Reviews of New Orleans Delight

1. Second Line March * (P. Barbarin) 6:00
2. Some Of These Days * (S. Brooks) 7:32
3. What A Friend We Have In Jesus * • (J. Scriven / C.C. Converse) 8:35
4. Fidgety Feet (La Rocca) 5:59
5. Milneburg Joys * (Morton) 6:59
6. St. Louis Blues • (W. C. Handy) 6:39
7. Just A Little While (trad, arr. New Orleans Delight) 6:06
8. Old Time Religion * • (trad, arr. New Orleans Delight) 5:32
9. Dr. Jazz (W. Melrose / J. Oliver) 4:22
10.Hindustan (Wallace / Weeks) 6:26
11. What A Wonderful World * • (Weiss / Thiele) 7:37
12. Saints * (trad, arr. New Orleans Delight) 4:00

Booklet 32 pages

Gregg Stafford (tp, vo*)
Brian Towers (tb)
Kjeld Brandt (cl)
Hans Pedersen (p)
Erling Lindhardt (bjo tg•)
Stefan Kärfve (b)
Claus Lindhardt (dm)

Total playing time: 75:56

Recorded at Støberihallen, Hillerød November 9 , 2004 by Jørgen Vad
Mixed by Jørgen Vad, Erling Lindhardt and Kjeld Brandt
Mastering: Jørgen Vad · Jørgen Vad uses Audio-Technica microphones
Executive producer: Henning Schädler
Liner notes: Marcel Joly
Coverphoto: Jørgen Vad
Discphoto: Göran Magnusson
Layout and dtp: Kjeld Brandt
Music Mecca CD 4092-2



www.jazzreview

Reviewed by: Richard Bourcier <http://www.jazzreview.com/contact/contacts_us-user_id.html>

New Orleans Delight set a benchmark with their 2004 sessions with Cliff “Kid” Bastien and George Berry. Sadly, both men have since moved on to their final rewards. It was felt that those recordings would not be equaled in the near future.

It seems, to this writer, that this new issue sets a new benchmark. The Copenhagen band recruited two of the most exciting players in the New Orleans Revival style for the new CD. From the Crescent City, trumpeter Gregg Stafford breathes fire as he kicks the septet along through a series of New Orleans favorites. Like Bix and Satchmo, Stafford is prone to frequent explosions causing audiences to rise from their seats. His vocals echo Armstrong’s spirit, if not his gravel voice. This is Stafford’s finest session since his appearance on Prayin’ and Swayin’ At The Cross on the Jazz Crusade label.

Trombonist Brian Towers and his Hot Five Jazzmakers have been pulling in crowds on Saturday afternoons for a couple of decades to Toronto’s Cest What on Front Street. The quintet has a reputation for playing from a huge repertoire. Towers and partner, reed player Janet Shaw never allow a crowd to be bored. They dig up old, unheard chestnuts from the 20s, 30s and earlier, presenting them in a trademark “Hot Five” style. Both Towers and Shaw are active members of the Magnolia Marching Brass Band started by the late “Kid” Bastien.

While there isn’t a mediocre track on this album, a few deserve special mention. Clarinetist Kjeld Brandt delivers a flawless solo on the old 1918 hit Hindustan followed by Towers’ “Ory style” trombone and Stafford’s incessantly swinging trumpet. The rhythm section explodes and equals the front line’s exuberance. Other favorites are Shelton Brooks’ Some Of These Days, Jelly’s Milneburg Joys and the traditional Just A Little While To Stay Here. The band’s new pianist Hans Pedersen delivers a pretty solo on What A Wonderful World while Gregg Stafford offers a vocal in Armstrong’s gravelly style. Everyone gets a break on Paul Barbarin’s popular Second Line March and special kudos go to Claus Lindhardt for some great traditional drumming. New Orleans Delight’s unerring rhythm section deserves five stars for this performance. Bassist Stefan Karfve and banjoist Erling Lindhardt play strongly and sound better than ever.

This is clearly New Orleans Delight’s finest CD. Five shining stars!



