Roll back the carpet while you roll back the years: here’s ‘Swingin’ Uptown’, an album of sole (please excuse the pun) music, 16 tracks dedicated to transmitting the beat to your feet. Eyal Vilner has meticulously assembled various iterations of a mid-sized band studded with enthusiastic talent to realise his devotion to swinging music (mainly from the 1930s and early 40s when the polished parquet of ballrooms attracted the world’s young happy feet). And, all the way through, it would appear that everyone in the studio on the 7th and 8th of July 2023, was having the time of their lives.
Six of the tracks are Vilner compositions while the others recall the heyday of big bands. Eran Fink’s insistent tom toms set off the funky Chicken An’ Dumplings, a Ray Bryant piece recorded by Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1960. Vilner solos first on alto saxophone, then Ron Wilkins on trombone, Brandon Lee on trumpet and Joe Thomas’s piano. Potholes and sullen shock absorbers inspired Vilner’s Bumpy Tour Bus studded with solos from Julieta Eugenio’s tenor saxophone, Brandon Lee and pianist Thomas, all propelled by Fink’s energetic drumming.
The tempo increases on the shamelessly riffy title track, Swingin’ Uptown, Vilner’s tribute to Harlem, the epicentre of jazz dancing. According to Russ Musto’s excellent sleeve notes, the arrangement was specifically written for the International Lindy Hop Championships in Harlem’s Alhambra Ballroom. Eugenio splits solo duties with Lee. The blues, Tell Me Pretty Baby originated in Billy Eckstine’s spectacular bebop big band, a favourite of Vilners. Vocalist Imani Rouselle handles Eckstine’s soulful lyrics over a heavy back beat with equally soulful statements from Ron Wilkins’ laid-back trombone, Vilner’s alto and Lee’s trumpet.
Vilner’s I Want Coffee delivers spirited chitchat between reeds and brass with rousing comments from Eugenio’s tenor. Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby salutes that splendid altoist, singer, composer and bandleader Louis Jordan. Imani Rouselle handles the vocal over a subtle, but jumping, arrangement.
Vincent Yeoman and Irving Caesar’s Tea For Two receives sprightly swinging treatment and a string of solos starting with the leader on alto, Lee on muted trumpet and the hard-working Ian Hutchison on bass working into a Basie conclusion. Vilner’s Lobby Call Blues accelerates the tempo, adding further high voltage with 1930s Kansas City-style riffing and a satisfying helping of Jon Thomas’s piano. The theme of Blue Skies, Irving Berlin’s essay in optimism, is given a perky, staccato ensemble treatment with Eugenio, Wilkins and Vilner on clarinet sharing solo spots.The slightly raunchy Don’t You Feel My Leg written by Danny Barker, Blue Lu Barker and J. Mayo Williams in the 1930s is given appropriate burlesque treatment by Brandon Lee on wah-wah mute and Josh Lee on baritone saxophone. Imani Rouselle reappears to take Billy Eckstine’s vocal role in I Love The Rhythm Of A Riff, another echo of his bebop band, her accomplished scatting reminding us that Eckstine’s band’s exceptional female vocalist was a young lady named Sarah Vaughan. John Elliot and Harold Spina wrote the pleasant I Don’t Want To Be Kissed (By Anyone Else But You) which is presented at a danceable mid-tempo, introduced with a catchy vamp from the team of Thomas on piano and Vilner on alto. Vilner blows an extended solo before trombonist Wilkins adds his finishing touch.
The tom-toms pound and the tempo moves upward yet again as Ms Rouselle, against a background of shouting brass, sings Clarence Williams, Walter Bishop and Lewis Raymond’s Swing, Brother, Swing, formerly made famous by Billie Holiday. After a swirling passage from the reeds, solos are distributed among Thomas, Vilner, Eugenio and Josh Lee. On the album’s second song dedicated to coffee (is there something Vilner wants to tell us?), his Coffee Bean Stomp Jubilee is a jolly romp with contributions from all the frontline horns.
Hellzapoppin’ is the fastest track on the album, taken from a 1941 movie that featured spectacular choreography from Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. The band negotiates the breakneck tempo with ease and we hear comments from Thomas on piano and Vilner’s dramatic swoops on clarinet. Finally, Afternoon At Smalls, dedicated to the celebrated Manhattan jazz cellar where the band made its debut. The arrangement starts with Vilner leading a quintet on flute before the full band emerges with a bop-fuelled ensemble. Trombonist Rob Edwards and pianist Jordan Piper add full-blooded comments until the quintet returns for the big finale.
Vilner wrote all the arrangements and Michael Perez-Claneros, assisted by David Turk, was responsible for the excellent recording, mixing and mastering.
Incidentally, this is the first album encountered by this reviewer that actually list beats-per-minute on every song. When you collect your copy, don’t forget your dancing shoes.
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