riverboat stompers jazz band

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Riverboat Stompers   Dixieland Band from Boston, MA

Will travel up to 100 miles

Avg 5.0  |  3 Reviews

• 7 Verified Booking s
• Member Since 2010
• 1 Award or Badge
• Starting at $ 600 per event

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Come on down to New Orleans and join in the party atmosphere, parades, and festivities of the Crescent City as served up by the Riverboat Stompers Jazz Band. Songs will be drawn from popular tunes made famous in the last century by such New Orleans superstars as Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, and Sidney Bechet. The band features old-style interactive improvisation and a conviction that New Orleans Jazz is meant to be fun for everyone. Sing along and put in a request of your own from the traditional jazz songbook. This is a no-holds-barred crew of musicians that entices their audiences into enthusiastic foot-stomping participation. Boston's own Riverboat Stompers eagerly promote New Orleans jazz thoughout New England. The band has entertained at performing arts centers, Quincy Market, the Kennedy Library, Mardi Gras parties, weddings, town Parks & Rec' concerts, corporate events, retirement communities, funerals/Jazz Sunday services, and political rallies. The instrumentation usually includes 7-pieces: cornet, trombone, clarinet, piano, drums, tuba, and banjo. Vocals are frequent and usually done with great humor (or irony). If the setting is appropriate, the band offers up commentary and historical tidbits on the tunes - with a large dose of fun added. For stage concerts and outdoor events, the full ensemble of 7 is recommended. The band can also be scaled down in number to accommodate your budget or space limits at your venue. The band is versatile, so when called upon can additionally include swing-style music selections.

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Check out these verified reviews from bookings on The Bash.

Review by Annie M .

Memorial Service • Reviewed on September 30, 2019 • From Chestnut Hill , MA

Review by Greg P .

Corporate Function • Reviewed on June 18, 2019 • From Boston , MA

Review by Melanie A .

Birthday Party (Adult) • Reviewed on May 20, 2018 • From Marblehead , MA

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Riverboat Stompers Jazz Band It’s About Time

• October 22, 2019
• Album Reviews

The band has played many events around the northeast and held residences at various venues over the years. As cruise ships are today’s riverboats it’s fitting that they’ve appeared on those as well. The star of the band these days is trad jazz legend Jimmy Mazzy, recently inducted into the banjo hall of fame. Back in the day, Mazzy regularly won American and Mississippi Rag readers’ polls for best male vocal and he’s still got it on the Stompers’ new album It’s About Time , released this spring.

His vocals, and most tracks are vocal, clearly show his age, but they also show what’s so magnificent about his singing to begin with. Many male vocalists sing without much more inflection than if they were reading, Mazzy uses his voice like the instrument it is, even recognizing its now limited range and making the most of it.

The titles reveal the wide repertoire available to the band. “Why?”, “Pretty Baby”, “You Took Advantage of Me”, “My Gal Sal”, “Once in a While” and seven others tend towards the sweeter side of the songbook and compliment both Mazzy’s singing and his unmatched way of bringing out nuances in his banjo picking. Most tracks are over four minutes, allowing for interesting ensemble mechanics even at a relaxed New Orleans pace.

Not all the tracks are laid back, “Why Don’t You Go Down to New Orleans” is played with a standout rhythmic shuffle that made it one of the highlights for me. You will undoubtedly pick a different favorite. “My Honey’s Lovin’ Arms” and “Too Busy” also pick up the tempo, with Steve Straus doing vocal duty on the later. The album closes with a hot “Oriental Strut” that shows just how skilled these guys really are. This is a group of experienced jazzmen that Boston is lucky to have. Younger musicians in the area should be seeking them out as a resource. If they aren’t playing in your circles, invite them!

www.riverboatstompers.com

Joe Bebco is the Associate Editor of The Syncopated Times and Webmaster of SyncopatedTimes.com

September 2024

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Riverboat Stompers at the Sherborn Inn

Riverboat Stompers

Steve Straus reeds, Larry Baxter cornet, Frank Batchelor trombone, Phil Hower piano, Jim Mazzy Banjo, Pierre Lemieux tuba, Rick Malcolm drums.

Riverboat Stompers played at the Sherborn Inn June 25 th , 2013, featuring the music of Hoagie Carlichael, Gershwin, Cole Porter, and more. They began hot and heavy with That’s-a-Plenty.

Front Line: Steve Straus, Larry Baxter, Frank Batchelor

Steve Straus moves easily from clarinet to soprano sax on New Orleans .   Jimmy Mazzy had many of the vocals, but Larry Baxter took over for some tunes, Lady Be Good C’est Si Bon .  Steve Straus also did a fine vocal on Cottontown.

Pierre Lemieux

Pierre Lemieux thoughtfully supports the band and each musician without pushing.

