chris wong in sync

It's funny how you can miss out on worthy things due to false perceptions. That was my experience with Sweet Papa Lowdown, a group offering a unique but underappreciated repertoire of vintage jazz, blues and related styles.

About a year ago Jeff Shucard, Sweet Papa Lowdown's leader, sent me a copy of the quintet's 'Til Times Get Better. I gave the CD a cursory listen before relegating it to a pile on the floor beside my desk. I can't remember why I dismissed the disc, but it had something to do with thinking that the band mainly played Dixieland, which I'm not a fan of. So I never really gave the CD a chance.

'Til Times Get Better languished in that pile until I heard that trombonist Chris Barber will perform Sept. 15 and 16 with Sweet Papa Lowdown at the Hot Jazz Club. Barber is a British legend who has played traditional jazz, skiffle, blues and more as a bandleader and with the likes of Louis Jordan, Wild Bill Davis, Van Morrison and Dr. John. So I figured if the group is good enough to share a bandstand with Barber, then there must be something to Sweet Papa's "post-modern retro-fusion Afro-American hokum jazz & blues," which is Shucard's somewhat tongue-in-cheek but still appropriate description of the music. I gave the CD another listen.

The music actually goes far beyond Dixie and has nothing to do with the hackneyed sounds of men in candy-striped jackets and straw hats. 'Til Times Get Better is a treasure trove of rarely heard songs with a simple but robust essence. The gems include "I'm On My Way To New Orleans", which Jimmy Durante — yes, the comedian with the enormous schnozz — wrote when he was a ragtime pianist and composer. Then there's Bo Carter's hilariously suggestive "Banana In Your Fruit Basket". The album ends with a short yet effective take on Blind Blake's "Gamblin' Blues".

"There isn't anyone in the world I know of that is playing most of this stuff," says Shucard, during a chat on my front porch. The 49-year-old stresses, though, that he doesn't intentionally choose obscure material. "The bottom line for me is, does it sound good or not? Will people enjoy it?"

Once I got beyond the Dixie stereotypes, and groundless concerns about white boys playing black music, it was easy to enjoy Sweet Papa Lowdown. The group members — vocalist/guitarist Shucard, Alan Matheson on cornet, clarinetist/soprano saxophonist Lloyd Arntzen, slide guitarist Dan Smith and trombonist/tuba player Dan Marcus — play with a relaxed exuberance, which was evident when they performed "Big Butter and Egg Man" and "Atlanta Blues" during Festival Vancouver's Louis Armstrong tribute. Shucard, who was born in Paterson, New Jersey, has worked as a part-time musician for more than 25 years. He moved to Vancouver in 1985, and now lives in Point Roberts and here, where he teaches English as a second language and plays the occasional gig with Sweet Papa.

Getting back to Barber, Shucard's connection with the trad jazz great began when he wrote a letter of appreciation to Holland-based Timeless Records for a collection of obscure early jazz songs that the label put out. Shucard also enclosed a Sweet Papa Lowdown demo. The tape ended up with Barber, who records for Timeless. Barber called Shucard to compliment him on the music. Now the English musician is coming here, at the 70-year-old's own expense, to play with the group.

Barber specifically wants to do tunes from Sweet Papa Lowdown's songbook. "He's played 'Basin Street Blues' three million times," says Shucard. But chances are, Barber has never performed "Banana In Your Fruit Basket". Hearing him do so, with Shucard's fine band, will be a real treat.

While the Yale might seem like an odd place for a Malian musician to perform in, the venue is in fact totally appropriate for Boubacar Traoré. Like his fellow countryman Ali Farka Touré, Traoré sings and plays guitar with an innate feeling for deeply affecting blues. Known as Kar Kar, he was a West African star during the sixties, when he introduced the "Mali Twist". Traoré lived in obscurity for much of the next two decades before journalists rediscovered him in 1988. Check out his show Sept. 5 at the Yale, with percussionist Sidiki Camara, to hear why he's been called Mali's answer to Robert Johnson.

Whoever's doing the publicity for saxophonist Briggan Krauss' upcoming shows in the Pacific Northwest is doing a fairly thorough job; I received an e-mail and a package with extensive information on the Brooklyn musician. There's only one problem: no CD came with the info, so I can't describe the man's latest sounds. But this much I know: the ex-Seattle resident is one of the hottest musicians in the downtown New York scene. He has put out three fiercely original albums under his own name and played with cutting edge jazz-based instrumentalists like John Zorn and Bill Frisell. Krauss will perform Sept. 6 at the Sugar Refinery with his 300 trio, including drummer Kenny Wollesen and keyboardist Wayne Horvitz. Bassist Tony Scherr will open the show.

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