Traditional Jazz

CD reviews by Geogg Boxell, New Zealand

It would be nice to think that I helped to instigate this fusion. I came across Greg Stafford a few years back via a Jazz Crusade CD. I was so impressed that I mentioned to Kjeld Brandt, leader of New Orleans Delight, a band that does not have a resident trumpet player, that NOD should try and get Gregg to do a tour with them. This is that tour, but I am sure Kjeld already had it organised as Mr Stafford was already well know to Kjeld's contacts the other side of the Atlantic.
What caught my attention was not only Gregg Stafford's brilliance on trumpet but the fact that he was a black man from New Orleans. Although we all know that New Orleans and in fact all traditional jazz, is black in origin, we tend to forget that the only regular black faces in the post-war revival bands tended to be the original stalwarts that started the whole thing off years before. In recent years traditional jazz has become mainly a white man's preserve. Well her is Gregg and he has true New Orleans pedigree straight from the text book having started his career playing in the brass marching bands in that city.
Naturally you will see from the above reviews the esteem in which I hold New Orleans Delight, so their matching with Gregg was bound to be a success. The other guest is British born Canadian Brian Towers on trombone. NOD were between trombone players at that time and Brian proves to be a suitable fill in for the front line, but it really it is Gregg Stafford that this CD belongs to.
The material is hardly startling, but NOD and its guests still manage to serve these old favourites up hot and fresh. It was nice to hear the lyrics to ŒMilneburg Joys' actually being used and I have had ŒSecond Line March' echoing through my head ever since I started to play the CD, which is a bit disconcerting when trying to sleep at nights. It is, however, the two tracks that I feel give Gregg the ability to display his talents that stick out. ŒWhat A Friend We Have In Jesus' is truly magic, especially as it gives the whole band a chance to shine alongside Gregg. However, Gregg's rendition of ŒWhat A Wonderful World' is, perhaps, the best tune for Gregg as accompanied only by the back line, with the sympathetic Hans Pederson on piano, he takes Louis Armstrong's tune and makes it his own. Ok, so at the very end he deliberately impersonates Satchmo, but to me it is iconic as I feel that Gregg Stafford is deservedly taking on Old Satchel Mouth's mantel.
Well done everyone, and when is the next tour and CD due please?



The Hot Jazz Channel Review:

New Orleans Delight are a delightful New Orleans style Scandinavian band led by semi retired graphic artist and more importantly clarinetist Kjeld Brandt. So well have they absorbed the idiom, the subtleties and nuances that to my mind they now carry the repository and torch for the music. It lives on with them like with few others - certainly few if any in New Orleans itself - and that&Mac226;s the reason so many visiting New Orleanians like Gregg Stafford choose to tour with them. On this occasion however they had the additional talents of Canadian trombonist Brian Towers and the results were electrifying. We've chosen to play you Milenburg Joys but any of the other eleven tracks would have been equally exciting. Ass I write the bandis on tour in the UK - if you have the opportunity don't miss them.
- Brian Harvey



The JazzGazette

Some years ago, Marcel and I were doing an interview with Narvin Kimball in the carriage way of Preservation Hall just before his nightly job with the Humphrey Brothers band and we talked about the fact that there were so few young musicians playing traditional jazz those days. And he replied, 'Just wait until they discover they can make a buck by playing it'.
Time proved him right. The music of New Orleans has never been a lively as today. There are so many young people playing At the time of the interview, only Michael White and Gregg Stafford were known to us. Now everybody knows that they have become international known and respected musicians who made already numerous recordings for different labels. Both played with great success at the Ascona Festival in June-July this year.
Gregg was already in England as a guest with the Rae Brothers and with Brian Carrick.
I knew Kjeld had for some time plans in bringing Gregg over for a tour with his New Orleans Delight.
From the music on this CD we can conclude that the tour was very successful, happy, joyful music, an unbelievable chemistry between the two guests and the band.

Brian Towers, an Englishman living in Canada, was the second guest on this tour. In Toronto, Brian leads his own band for a very long time. His Hot Five Jazzmakers have made numerous records and travelled all over to play at the best festivals.
I am very sorry, but this is once again a Delight CD that I can highly recommend to those of you who like true New Orleans music.

- Jempi De Donder



Just Jazz, December 2005

CD REVIEW
by Bert Thompson

In 2004. New Orleans Delight, the six-piece Danish/Swedish jazz band that uses guest trumpet players, for a European tour brought over Gregg Stafford from New Orleans to occupy the trumpet chair and Brian Towers (ex-U.K.) from Canada to fill the temporarily vacant trombone spot. Both are featured on this CD, the band's latest release, In New Orleans, Stafford plays with, and leads, the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, as well as the former Kid Sheik Cola band; in Toronto, Canada, Towers leads his own group, the Hot Five Jazzmakers. Stafford has made several appearances in Europe since his first in 1977, and Towers likewise has toured several countries with his own band prior to this solo visit.

As Marcel Joly says in his liner notes, both men dovetail seamlessly with the rest of the New Orleans Delight band members, sounding as if they have been doing this together for years. That is the mark of a good jazzman - he is a good listener and can "fit in" once he hears the other band members and the style played. And it says something for New Orleans Delight's Kjeld Brandt, who can choose guests that prove so congenial, and for the rest of the band who can accommodate such guests.

The proceedings get off to a good start with Second Line March, Lindhardt laying down a nice New Orleans street beat which is maintained throughout the tune, including a fitting drum solo. Stafford takes the vocal, his voice being easy on the ear. If you enjoy vocals by musicians, you will not be disappointed with this CD as some 50% of the selections are sung by Stafford. However, with What a Wonderful World (a tune - or at least the lyrics of which - most people seem to love or hate) he falls prey to the seemingly irresistible urge so many singers have to do a gravely Louis imitation, this one being mercifully short as it is only a couple of lines taking the song out. While on the subject of vocals, I should mention that the closing number, or at least the vocal on it, is actually a medley of When the Saints Go Marching In and I'll be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You, although such is not mentioned on the tray insert.

