Home » Jazz News » Radio

70

Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart on Riverwalk Jazz This Week

Source:

Sign in to view read count
This week on Riverwalk Jazz, former Bob Crosby Orchestra members, trumpeter Yank Lawson and bassist Bob Haggart, are heard in rare live performance tracks of Crosby repertoire recorded with The Jim Cullum Jr. Jazz Band in a 1989 visit to The Landing.

The hour-long public radio program is distrubuted in the USA by Public Radio International and Sirius/XM sattelite radio, and can be streamed on-demand from the Riverwalk Jazz website.

The Bob Crosby Orchestra holds a unique place among bands of the Swing Era. While most swing bands were weighted down by dense orchestrations requiring that the music be played “as written" rather than improvised, the Crosby ensemble maintained deep roots in the free- wheeling style of New Orleans jazz. With a core of New Orleans players, there was a strong emphasis on improvisation—coupled with a driving, rhythmic feel that proved popular among bobby-soxers and jitterbuggers of the late 1930s.

The Crosby Orchestra operated as a team. Musical ideas came from everyone within the band, as opposed to the swing band standard—one strong-willed, charismatic leader who called the shots. A trio of arrangers—clarinetist Matty Matlock, reedman Deanne Kincaide, and bassist and composer Bob Haggart—were largely responsible for crafting the Crosby band sound. Bob Haggart told author Richard Sudhalter, “Above all, we were like a family. We worked together, socialized together, and thought musically together."

The Jim Cullum Jazz Band has a special kinship with the Bob Crosby Orchestra. Jim Cullum counts Crosby band trumpeter Yank Lawson as one of his seminal influences. Through his father, Jim became part of the Crosby band extended family when he was a teenager with a growing affection for early jazz. Like the Crosby ensemble, Jim and his band focus on preserving the loose-jointed, rhythmic feel of traditional New Orleans jazz while using an arranging style that combines formal, written-out sections with plenty of room for group improvisation.

Continue Reading...

Visit Website | Purchase

Comments

Tags

News

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.