Terry Waldo’s Gotham City Jazz Band with Tatiana Eva-Marie‘I Double Dare You’ (Turtle Bay Records)It seems strange to listen to Terry Waldo indoors, surrounded by walls and under a roof. The veteran pianist thrived during the pandemic thanks to a commission for a series of al fresco performances in the Herald Square area. He made the lockdown considerably more bearable by popping up with his excellent band during the lunchtime hours for the last three summers, as well as at the celebration of Tin Pan Alley in October 2021.Mr. Waldo just celebrated his 77th birthday with a brunch show at the Blue Note. His latest album, “I Double Dare You,” which co-stars the charming and exuberant singer Tatiana Eva-Marie, is also cause for celebration.I’ve been enjoying Mr. Waldo’s piano playing and his always terrific bands since the 1980s at least, and every time I see him I think he looks like the late Spike Jones. His playing, however, is an entirely different matter: He reminds of Willie the Lion Smith, Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, and his mentor, Eubie Blake. Mr. Waldo is generally described as a specialist in ragtime and stride piano, but the Sunday set at the Blue Note underscored that he’s also a master of the blues. In fact, the show was a vivid demonstration of the centrality of the blues throughout the annals of early jazz; they constantly appear and then disappear, the latter never for long. Now you see ’em, now you don’t.He called Jelly Roll’s Morton’s “Wolverine Blues” but first informed us that despite the title, it’s not actually a blues; it’s an exciting, uptempo stomp number that just doesn’t happen to be in blues form. Then, Tatiana Eva-Marie delivered “Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home” (also on the album), which is sometimes described as a blues in something more like familiar song form (ABAB, preceded by a verse). Ms. Eva-Marie and surprise guest singer Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, who arose from the audience for a few cameo numbers, showed how the blues spirit can be distilled into a popular song.The Blue Note gig also included at least one out-and-out, unmistakable blues, “Memphis Blues,” one of the first ever examples of the form to be published and disseminated via notated sheet music. W.C. Handy’s early effort was quickly eclipsed by its more famous younger brother, the blues from St. Louis, but Mr. Waldo and trombonist Jim Fryer, here doubling as blues singer, turned this 1912 classic into a tour de force. Elsewhere, they turn a Tin Pan Alley song into a blues; here, they turned a blues into a Hollywood-style production number. It’s the kind of highly entertaining, vaudeville bit that jazz and dance bands performed in theaters and stage shows a century ago; i.e., when he comes to the words “real harmony,” clarinetist Ricky Alexander and cornetist Mike Davis join Mr. Fryer to sing those two words in real harmony. Mr. Fryer sang in and out of solos by members of the group, including the distinctive guitarist Nick Russo, wailing away on a battered instrument that sounded better than it looked. Cornetist Mike Davis, who originally made his mark as a Bix Beiderbecke specialist, here put on his Louis Armstrong hat and constructed a powerful solo built on Satchmo-fied blues licks.Mr. Davis was back on his trademark turf with a Beiderbecke classic, “Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down,” which hewed closely to the 1927 arrangement, right down to the distinctive slowing-down and then speeding-up in the last chorus. What was surprising was Mr. Paxton emerging from the crowd to sing the lyrics — that’s something the original record doesn’t have.Ms. Eva-Marie is customarily just as much a bandleader as a singer, yet her collaboration with Mr. Waldo is her most successful project outside of her regular group, the manouche jazz-styled Avalon Jazz Band. “I Double Dare You” features the same line-up that appeared at the Blue Note, also including bassist Brian Nalepka and drummer Jay Lepley, with generous vocals by Ms. Eva-Marie. The album includes a reprise of one of the more astonishing combinations in the history of jazz, legendary arranger Fletcher Hendeson and growling child star Baby Rose Marie with the adorably goofy “Take a Picture of the Moon.” There’s also Eubie Blake’s frantic “Runnin’ Wild,” which brought the brunch show to a climax. The album ends with the quieter, more subtle “Two Sleepy People,” by Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael but from the Fats Waller stridebook. Here, the two sing together, with charm to match Waller on his classic 1943 solo piano plus vocals plus sideline commentary. Here, Fats tells us, “And now, something soft, something quiet, very sentimental, ‘Two Sloppy People…’ No. ‘Two Sleepy People.’ I always get that slop and sleep mixed up. Look out.” He then goes on to describe the song as “glamor music.” No less than Fats 80 years ago, Terry Waldo and Tatiana Eva-Marie are creating all that and more.
