Asbury Park Press
March 27, 2009
GIANTS OF JAZZ
Barris and Co. play the greats
Salute to jazz giants
Elberon-based singer-guitarist Mike Barris, otherwise known as "Boogie Mike" Barris, has found his artistic niche with pre-war jazz and blues. The Toronto-raised Barris began playing guitar as a 10-year-old and came to the U.S. in 1992 to work as a copy editor for the Courier-News, a daily newspaper in Bridgewater.
Twice in the past year, he's played at the Red Bank Women's Club in well-crafted, educational, intimate concerts that showcase the simple beauty of songs by Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Django Reinhardt and other pre-WWII composers. In between tunes, Barris and the other musicians throw in historical tidbits about the background of the tunes they're about to play.
Tonight at the Women's Club, Barris, a freelance correspondent for the Asbury Park Press, will be accompanied by musicians he's worked with at past concerts: vocalist Jennifer Jordan (formerly Wright) of Red Bank, guitarist Vinnie Corrao of Point Pleasant, trumpeter Tom Bender of Middletown and Highlands-based clarinet player Louis Manzelle. In Bessie Smith tradition, there will be no drums. As the vocalist used to say, "I make my own time."
Barris explained his long obsession with pre-war jazz and blues, noting he became interested in classic jazz in junior high school.
"I was attracted to the sound of Gene Krupa's drums on those early Benny Goodman records, and I started going backward from there to find pre-war stuff," he said.
At a concert last fall, Jennifer Jordan delivered soul-stirring takes on classic Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday tunes. That's because she's a classically trained vocalist who is passionate about blues. And anyone who's seen her with the Terraplane Blues Band knows that.
"People ask me why I play this older music," Barris said, "and I tell them, this music is the very soul of jazz. Armstrong was the greatest player in history because he had few role models to follow. He basically invented what they call "modern time" in jazz. He was the first free swinging guy, and the same thing with Bessie Smith; her vocals could work in a modern setting, and Django Reinhardt was also very original, and he influenced Les Paul, Chet Atkins and so many others."
"We get into the history, but hopefully, we're entertaining at the same time," said Barris, noting that "even The Beatles did "Sheik of Araby,' when they were still playing back in Liverpool."
The music may be old, "but this stuff still reverberates," Barris said. "It's still fun and vibrant and it grabs you in the gut."
"Frankly," Barris added, "you don't see too much straight-ahead jazz around here. The Jersey Shore is a great blues community, but there aren't enough venues here at the Shore for straight-ahead jazz."
The intimate atmosphere in the living room of the Reckless Estate adds to a free-flowing dialogue between the audience members and performers, with lots of laughs.
Patrons are free to bring their own alcoholic beverages to tonight's concert at the Women's Club, the Reckless Estate, 164 Broad St., Red Bank. The show, which begins at 8:30 p.m., is part of the "Reckless Steamy Nights" series organized by the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation.
Suggested donation is $10. Juice, soda, water and other refreshments will be served. Visit www.jsjbf.org.
The Star-Ledger
Saluting Satchmo and Bessie
The music played by early jazz and blues giants Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Django Reinhardt never gets old. Nor do the standards that populate the Great American Songbook. That's the kind of stuff that's on tap for another edition of the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation's "Reckless Steamy Nights," set at Friday, 8:30 p.m., at Woman's Club of Red Bank at the Reckless Estate, 164 Broad St., Red Bank. Providing the appealing sounds will be guitarists Mike Barris and Vinnie Corrao, trumpeter Tom Bender, clarinetist Lou Manzelle, singer Jennifer Wright, and others. The concert aids various scholarship funds. $10, snacks included. Call (732) 933-1984 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (732) 933-1984 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or visit jsjbf.org. - Zan Stewart
A smattering of sound investments for Sunday:
M. BARRIS YOURSELF: Mike Barris and Friends at Middletown Arts. Your editor knows him as a fellow freelancer for the Asbury Park Press and other local media outlets; an unshakable authority on American music and a Long Writer of articles that remain the exhaustively researched, passionately produced, first and last word on their subjects. Turns out Mike Barris is also a jazz guitar player who walks the walk he talks so well — and Sunday afternoon at the Middletown Arts Center — that warehouse of energy just steps from the NJ Transit rail platform — Barris and friends from the local jazzscape (including fellow fretsman Jerry Topinka, trumpeter Tom Bender and Terraplane Blues singer Jennifer Wright) lay down an homage to such vintage stars as Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Django Reinhardt.