Art-lovers were treated to an hour of traditional New Orleans-style jazz recently, courtesy of NECOM’s newest ensemble, “The Dixie Six”. The concert event was attended by almost 100 patrons at NERAM’s unveiling of the Howard Hinton Collection, and represents the first collaboration between NECOM and NERAM in terms of a combined “performance exhibition”.
Despite the name, nine musicians actually performed on Sunday 18 February, presenting such perennial jazz standards as Down By The Riverside, Five Foot Two and Hello Dolly. The band was made up of well-known local musicians, most of whom have a direct connection with NECOM. The youngest member was clarinettist Liam Skinner from O’Connor High School. The instrumentation was authentic to the early 1920s era, with clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, sousaphone, banjo, drums and washboard.
NECOM Director, Russ Bauer, hopes the newly-formed “trad-jazz” band will gain a following in Armidale. “You don’t have to be a serious jazz-lover to appreciate the joy of Dixieland music”, he said. “Dixieland music is accessible to everyone.”
The Band has already been booked to play on Friday evening, 16 March from 8 – 9pm at the start of Armidale’s annual Autumn Festival.
“We’ll need to find a new name”, remarked Mr Bauer, “as Dixie Six is already the name of an existing jazz group in the States. We’d love to hear from anyone who has a catchy name for this new band”.
The encore piece was Down by the Riverside performed by the Dixie Six at the recent Trad-Jazz afternoon at NERAM
Posted by New England Conservatorium on Wednesday, 28 February 2018