Paul Cosentino's Boilermaker Jazz Band: Everything is Jumpin'

An Artie Shaw songbook with "Grabtown Grapple" and "Jumping on the Merry Go Round" but without "Begin the Beguine" or "Stardust?" Well, anything is possible. On Everything Is Jumpin'!, Paul Cosentino's six-member Boilermaker Jazz Band from western Pennsyvania pays tribute to the legendary clarinet maestro with new versions of 18 numbers recorded either by Shaw's Gramercy Five or his jazz orchestras.

"Frenesi" is here, along with "They Say" and "Thanks for Everything," which reached the top of the pop music charts in 1938 and '39, respectively, and a number of lesser-known tunes starting with 1937's "Back Bay Shuffle." The sextet is more like a quintet with vocalist Erin Keckan added on the eight big-band numbers, most of which are relatively familiar standards. Keckan has a pleasant voice, decent range, clear enunciation, and stays on script, singing straight-on without artifice or embellishment, much like Shaw's peerless songstress, Helen Forrest.

Clarinetist Cosentino, who does not sound much like Shaw but has his own pleasing stance and sound, is backed by pianist Antonio Croes , guitarist Jonathan DiGiulian, bassist Christopher McGraw and drummer Thomas Wendt. While they play well enough, musical historians will have to sort any comparisons to the Gramercy Five.

"Frenesi" is performed instrumentally here, as is Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love." Among the vocals, "All the Things You Are" and "Deep in a Dream" were top-10 selections on the charts. "Begin the Beguine," of course, was Shaw's first number one hit and propelled his orchestra to fame in 1937, while Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" reached number six on the pop charts four years later, one year before Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he spent the next two years. After returning to civilian life, Shaw scored his last big hit with Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's "Accent-u-ate the Positive."

As a pleasant trip down memory lane, Everything Is Jumpin'! works well enough; it is not, however, much more than that. Shaw fans will have heard that song before (more than once), and there are not nearly enough wrinkles to draw and hold new listeners. In sum, a largely agreeable session—even without the "Beguine."