Basin Street Blues

More than 90 years ago, composer and pianist Spencer Williams wrote the great jazz standard “Basin Street Blues,” but here’s something we didn’t know until recently. Its wonderful opening lyric — “Won’t ya come along with me… Come along with me…. Down to the Mississippi…” was added later by Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden. Ahhh, you live, you learn. The Flood started doing the tune about a decade ago at the suggestion of our late fiddler, Joe Dobbs, and when Joe died five years ago, the tune seemed to go with him. However, earlier this year, when jazz saxophonist Veezy Coffman started coming around, darned if Basin Street come back out! Here from a recent rehearsal is our 2020 version of the song, which Spencer William wrote as a kind of jazz-infused churchy call and response. Listen as Veezy opens the musical testimony, answered by the chorus of Doug, Sam and the two Pauls. Then the whole thing is turned over to Michelle who, always, nails the vocals.

Bring It On Home to Me

As the Coronavirus has us all hunkering down in our homes, we figured it’s high time we rolled out the latest tune that we’ve been working on, one that’s all about the love of a good home. Here from a recent rehearsal are Paul Callicoat and Michelle Lewis leading us on a sail through a great old 1960s Sam Cooke composition. And flowing in and out all along the way are sweet solos from everyone, from Paul Martin and Doug Chaffin,  from Veezy Coffman and Sam St. Clair. So, sit back and let our gang — Mister C and Michelle and the rest of the Flood family — bring it on home to you and yours. Be safe our there, friends, and stay happy in your hunkering down. Wash your hands and, please, take care of each other!

Ain't Misbehavin'

It always seemed kind of magical how at the weekly rehearsals it's often the oldest and the youngest players at the table who develop a special kind of simpatico. Now, chronologically, there’s sixty years difference in the ages of Doug Chaffin and Vanessa Coffman, but when the music starts, these two are obviously quite soulful siblings. Listen to the musical conversations they’re having throughout the great old Fats Waller standard that we started last night’s session with.

Just a Closer Walk with Thee

Last week’s images of Mardi Gras were obviously still in our minds as we settled down for last night’s rehearsal. We’ve always loved how New Orleans has taught the world an important lesson, that music — sort of like gumbo — can be a rich stew of many different cultures and ideas. You can jazz up just about any kind of music, from the low-down to the lofty. A case in point is this classic tune that we first heard drifting through open church doors. Here are Michelle and the guys putting some good juju “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.”

Beale Street Blues

“Beale Street Blues” has been in our musical blood stream for a very long time. In fact, by the time we finally got this wonderful jazz number onto a Flood CD — it’s on our 2003 “I’d Rather Be Flooded” album — we’d been doing the song in shows for quite some time. That was in part because we were hooked on the version that one of our string band heroes, the great Charlie Poole, worked up. Poole called his 1928 version “Ramblin’ Blues.” But even then the tune was an old-timer. Composer W.C. Handy had published it 11 years later — in 1917 — and immediately all the hot new jazz bands started playing it. And, boy, has the song had a long life, recorded in the past 70 years by everybody from Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey to Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. In 1974, writer James Baldwin used the song’s key line — “If Beale Street could talk” — as the title for one of his classic novels, which a couple of years ago director Barry Jenkins brought to the screen in an Academy Award-winning movie. Here then, from a recent rehearsal, is our revisiting of the song, with with great solos by Doug Chaffin, Paul Martin, Sam St. Clair and Vanessa Coffman. It’s “Beale Street Blues.”

Over the Rainbow

Last night was a busy rehearsal with a lot of new tunes on the table to try out. But the highlight of the night came when we revisited a song that’s been in The Flood’s swirl for a long time now. It was a couple of decades ago when the late Joe Dobbs got us playing “Over the Rainbow” as an instrumental. In fact, it was a favorite track on the “Fiddle and The Flood” CD that Joe brought out in 2001. Then it kind of went dormant for a while, until a few years ago when Michelle Lewis brought it back to us as a vocal. Well, last night the tune took another good turn when Vanessa Coffman gave us a couple of rich, lush choruses that showed us her tenor sax could open up even more dimensions to the song. Here are Michelle and Vanessa and “Over the Rainbow.”

Backwater Blues

Often when Huntington’s hits a rainy patch, as it has it has lately, we’re reminded of the opening line of a classic Bessie Smith blues from the 1920s, “It rained five days and the sky turned dark as night.” Well, since the soak and the sog were much on our minds last night, we just set it all down in a blues, so everybody could testify, starting with Michelle Lewis’s original (patent pending) call and response to my vocals, then a double round of solos from the whole congregation, Doug Chaffin and Sam St. Clair, Vanessa Coffman and the two Pauls, Paul Martin and Paul Callicoat. Here’s The Flood talking about a flood, just riffing on “Backwater Blues.”