artist's Website: http://www.new-orleans-delight.dk/cd/cd%20Jack%20&%20Kjeld.html
Reviewed by: Richard Bourcier <mailto:Bourcier@jazzmusic.org




Geoff Boxell Jazz Reviews

Some felt that my review of Jack's last CD 'If We Never Meet This Side Of Heaven' was a trifle harsh. Maybe, but as a reviewer you do have to call it as you see it, or lose respect. Anyway, it was the third album of Jack's that I had acquired and now I have this latest one, so you can't say that I don't like him. I felt the last CD lacked something and needed more drive and depth. Well, with fellow metal clarinettist Kjeld Brandt joining him things have changed dramatically. (Wicked thought for the day: do metal clarinettists rust if they stay too long in the shower?)

The change in dynamics is astounding and this CD is a gem. The styles are different and very complimentary; Kjeld is rather loose limbed compared to Jack and lacks his emphasis on vibrato. From tune one it is easy to identify the players. If you haven't picked it straight away then tune number 2 will set you right as on this number and on two other tracks* Jack plays Eb rather than Bb.

It is not just the extra depth of having Kjeld alongside Jack that lifts this CD for the other members of the group, John van Buuren on banjo, Craig Goeldner bass and Rachel Goeldner (nee Hamilton) on piano, get swept along too. The earlier CD was for aficionados, this CD is for everyone.

Very nice and well worth having




CD review by Bert Thompson in Just Jazz june 2005

As everyone who loves traditional jazz and has visited New Orleans recently knows, good jazz, like a good man, is hard to find. One of the few places where one can find it is Fritzel's Bar on Bourbon Street, especially during the French Quarter Festival. However, one would hardly expect to find church music played there on a Sunday morning, perhaps, but that is precisely what happened last year—April 18, 2004, to be exact— when Jack McLaughlin, from Australia, and Kjeld Brandt, from Denmark, got together to record an album of hymns and gospel songs. Both are clarinet players and are most ably accompanied here by John Van Buuren (banjo), Rachel Hamilton (piano), and Craig Goeldner (string bass), all also from Australia. The applause one hears comes from a small audience of aficionados who heard of the recording plans and turned up to partake of a rare experience.

Like so many clarinet players who play traditional jazz, both McLaughlin and Brandt were initially inspired by George Lewis, and also like most—or, at least, the better ones—they ultimately found their own voices. Lewis was a trail blazer back in 1954 when he recorded the classic Jazz at Vespers album on the Empirical label. Since then there have been many jazz albums of religious music recorded, but none that I can recall featuring two clarinets. (Through overdubbing, George Lewis played a duet with himself on one track on the George Lewis Plays Hymns LP by his trio issued on the Milneburg label in 1964.) Here we are treated to loving renditions of these tunes, the two clarinetists creating exquisite harmonies in their duets as they listen to each other carefully, improvising, most of the time quite successfully—no small feat given the fact that they get together so seldom, living as they do on almost opposite sides of the globe. Their joint appearances are limited usually to those they make once a year at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans. There is no attempt to make this a "cutting" contest—each plays for the benefit of the other, not trying to see how many notes he can squeeze into eight or sixteen bars or how he might "top" the other. Rather it is a case of which note or notes will best fit or complement what the other is doing. The result is an unusual feast for the ears of beautiful clarinet playing in the "old New Orleans Style," one seldom heard these days, with its hallmark vibrato. On a few tracks McLaughlin plays an Eb metal clarinet, the kind favored by clarinetists in the old New Orleans brass bands, but most of the time he stays with the metal Bb Albert system instrument. Brandt also plays a metal clarinet, but his is a double bell Boehm system instrument, made of 99% silver.

While most, if not all, of the tunes on this CD will be familiar, their renditions are refreshingly different. There is a quiet beauty to them that is not often to be found. This unusual CD should not appeal only to those who play clarinet; it will also provide an hour and a quarter of enjoyment to anyone who simply loves good music, period. Those who took the trouble to rise early enough to be in Fritzel's Bar in New Orleans at that ungodly hour of 10:30 a.m. that Sunday were fortunate, indeed. We are equally fortunate in having this recording of that morning's proceedings, thanks to Big Bill Bissonnette, owner of Jazz Crusade Records. It should be available from the usual sources, but if all else fails you can contact Jazz Crusade Records at 585 Pond Street, Bridgeport, CT 06606, U.S.A., or their web site www.jazzcrusade.com for ordering information.




King's Jazz Review - British Internet Jazz Magazine

The Marcel Joly three paged liner notes lets us know inter alia that Jack McLaughlin lives in Australia, that Kjeld Brandt in Demark, giving details of the types of metal clarinets that they both own and play, that having been inspired by the clarinet playing of New Orleansian clarinettist George Lewes, and that they first met at a Bude jazz festival in England is perhaps inevitable that the seeds of staging an "Of A Sunday Morn In Olde New Orleans" concert were first planted.