They dedicated Blue Turning Gray Over You to their late trombone player, Tom Page, who died about 1 ½ years ago.   Ensemble vocal took the intro to Sophie Tucker’s Some of These Days, with Jimmy taking it over with soft backing by Baxter’s cornet.

Pianist Phil Hower listens carefully; responds with delicate and resourceful phrases.

This is a fun band.   Medley for today, with audience participation,  Ain’t She Sweet, Five Foot Two, I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover.   Everyone gets into the vocal on Alabama Jubilee, and on kazoo.   They have a ‘name this tune’ contest.  Jimmy singing, scatting, carefully not giving away the title.  But this time no one came up with the tune “South”.   Maybe next time.

Rich Malcolm

Drummer Rich Malcolm is capable of slam banging with the best of them, but he’s unselfishly maintains the beat, letting loose on solos so that we sometimes hear the melody in his drums. He started with a Latin beat on Comes Love, with swinging bridges.

Jimmy Mazzy

They slowed the pace for Why, a  little known tune played by Golden Gate Rhythm Machine on the West Coast, and the Riverboat Ramblers on the East Coast.  Mazzy putting his heart into the tune in his own unique Mazzy style.

They closed with ‘Till We Meet Again.  We might be able to catch them playing somewhere on the North Shore. Check out www.riverboatstompers.com for their schedule.

Tunes played today: That’s a Plenty, New Orleans, Lady Be Good, Blue Turning Grey Over You, South, Alabama Jubilee, Why, Who’s Sorry Now, Home, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Cottontown, I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Miss Otis Regrets, Medley, Comes Love, Lulu’s Back in Town, C’est Si Bon, Some of These Days, ‘Til We Meet Again.

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Great but Forgotten

A look at movies, books, TV, comics, music, and other things that deserve to be less obscure.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

"washington square" -- the village stompers (music).

(1963-66) Dick Brady (trombone), Ralph Casale (banjo), Frank Hubbell (trumpet), Joe Muranyi (clarinet), Al McManus (drums), Lenny Pogan (guitar), Don Coates (piano), and Mitchell May (reeds, winds). Allmusic Guide

Around 1963, the people who thought rock music was just a fad were probably feeling that their prediction was vindicated.  The early rock and roll of the 50s was being diluted.  Elvis had gone into the army and came out a balladeer.  Chuck Berry was in jail.  Jerry Lee Lewis was under a cloud of scandal.  The Everly Brothers were has-beens.  The Four Seasons were rock and roll's biggest act.* 

Into this atmosphere came the Village Stompers.

At the same time that folk music was becoming popular on college campuses, there were some other genres that were also filling coffeehouses.  And one of these was Dixieland jazz.

Yes, the Village Stompers were a Dixieland jazz band,** though they're often categorized as folk.  They had played in various venues until coming together in New York in 1963. They recorded an album and released the title tune as a single***.

"Washington Square" was a sensation.  The song is an instrumental with a tune that you just can't get out of your head -- simple, yet catchy and played out on a banjo.

The song reached #2 on the top 40 charts.  On the strength of that, the album reached #5, but the rest of the album wasn't just fill.  It included "Midnight in Moscow" (now a Dixieland standard and a favorite of mine), "Blowin' in the Wind", "If I Had a Hammer," and even "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport."  In other words, nothing but fun, catchy music.

But the Village Stompers ran into trouble.  A few months after their success, Beatlemania and the British Invasion hit the US, and the fortunes of a Dixieland jazz band that everyone thought was folk was not bright.  Their second album, More Sounds of Washington Square, barely charted and though there were some well-regarded singles, the group never had another hit and broke up in 1966 (though they re-formed recently and are available for concerts ).

Maybe Dixieland was never going to catch on, but "Washington Square" and the Village Stompers made a valiant effort.

_________________________________________________

*Though Motown was just getting started, and the Beach Boys were on the scene.

**Nowadays, I'd expect a group by that name to be heavy metal.

***The name of the group (which connected them with Greenwich Village, the center of folk) and the song (Washington Square is in Greenwich Village) were instrumental in their being considered a folk group.

5 comments:

Paved the way for Al Hirt

Thanks for the bio on this group. They are going to make an appearance in the next day or so at my portal.

Whether it's folk music or not, it's a great song. Doug Rhodeside

I was 10 when I first heard,"Washington Square," and it's been one of my ALL-TIME FAVOURITES,instrumental or with words,of the last half-century of listening to music.(I'll be 60 July 6).

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Midnight in Moscow by Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen

Midnight in Moscow Single 1961

Midnight in Moscow Album February 1962

Added by wally creek

• Highlights 4
• Versions 133
• Adaptations 12

​The Riverboat Stompers

The best band in town!

Caribbean Dixieland Cruise

January 5 - 19,  2018 with riverboat stompers, bob schulz frisco jazz, new orleans nighthawks, & grand dominion, holland america lines ms veendam, call carol     352-205-1777.

Title. Double click me.

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