Satchmocracy: Satchmocracy vol. 2

It is not easy to keep up with all the new jazz being recorded. It was perhaps easier in the 1950s or 1960s, when a couple of major labels did the bulk of the recording. An artist either made it that way or went unheard except in his or her hometown.

For better or worse, it is different now. A prospective reviewer probably fields requests for several hundred recordings a year. And, of course, they come in multiple formats. No one, however dedicated, can listen to it all. So some stick to a small sample of material that they think they know, or to a particular genre, or even to an instrument. Yet even that fails as a strategy, because the music is now truly international. While some players make it to the United States, others do not. And even some really outstanding musicians fall through the cracks.

One supposes that this explains the relative anonymity of the players on Satchmocracy. They are Paris-based, and one thing is for sure. They can play. Jérôme Etcheberry and Malo Mazurie head a sort of Louis Armstrong tribute band here, but in reality, what they give a listener is much, much more.

Even if one takes technical facility for granted in contemporary players, these two are plus ultra. Etcheberry plays an outstanding lead. Mazurie is an exceptional soloist. Both are fluent, creative, imaginative, knowledgeable, and, above all, swinging. Armstrong, of course, might be thought of as the foundational figure of swing trumpet, so it is scarcely surprising that his repertoire reflected that genre throughout his lifetime. Yet this recording assimilates Armstrong's repertoire and then some. There are elements of bop and Latin throughout, and the reharmonized Armstrong is full of sly quotes to tunes like "Salt Peanuts," "Stealing Apples," and even "Opus No. 1." There are so many rhythmic variations, tastefully done, that one is grateful for the occasional conventional shuffle, as in "Ding Dong Daddy." "Sweethearts on Parade" gives what can only be called a rendering of stride trumpet. "Lazy River" is a great exercise in counting. But none of this is done ostentatiously or only for effect. It is musical, and the cumulative effect is sometimes stunning. While Armstrong is the nominal godfather of the repertoire, the influence of Bunny Berigan comes through repeatedly, and if not Bunny, then Billy Butterfield. At one point, a listener thinks of a very unorthodox version of "The World's Greatest Jazz Band," but all of what Armstrong called "the ingredients" somehow cohere.

Now someone might say, well, they recall Mike Vax's group TRPTS doing "Wild Man Blues" and in precisely the same voicings in 1985 on Transforming Traditions(Summit Records). That is true, but it suggests that the history of jazz trumpet, which more or less began with Armstrong, is precisely the kind of material that lends itself to creative reinterpretation, much as Charlie Parker's work did for Supersax. Of course, it takes monster players to handle these tunes, let alone reharmonize and reconfigure them, and as with Supersax or TRPTS, so with Satchmocracy. The players that Etcheberry has assembled here are, as they say, deserving of wider recognition. Some politicians may think that isolation is a good thing, but the results of Satchmocracy's efforts say that precisely the opposite is true.