Everything is a tribute concert now 1/24/04

Everything is a tribute concert now, and it's no wonder. How many people would have bought tickets for a show featuring Dorado Schmitt, Florin Nicolescu and Ludovic Beier? Probably not many. But billed as the "Django Reinhardt Festival," they sold out a half-dozen shows at the Kennedy Center the weekend before last.

Django was a famed "Gypsy swing" guitarist of the 1930s and 1940s, the one unquestionably great jazz master Europe has produced. We'll have to sit around and tell stories about him. The aforementioned players did an uncanny job of recreating the sound of Django's combos. Maybe too good.

Schmitt had Django's sound down - the furious flights of notes, the aching dreaminess. Playing tunes by Django ("Nuages") or associated with him ("Lady Be Good") as well as some originals, Schmitt and Nicolescu, playing licks borrowed from Django's partner Stephan Grappelli, had a wonderful, happy sound that was perhaps a bit second-hand. Beier took the most original solos, swooping things that would have sounded like the most adventurous bebop if he were playing sax instead of an accordion.

The Django Reinhardt Festival is something that's been happening in New York for a few years, bassist Brian Torff pairing the Europeans with some American musicians (in our case, a slightly wasted Paquito D'Rivera). I was glad, though, when toward the end of the show we went to the guys dropped the Django act and played a little in their own style. Jazz is becoming a museum music. Certainly no one has more conservative tastes than me (except Jeremy Korzenik, perhaps), but jazz should involve at least the spirit of improvisation, even in tribute shows.

Jeremy's great hangout is Colonel Brooks' Tavern on a Tuesday night, where the Federal Jazz Commission has held down the stand for more than 20 years. This group plays what Louis Armstrong called "the good old good ones," tunes from Armstrong and King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton and the early jazz musicians who straddle the era between Dixieland and swing.

I've written them up plenty of times but last week's show was notable for the return of Ron Hockett. Hockett is a clarinet player who went on to occupy the seat of the Jim Cullum Jazz Band in San Antonio - a prestigious gig because of the band's public radio show. Hockett never makes a mistake, but he's one of the stiffest players you'll ever hear.

He was replaced in the band by Henning Hoenhe, who not only is a far more inventive soloist than Hockett ever was, but just exudes a great exuberance and joy in playing. He plays with this group, a Sunday brunch band at the Market Inn called Dixieland Direct and elsewhere. He's worth checking out for his smooth tone and his ability to match any name soloist you've heard of in spinning out hundreds of notes over a couple of minutes that all fit perfectly in place.

One of the best shows I've heard at the Colonel's was Hockett's farewell, where he felt challenged by Henning and really blew his lid. In this case, well-established and touring the old neighborhood, he kind of mailed it in. There were some other guests, too, guys both named Dave on cornet and guitar, and they were having fun playing with the top-flight FJC guys. All told, there were nine musicians blowing, in that early jazz style of collective improvisation where the trombone and cornets and clarinets are all playing slightly different melodies, creating a wall of sound that still manages to make sense and have some propulsive energy forward.