I'm always amazed when young musicians and singers today are passionate about and obsessed with a long-ago jazz era. I just assume that given a choice, these artists would rather stick with post-war jazz movements—from bebop to fusion and beyond. Not Sweet Megg and Ricky Alexander and the musicians they hang out with. For them, the year is 1935, when syncopation was king and bluesy vocals were sandwiched in the middle of hot jazz recordings by small groups. Their album's latest video clip is being seen online for the first time here at the end of this post. [Photo above of Sweet Megg and Ricky Alexander; all photos by Rose Callahan]
You'll find such 1930s songs on the newly released Sweet Megg and Ricky Alexander: I'm in Love Again (Turtle Bay). Sweet Megg is on vocals and Alexander plays tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and clarinet. They are joined by Mike Davis (tp), Rob Edwards (tb), Jerron Paxton (banjo,g), Dalton Ridehour (p), Bob Adkins (b) and Kevin Dorn (d). Given that this album was recorded last November, the mood then wasn't that much different from the tenor of the Great Depression of the '30s: A critical government failure, a national economic blow, a rising death rate and the gloom most people felt hoping the protracted nightmare would end soon.
The album's tracks are My Honey's Lovin' Arms, Foolin' Myself, Right or Wrong, Squeeze Me, Last Night on the Back Porch, Angry, I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good, Ragged but Right, I'm in Love Again, I'd Love to Take Orders From You and A Blues Serenade. All have the peppy lachrymose of another time, when there was 25% unemployment, uncertainty and you took your fun where you could get it. Arrangements are by Mike Davis, except for A Blues Serenade, which is by Alexander.
Sweet Megg and Alexander skillfully revive the busy sound of jazz in the 1930s (and dawn of the 1940s), a style that emanated from speakeasies in Chicago and Kansas City and wound up in New York. Vocals sounded boozy and instruments careened without colliding. Megg's voice is sultry, but as you listen, you can hear her bending notes and digging in with just the right emotion and coyness. Alexander is a whiz on the reeds, providing a masterclass in 1930s jazz. Best of all, he's playing his instruments in the dry style popular back then. It's nostalgia for an era they never knew but can feel through the music.
This album could easily have veered off course if the musicians chose a campy, exaggerated interpretation. Instead, their skills, knowledge and feel for the bygone decade are authentic and tasteful. Vocals and instruments wrap around each other as jazz then threw off convention and went to work chasing your blues away. This album is both an education and a reminder of how jazz once helped raise spirits at a time when hope faded and darkness seemed never-ending.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Sweet Megg and Ricky Alexander: I'm in Love Again (Turtle Bay) here.
JazzWax premiere clip: Here, for the first time online, is Squeeze Me...
Here's a beautiful rendition of I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good) a 1941 song...
And here's Angry...
