Concert Review: Skip Parsons Memorial Riverboat Jazz Band @ A Place for Jazz, SUNY Schenectady, 04/21/2023

By Michael Hochanadel On Apr 22, 2023

Exactly a year after area jazz giant Skip Parsons’ death, members of his VERY long-running Riverboat Jazz Band honored their leader Friday in a membership/fundraising concert supporting A Place for Jazz at SUNY Schenectady’s Carl B. Taylor Auditorium.

Equally symmetrical, the clarion clarinet of Ron Joseph rang out clearest in a lively antique show of the New Orleans traditional jazz Parsons played here for decades.

Fully half the vintage tunes this veteran sextet performed mentioned New Orleans in titles, lyrics, or both, and all shared that dreamy city’s vivid moods of exuberant street parades or deep-in-the-night, drink in hand, love lost somewhere pathos.

In other words, it was all blues. Upbeat or down.

Well, first, it was up: “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans.” Trumpeter Richard Downs sang its sentimental words, but Ron Joseph’s clarinet owned its chords and melody in a solo ranging from raspy to sweet and back again.

Though 80-something drummer and president emeritus of A Place for Jazz Tim Coakley is the band’s nominal leader, Downs directed traffic, cueing the solos – and almost everybody got one, in almost every song. Generally, Crick Diefendorf’s banjo (mostly) or guitar, or Coakley’s drums launched each venerable tune, then they all played the head, then everybody got a bite before Downs tapped his purple flat cap to signal the recap. Few tunes stretched past five to seven minutes so that each got its due, but nothing overstayed its welcome. Both Downs and trombonist Ken Olsen used mutes effectively; Downs’ Harmon mute imparting a brittle metallic glow or Olsen’s plunger mute giving a wry wah-wah speech-like effect.

After some brief early Covid-rust, the band swung spirited, strong and sharp, especially as the rocking “Lay Me Down a Pallet on Your Floor” focused its energy around Diefendorf’s vocal and Joseph’s clarinet.

Even when they downshifted into the melancholy “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans,” they kept the edge they’d honed in “Pallet.” Olson’s trombone break sparkled, as did Diefendorf’s banjo, on the bridge; but, as usual, Joseph’s clarinet brought the most interesting ideas and swaggering momentum. By the time I recognized he’d just quoted another tune entirely, drawing wry smiles across the bandstand, I didn’t have time to recognize it since he’d already moved on into another surprising riff cascade.

The ragtime-y “South” was all zip and zest, Coakley copping the coda after – you guessed it – hot licks from Joseph and Diefendorf’s banjo. Diefendorf next sang “Basin Street Blues,” but again Joseph grabbed everybody’s attention with a knock-out solo that spanned the entire range of his instrument; not In showy, look-at-me ego but an intensely musical excursion that also showed just about everything a clarinet can do.

When Coakley noted the next tune was one of his favorites, the band mock-ganged-up on him, tease-announcing their consensus to skip it. But no, Downs sang “Tishomingo Blues” really well, with tasty solo work from Joseph and Olsen, sounding conversational with plunger mute shaping his phrases.
“(Back Home Again in) Indiana” closed the first set with rousing energy after almost exactly an hour, Diefendorf tapping on his banjo head to accent the beat. His banjo launched the shorter second set before handing off the lead to Downs’s vocal in “Tin Roof Blues.” After a crisp dialog of muted trombone and banjo, Coakley’s drums pushed the whole proceedings to a brisker tempo. But then, changing the pace adroitly, they showcased Joseph’s clarinet to great effect in the New Orleans funeral-parade anthem “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.” Pete Toigo bowed his bass in brilliant, understated support, and the whole tune could have ended after Joseph’s heavenly three minutes of fervent meditation. But after an all-in statement from the full crew, he went all poignant wail again, a heart-fire blaze as high-note coda.

Really, wow.

An agile leap from the sublime to the ridiculous followed: the call-and-response, claim and rebuttal vocal number “I’m Satisfied With My Gal,” a showcase for Diefendorf’s zippy banjo and sincere/oblivious vocal. Next, his banjo introduced a slower, serene ode to New Orleans featuring the show’s umpteenth celestial clarinet break. Then another novelty number, which Coakley warned Downs contains “a lot of words.” Indeed it did, and Downs hit them all in “The Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me” with a lighthearted drums coda.

Turning serious, Coakley dedicated the show to the memory of Skip Parsons, saluting his widow and daughters in the audience before leading the band, all in, on “Riverboat Shuffle” at a spry clip. Here, both banjo and bass hit the best solos, along with – who else? – Joseph.

This special membership/fundraiser spring preview comprised far older music than almost anything else on the fall A Place for Jazz season at two-week intervals starting after Labor Day:

Sept. 8: Chembo Corniel Quintet
Sept. 22: BWC Jazz Orchestra
Oct. 6: Camille Thurman with the Daniel Green Quintet
Oct. 20: Emmet Cohen Trio
Nov. 9: Ken Peplowski Swing All-Stars

All shows start at 7:30 p.m. in the Carl B. Taylor Auditorium of the SUNY Schenectady music department. Admission is $20. www.aplaceforjazz.org.