"The
vocals (on all but two instrumental tracks) are all by Jimmy
Mazzy, who is obliged to sing some incontestably female lyrics
with lines such as 'Come on and kiss me, Peter, do' and 'I've
had a man for 15 years'-a convention I personally find a little
unsetting! Mazzy is actually a very good jazz singer. He has
developed an individual style, with a expressive, husky, crooning
delivery, and imparts spirited dynamics to the lyrics. He is
also a very capable banjoist, and contributes fluent single
string solos in Harry and Everybody Loves My Baby. Leader Eli
Newberger, of the Black Eagle Jazz Band, is also an assured
and articulate soloist, with considerable technique and melodic
ideas. Butch Thompson's colourful piano, blending stride with
Mortonish ragtime, romps along in upbeat vein and contributes
sensitive solo passages in Ain't Misbehavin' and Old Fashioned
Love. -- Hugh
Rainey, Jazz Journal (U.K.)
Eli Newberger and Mike Roylance at Faneuil Hall View larger
Listen:
Lullaby for Amelia Listen to the world premiere performance of "Lullaby for
Amelia" by Howard Frazin, a duet for 2 tubas recorded
at the Boston Classical Orchestra concert in Faneuil Hall on
March 18, 2007. Soloists: Mike Roylance, F Tuba (the higher
one), Eli Newberger, C Tuba.
Watch Eli's
tuba-piano performance of George Gershwin's second piano prelude,
recorded at the Johnson Theater, University of New Hampshire,
on September 20, 2004.
"Mr.
Newberger's tuba is often surprisingly light and lyrical as it
sings melodies softly over the banjo's backing. It has unusual
expressive range. On Ma Rainey's "Jelly Bean Blues," it
sounds utterly forlorn, and on Jelly Roll Morton's "Chicago
Breakdown,"
it has the attack of a charging bull elephant. Gershwin's Prelude
in C sharp minor, is played by Mr. Newberger as a whimsical gimmick
- a duet with himself as he fingers the tuba valves with one hand
and plays the piano with the other. Forgetting the tour de force
and simply taking it at face value, it is a charming and remarkably
unaffected performance." -- John S. Wilson, The New York
Times
"Adding
Joe Muranyi to the mix with Mazzy and Newberger creates many more
possibilities, arrangement-wise, and they take full advantage
of the opportunities. Muranyi is a musician who has absorbed little
bits from the styles of many, many great clarinetists from the
history of pre-bop jazz to create his own whole, original style.
Facile, imaginative and often exciting, yet always fitting in
with the group, he never uses gratuitous and unnecessary technical
displays to impress his audience, relying instead on musical substance." -- Ted Des Plantes,
The Mississippi Rag
"On Halfway
to Heaven, one of the better renditions is that of "Don't
Forget to Mess Around (When You Do the Charlestion)," with
Mazzy providing a great vocal and taking part, as he scats, in
a fine exchange between himself and the tuba, with Muranyi doing
his stuff on the clarinet." -- George Borgman,
IAJRC (Int'l Assoc. of Jazz Record Collectors) Journal
Old Rugged
Cross
From The New Black Eagle Jazz Band At Symphony Hall
"The audience was responsive
to the briefest solo, and the band seemed to react with a souped-up
elan. The
list was long and lively: "Buddy's Habit," "She's
Crying for Me" with Newberger playing finger cymbals; Duke
Ellington's "Misty Morning," in which Pringle's solo
was lyrically gossamer and, as others sat out, Newberger's cogent
stana with Bullis's rhythmic strums triggered a spontaneous ovation." -- Ernie
Santosuosso, Boston Globe
Listen:
Sobbin'
Blues
From Don't Monkey With It from Black Eagle Jazz Band
"The
New Black Eagle Jazz Band was more New Orleans in style, riding
on the strong, thumpy beat of banjo and tuba instead of a string
bass, and its material drew on such New Orleans natives as Jelly
Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong as it built lusty performances,
which were driven to hair-raising climaxes by Eli Newberger's
ebullient tuba." -- John S. Wilson,
The New York Times
view larger The Black Eagles at The Potomac River Jazz Club 1983
view larger New Black Eagle Jazz Band at the
Queens Belfast Festival, Northern Ireland
"Playing to a crowded hall of Potomac River Jazz Club members and guests, the band served up heated, polyphonic versions of, for example, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Jabbo Smith compositions with a supercharged drive felt equally on stomps and blues. . .'Yearning' was marked by an elusive melancholy, while 'Blue Blood Blues' featured a rolicking solo by extrovert tuba player Eli Newberger." -- W. Royal Stokes, The Washington Post
"One
of the most interesting pieces on this new release is a treatment
of Duke Ellington's "The Mooche" that milks the
tune for all its ominous misterioso possibilities
and gives Eli Newberger an opportunity to play one of the
raunchiest tuba solos ever recorded" --
John S. Wilson, High Fidelity
Watch performances with Mike Roylance, principal tuba of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, of "Tubby the Tuba" with David Tripp, Narrator, and the Cupcake Philharmonic Orchestra, "When You Wish Upon a Star," Howard Frazin's "Lullaby for Amelia" and "Reverberations for Two Tubas and String Quintet;" and Eli's performances of George Gershwin's Second Piano Prelude; Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen with The Jazz Tuber Trio (starring Jimmy Mazzy and Ted Casher);Louisiania, Summertime, and Poor Butterfly by the M'N'M Trio (starring Jimmy Mazzy and Joe Muranyi); and The Mooche and Perdido Street Blues with the New Black Eagle Jazz Band.
