|
First, the three players, violin, guitar and upright bass, draw inspiration from groups such as the Quintette of the Hot Club of France (Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli's hot gypsy jazz sandwich of the 1930s). But they are not Luddites, traditionalists or (insert the sound of the American music press wrapping every band with shaggy hair in cellophane) "retro."
"We're no more retro than Kings of Leon and the Strokes," violinist Elana Fremerman said. "We travel around the world, playing for modern people and driving in modern contraptions."
Second, though they certainly swing, they have absolutely nothing to do with the so-called "swing revival" of the big, bad voodoo '90s.
"We have about as much in common with the swing movement as those people have in common with Wynton Marsalis," Fremerman said. "I'm not saying that's bad, but we're not at all interested in that. That kind of jazz cat, smooth, snooty sort of aesthetic is repugnant to me, personally. We're much more related musically to people whose revival has not yet come."
So then, toss out "rehash" and "revisit" and the whole list of words beginning with "re," save for one - rebuild. Cowtown knows its records collection well, and freely borrows rhythms and melodies from hot jazz, western swing and Tin Pan Alley standards. For "Secret of Mine," a song which Framerman wrote and dissected in Strings Magazine, she said she took an introduction from 1920s guitarist Joe Venuti, a line from Hot Club of France and a melody of a hot jazz standard. About 80 percent of a Hot Club song, though, is improvisation and rearrangement.
"The tunes that we've written don't sound contemporary at all," Fremerman said. "They use the same harmonic colors and the same kind of mechanics as the tunes that were being written in the 1920s and the 1930s. It's not that we try to ape that style, but for the most part, some of the best music we've heard is what those guys were doing, playing hot jazz in their quirky arrangements and pop standards of the day and instrumentals."
You could imagine Cowtown busking for coins outside a café on some sunny, nameless European boulevard in 1928. You could also visualize the group playing the last song, with some lonely-but-hopeful finality, on a smoky stage in 2004, a nearby tonic half-full.
"We tend to be a little different kind of band," Fremerman said. "We have a hard time playing music without somehow connecting to the audience."
Its latest compact disc, the live "Continental Stomp," oozes charm and a timeless, optimistic energy. Broadway composer Jimmy McHugh (1894-1969) wrote three of the songs. It was recorded at Austin's Continental Club - the band's home when it's not touring. The band played as much in New York City and London over the last year as it did in Austin.
This will be the group's first trip to Alaska, though Fremerman once spent a week on Kodiak Island. After Juneau, Cowtown will travel to Norway to play in the Bergen Folk Festival, then continue to England to tour with Bryan Ferry, formerly of Roxy Music. The band has played on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion." And late last year, Cowtown played twice on BBC-TV.
"It's such a relief for us to go over there and go on television and go on the BBC radio, and be able to have the opportunity to have that kind of audience," Fremerman said. "We would like to reach that in the United States, but there's been resistance on various levels which won't go away. We have to wait until people figure out that Hot Club of Cowtown can play on 'The Tonight Show.'"
   
|