Stafford's trumpet playing displays a more modern sound than that of players of the previous generation, as he frequently uses a plethora of notes (as compared to the economical output of, say, Kid Thomas) and ascending and descending runs, as well as tending to explore the upper reaches of the high register, for instance his solo on St. Louis Blues or the coda on Hindustan. Now he can and does play a forceful, authoritative horn, and he is certainly in command of his instrument, but he resorts occasionally to some grandstanding that doesn't add a great deal to the music, such as the long, sustained note he holds on Fidgety Feet or Milneburg Joys—more a demonstration of endurance than a musical contribution, as far as I am concerned. So I have mixed feelings about Stafford's trumpet playing. Marcel Joly says, Stafford "ha[s] his own individual style rooted in the old tradition of the city," so we will just leave it at that.

The other guest, Brian Towers, exhibits some nice mute work on Some of These Days and, along with Brandt, provides sensitive backing to Stafford's lead on What a Friend We Have in Jesus. He also displays this quality, as well as his tastefulness, as he plays behind Brandt on Just a Little While to Stay Here. But he can and does play robustly as well - he is a versatile trombonist.

On the subject of backing, I wish there had been a bit more ensemble playing, the hallmark of the New Orleans style, particularly behind solos by the front line members, rather than the its being left so often to just the rhythm section, fine as it is.

All in all, however, what we have here is another very good disc in an increasingly long line of same from New Orleans Delight. As well as good music, they provide some exposure of the musicians who guest with the band to those who might not be familiar with their work. By all means add this disc to your library.

Like other Music Mecca CD's, this one can be ordered on-line at the following internet websites: www.cdjazz.com (e-mail ambia@cdjazz.com) or www.jazznblues.co.uk (e-mail jazzjerry@aol.com).

Frederiksborg Amtsavis, lørdag d. 30.7.2005

Mindeværdig koncert med Gregg Stafford på cd

Koncerten 9. november sidste år i Støberihallen med New Orleans Delight og solisterne Gregg Stafford og Brian Towers er kommet på cd.

Hillerøds jazzpublikum var på tæerne sidste år tirsdag den 9. november, hvor det danske orkester New Orleans Delight med den amerikanske trompetist og sanger Gregg Stafford og den canadiske trombonist Brian Towers som solister gav en forrygende koncert i Støberihallen.
@Brød.8.:Aftenen var Gregg Staffords, for den dygtige musiker fra New Orleans er siden 1989 blevet en kendt og kær gæst i Hillerød, ligesom også mange af Hillerøds jazzinteresserede gennem årene har besøgt Gregg Stafford og New Orleans. Trods den mangeårige forbindelse var det dog ikke ikke tidligere blevet til en koncert med Gregg Stafford i Hillerød. Derfor skylder Hillerød-publikummet New Orleans Delights orkesterleder, klarinestisten Kjeld Brandt stor tak for, at han fik arrangeret koncerten i Gregg Staffords danske »hjemby«, Hillerød.

Under koncerten benyttede Gregg Stafford - der var den centrale person på scenen denne særlige aften - lejligheden til på en både underfundig og særdeles musikalsk måde at få sagt tak til vennerne i Hillerød, som han for øvrigt besøger igen i disse dage. Det lokale islæt skinner igennem i flere af cd'ens 12 numre, blandt andet i »Old Time Religion«, hvor Gregg nævner navnene på sine venner i Hillerød.

Bedste koncert
Det er Jørgen Vad, der har optaget koncerten, som var den sidste store koncert, mens Olaf Nyeng var leder af Støberihallen. I øvrigt sagde Olaf Nyeng bagefter, at det var den bedste koncert, han havde overværet i løbet af de 12 år, han stod i spidsen for Hillerøds kulturhus.
Det er på forunderlig måde og meget dygtigt lykkedes Jørgen Vad at rense optagelserne, så de mange forstyrende lyde fra en livekoncert er elimineret, uden at live-præget er forsvundet.

Internet-jazzmagasinet Jazzreview.com har også lyttet til cd'en, der har titlen »New Orleans Delight, featuring Gregg Stafford & Brian Towers«, og her får cd'en »five shining Stars« - fem skinnede stjerner. Jazzreview.com sammenligner således Gregg Stafford med Louis Armstrong og betegner hans sang, blandt andet på »What a Wonderful World«, som et »ekko af Armstrongs
ånd, hvis ikke hans stemme fra graven« og vurderer koncerten til at være Staffords bedste, siden han kom frem.
Jazzreview giver også masser af roser til musikerne i New Orleans Delight og betegner klart cd'en som bandets fineste, før jazzmagasinet ender med de - som nævnt - fem stjerner.

Det er Music Mecca, der har udgivet cd'en, som kan købes ved henvendelse til pladeselskabet på telefon 3311-1015. Desuden kan cd'en også købes ved frokostjazzen hver lørdag på John F. Kennedy, hvor salget allerede går strygende.

mavi