Trombonist Eddie Boh “Chops” Paris clearly
belongs to a younger generation who believe in perpetuating
the decades old traditions of traditional New Orleans jazz while
making it strikingly new both for their own ears and for
today’s audiences. Influenced in part by modern jazz and
bebop, this younger generation tends to take an understated
approach, accentuating a kind of sophisticated cool. The young trombonist gets right to work on the
opening track, “Bourbon Street Parade,” dismissing the usual
complement of back-up musicians and replacing them instead
with just an electric guitarist and a trap-drum set. But he
gets the same funky rhythms and the same soulful solos,
meanwhile creating something that’s new and compelling.
The repertoire here also provides plenty of the
best traditional New Orleans jazz standards, including “Sunny
Side of the Street,” “What a Wonderful World,” “Do You Know
What It Means to Miss New Orleans?,” “Basin Street
Blues,” “Little Liza Jane,” and “When the Saints Go Marchin’
In.”
But innovations abound, too, with a tribute to
New Orleans R&B on “Sick and Tired” and a pair of
high-powered renditions of early jazz classics, “Whooping
Blues” and “I Found a New Baby.” And there are three titles
from modern jazz: “Undecided” by swing trumpeter Charlie
Shavers, “Blue Bossa” by bebop trumpeter Kenny Dorham, and
“Milestones” by jazz giant Miles Davis, which closes the set.
Whether you think of it as new wine in old
bottles or new bottles for old wine, the result is still the
same: that classic New Orleans swing updated to a contemporary cool sound.