This is a most unusual way to do it … to review something before it’s even posted, mid-afternoon Sunday … but it was intriguing to me in ways mentioned below … sorry to be a bit mysterious and cryptic ahead of time.

Essentially, a Louisiana city’s famous busking band visits a city in France, they find the square where it seems buskers hang out and they play a nice number (track one) but even so, just to my ears and eyes, they’re slightly off the boil these days. Look I could be completely wrong on this and please set me straight but there’s just something with the boss girl cornetist and sidekick trombonist which is ok, no complaints … hmmmm.

Track two is a local band, similar setup, usual instruments … it’s pretty clear these two bands need to meet each other. This local band plays a nice number, almost exactly where, in the square, the Louisiana band do. One person I did not like at first was the tall beanpole girl trombonist who seemed to me to be trying to dominate. As I found out in the third track though, I was wrong … she was just a nice gal, anxious that it all went nicely and everyone got along … and she does play well.

The third track is the intriguing one … both bands meet, arrange themselves to play another nice number … there are teething issues, they get it sorted, they start. Ok, one expects it will take them some time and by the end, they’re all on song and they finish well together. If it were only that, I’d enjoy it but oh … it was so much more than that … interpersonal stories.

Look, I might be so, so wrong but it did seem to me that the Lousiana cornetist boss gal was slightly miffed and the sidekick trombonist was not too happy with his “rival”. The bands played two recorded numbers (only one of them on Sunday) and the L boss gal was not joining them in the second. Uh huh.

However, the other band members of both bands were fine … you could see the washboarders chatting, smiling, the rhythm section had it sorted, the local tuba gal was great, the clarinets and cornets were fine. Our beanpole trombonist, right in the middle of the line, could really play.

All up? A most intriguing Sunday jazz afternoon to be sure. Of course, you might see it quite differently, ha ha. Just listened to/watched that combined track again … oh that was so much fun … something going on bretween the two washboardists and that beanpole trombonist is a sweetie.

This is why I vastly prefer ensembles to orchestras, 20s to 30s directed, blended musak … gimme please solo after solo, all coming together at the end. Easy, Jimbo, time for your meds.