4.19.13
Found Sound Records in Ferndale
ft. Detroit Pleasure Society's songs and Jim Gallert's music-history presentation
7 pm
- On the eve of Record Store Day, (a day reserved for reverence towards recorded music and homage to the enthralling, geek-ish actualization attainable by those ascribing to the esteemed cult of vinyl,) The Detroit Pleasure Society will soundtrack an educational presentation at Found Sound in Ferndale, featuring a lecture on Detroit Jazz by historian and broadcaster Jim Gallert (current host of “Detroit JazzStage” –detroitjazzstage.us).
Detroit Pleasure Society are six local musicians dedicated to genuine revival and refinement of Dixieland Jazz amid the rougher tumble of the areas bars and venues typically catering indie-rock and punk outfits. All the jittery-shuffles, rooting-tooting bluster and jovial jaunts of Fats Waller or Duke Ellington, the rich resonance of those syrupy tenor and alto saxophones taking those ascendant melodies and harmonizing with the grinning burr of trombones, the skitter of banjos and the booming brio of the sousaphone all clamor together to kick up a Detroit-ish take on the marching band aesthetic.
“Big Butter & Egg Man” ripples with nostalgia, the frenetic banjo over those sleek sinewy saxophones coaxes you, uncannily (regardless of whatever your steady contemporary musical diet may be, otherwise) to get up and gracefully flail an attempt at the Charleston.
It’s no gimmick – throughout their debut album, there’s no hint of the 21st century at all nor any self-conscious lure towards “reinvention” or blending genre or generation. It doesn’t matter if Ben Luckett (rhythm), Thomas Gilchrist (sousaphone), Stephen Bublitz (trombone), Nick Schillace (banjo), Paul Mardirosian (tenor sax), Nicole McUmber (alto sax) are notable participants in various other more contemporary music projects around town - this is their chance to flourish the old-fashioned stuff! This is old timey New Orleans jazz. It’s an up and at em tumble, it’s the sepia-toned suggestion of dim-lit, smoke-fogged, curtained nightclub, with rickety tables kicked over or danced-upon and sudsy mugs spilled all throughout the worn tile floor.
So, all of that – on top of Mr. Gallert’s informed dissertations on the development of jazz music, jazz culture and keen insights into various incarnations (and re-incarnations) of the genre. Gallter’s enlightened vast numbers of listeners via programs on WDET and Ypsilanti’s WEMU.
More info: http://detroitpleasuresociety.com/
