Keith Penhallow received 2nd prize in the National Jazz Writing Competition in 2007. This is one of his submitted reviews.

We have a new musical genre – Jazzabilly. This is what bassist Zoe Hauptman calls the music on her first CD, Zoe & The Buttercups. And certainly, this title can be applied to several tracks on this entertaining recording. Most tunes were written by Zoe with a few by or co-written with other band members.

Zoe Hauptmann is another graduate from the ANU School of Music who is making a name for herself. She also plays in the bands Wanderlust and King Curly.

The band comprises Zoe on acoustic bass and vocals, brother Ben Hauptmann electric guitar and bancy, Aaron Flowers electric guitar, Don Waple saxophone, John Hibbard tromobne, and youngest brother James Hauptmann on drumss. Steve Appel of King Gurly guests on vocals on one track.

Pigly Wigly Hoedown starts the music with an electric guitar and banjo introducint the riff for a couple of bars followed by the rest of the band joining in for a rollicking number suitable for clog dancing. Sludge Bucket follows, with electric guitar coming in over a bass and drum lead. It’s another riff-based tune with Zoe making her bull fiddle “pop” along underneath, more pop than anything else.

A heavy bass line introduces Boom followed by riffing wah wah guitar. The second guitar joins in and then the bass. They jam together and then a cool sax solo is taken. The trombone rejoins and they return to the head. Miscelaneous (sic) Madness reminds me of The Pink Panther with some loping brass work. Bass starts There’s a Train and is joined by banjo and the brass for a train temp exercise with banjo and trombone breaks set against saxophone and drums.

On Buttercuppin’ we are on the back porch with banjo plucking against a mellow sax melody. The trombone plays the middle eight. From the back blocks we then hit an urban groove. Feral and Bad starts with scraped guitar strings and static and then goes into heavy guitar mode. We are back in the 1970s jazz/rock era. The song fades and segues into a minute of oom pay trombone called Belly Full o Whiskey.

Steve Apel sings the waltz time The Creeps and the Weazles, a song about – creeps and weasels. It has an infectious “la la” chorus but is neither jazz nor hillbilly and ends somewhat revoltingly with a cough and a spit.

Aaron Flower leads on his composition Sinchi. We are back into the jazz/rock and groove along for a few minutes until some Bill Frisell-like guitar introduces Bill Frisell, a pleasant enough tune and different from the rest of the CD with Zoel soloing and James brushing in the background. Wednesday starts off very laid back with guitar and saxophone in duet. After a minute or so the drums crash and the song becomes intense for a while before returning to some cool sax and ethereal guitar in the background. Back to the heavy stuff, the song builds to an exciting climax, a fitting end to the CD. But is it jazz?

SHARE
Hash Varsani is the owner of The Jazz Directory, a network of sites related to jazz, travel and everything else he loves. He also runs a selection of jazz related sites including Jazz Club Jury, a jazz club and festival review site. Check out his Google+ Profile, to see what else he's up to...probably setting up another website from one of his many passions.

LEAVE A REPLY