Sweet Megg & Ricky Alexander - Video Review - Jazz Wax
I'm always amazed when young musicians and singers today are passionate about and obsessed with a long-ago jazz era. I just assume that given a choice, these artists would rather stick with post-war jazz movements—from bebop to fusion and beyond. Not Sweet Megg and Ricky Alexander and the musicians they hang out with. For them, the year is 1935, when syncopation was king and bluesy vocals were sandwiched in the middle of hot jazz recordings by small groups. Their album's latest video clip is being seen online for the first time here at the end of this post. [Photo above of Sweet Megg and Ricky Alexander; all photos by Rose Callahan]
You'll find such 1930s songs on the newly released Sweet Megg and Ricky Alexander: I'm in Love Again (Turtle Bay). Sweet Megg is on vocals and Alexander plays tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and clarinet. They are joined by Mike Davis (tp), Rob Edwards (tb), Jerron Paxton (banjo,g), Dalton Ridehour (p), Bob Adkins (b) and Kevin Dorn (d). Given that this album was recorded last November, the mood then wasn't that much different from the tenor of the Great Depression of the '30s: A critical government failure, a national economic blow, a rising death rate and the gloom most people felt hoping the protracted nightmare would end soon.