It was to be four-fifths of a decade later that the two metal clarinet players, whilst attending the 2004 French Quarter Festival in New Orleans arranged to meet at 10.20am at Fritzel's Bar in Bourbon Street to record an album, this one, of hymns and spirituals, which happened to have been attended by a small enthusiastic crowd that got wind in the air of it happening so went along there to listen to them.

As I listened to Just A Little While To Stay Here, Bye & Bye, Down By The Riverside, Lord, Lord, Lord (You've Been Good to Me), four tunes on the 'Morn' CD as I recall were also on my "Jazz At Vespers" George Lewis and his Ragtime Band LP that was recorded at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Oxford, Ohio, USA on the 21st of February 1954, issued by arrangement with David Jones and Empirical Records, when at the time, the Reverend Alvin Kershaw was rector of the church. I could not recall how over a particular two-bars passage on the Saints, that the George Lewis clarinet was so awe-inspiring.

I was enthralled by the Kjeld Brandt playing on the Jazz Crusade double album "The French Preservation New Orleans Jazz Band" so was looking forward to hearing him again on this JCCD-3102 Bissonnette CD, and his playing beautifully exampled on Nearer My God To Thee low register featuring and through other selected tunes.

Making a recording with a lead metal clarinet duo in informality settings would have been a daunting feat for anyone to undertake, yet, due to their professionalism and excellent performance shown, in the main, on this their "Of A Sunday Morn In Olde New Orleans" album, there was nothing to foresee in such an adventure, by their opinion undoubtedly, that would fash them one bit in so doing.

The banjoist is the central controlling focus in the recordings with some lovely piano pieces throughout prominently notable on Does Jesus Care? and In The Garden but it is the lead instruments that command greatly, but sadly they lack a well needed bass sound for warming tonality, and compensatory acoustic imperfections, fundamentals warranted for a propensity for setting very high standards.

It must be universally difficult out of the 18 grace and beauty tracks to pick out a favourite. It is memories of years ago since I last heard this very loveable His Eye Is On The Sparrow tune played, but with sorrow the overstretching exuberance made the joy of hearing it here - less so. The eighteen tracks are all very special, turning this "Of A Sunday Morn In Olde New Orleans" album of hymns and spirituals into an historic creation of evolutionary scope, novel of reeds instrumentation, furthering the concept much beyond the current boundaries of traditional jazz music.

On A Sunday Morn In New Orleans
Jazz Crusade Records JCCD-3102

New Orleans Delight Featuring Marilyn Keller And Derek Winters
Music Mecca CD 5012-2

Es sind erstaunlicherweise häufig Europäer, die den New Orleans Jazz pflegen und diesen auf hohem Niveau spielen. Einer von Ihnen ist der dänische Klarinettist Kjeld Brandt, der jetzt zwei neue CDs vorgelegt hat, bei denen ausschließlich traditionelle Hymnen und Spirituals auf dem Programm stehen. Bei „On a Sunday Morn in New Orleans“ handelt es sich um Liveaufnahmen aus dem Jahr 2004. Kjeld Brandt tritt hier zusammen mit dem kongenialen australischen Klarinettisten Jack McLaughlin auf; beide spielen übrigens auf einer Metallklarinette. Das Matineeprogramm, im bekannten Fritzel´s Club vor einem gebannt lauschenden Publikum aufgenommen, gleicht oft einem musikalischen Gebet. Bei Titeln wie „Where he leads me“, „In the upper garden“ oder “Nearer my God to Thee” finden beide Klarinettisten zu einem intensiven, intimen Zwiegespräch, das dezent von der australischen Pianistin Rachel Goeldner, ihrem Eheman Craig am Bass sowie dem Banjospieler John van Buuren unterstützt wird.
Auf der zweiten CD ist Kjeld Brandt mit seiner eigenen Band New Orleans Delight zu hören. Als Gäste sind der englische Trompeter Derek Winters und die vielseitige amerikanische Jazz- und Gospelsängerin Marilyn Keller mit von der Partie. Mit ihrer voluminösen, ausdrucksstarken Stimme gibt sie Titeln wie „Amazing Grace“ oder „His Eye is on the sparrow“ eine ergreifende Spiritualität, und es ist nicht verwunderlich, dass einigen ihrer Musikerkollegen bei den Aufnahmen in der Jakobskirke in Roskilde im Juni 2005 die Tränen der Rührung in den Augen standen. Die New Orleans Delight Band begleitet ohne zu kopieren sehr homogen im Stile der George Lewis Bands, allerdings technisch weitaus versierter als die Vorbilder.
Insgesamt zwei sehr ansprechende Alben, die zeigen, welche Kraft in der ursprünglichen Musik aus New Orleans steckt, wenn sie von solchen Könnern wie Kjeld Brandt gespielt wird.