The Original Wildcat Jass Band - "Alligator Crawl"

Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and the other jazz greats of early twentieth century New Orleans could little imagined the impact their music would have on the world. They invented and popularized an original American art form that changed music forever. From New Orleans to Chicago to New York and across America, those earliest roots of jazz resounded through the decades of the twentieth century and today ring clearly into the twentyfirst.

In Tucson, Arizona, a committed and energized group of talented jazz musicians has, since the fall of 2002, been spreading the "gospel of traditional jazz" in southern Arizona.

The Original Wildcat Jass Band, comprised of six of the finest musicians in Arizona, offers traditional New Orleans and Chicago jazz, performed in a spirit and style that is true to its musical roots and wildly popular with audiences around the southwest United States. Their energetic performances are sizzling with musical energy and steeped in good humor. These "doctors of jazz" have found the cure for the common blues it redhot jazz, and its contagious!

In 2005 and 2007, the band performed as featured guest artists at the Adams State College Jazz Festival in Alamosa, Colorado, and also at the invitation of the Rio Grande Jazz Society in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The group has also been featured at AZ Jazz Week at the University of Arizona, at the 2007 Blythe (CA) Jazz Festival, as special guests on the popular Bobby and Brad Morning Show on 94.9 MixFM in Tucson, and at festivals in Green Valley, Tubac and Oro Valley, Arizona. In the summer of 2006, the band was invited to perform as musical goodwill ambassadors on behalf of the U.S. Department of State at special festivities in Sonora, Mexico.

The groups first CD, Introducing the Original Wildcat Jass Band, released in 2004, is in its second run. A new CD, humorously titled "Ill be Glad When Youre Dead", was released in 2007, and features meticulously performed transcriptions of vintage recordings from the greats of early trad jazz Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton and others.

Today, The Original Wildcat Jass Band enjoys growing renown, both in its home town of Tucson and regionally. In short, the band has established itself as one of the premier regional performers in the style of Dixieland and "trad jazz", and is solidly poised to launch itself onto the national stage in the months and years to come.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Traditional Jazz
• dixieland
• trumpet
• soprano saxophone
• trombone
• banjo
• tuba
• drums
• Rob Wright
• Kelland Thomas
• Rob Boone
• Kelly Thomas
• Jason Carder
• Ray Templin
• Tucson AZ
• Alligator Crawl

[pedgerton]

Wow! It's so refreshing to hear you play the saxophone with such precision, beautiful tone and melodic lines. I hear a lot of trad bands around Northern California. Hardly any have your quality of skill. I first heard you play at the Sac Jazz Jubilee with the Firecrackers. I was mesmerized!!!! I hope to progress to a fraction of your skill level one day. But I just keep getting distracted, just bought a new banjo. ;) Hope you come back to CA, and bring those Firecrackers.

~Pollys Hot Paupers.com

[MayaCaballero]

Sweet, sweet sound!