An exact count on the number of traditional jazz ensembles still operating outside of the environs of New Orleans remains elusive, but whatever the total it’s almost certainly indicative of inexorable ebb. Delmark has been a safe harbor for several of these bands, several of which including The Fat Babies call Chicago home. A seven-piece fronted by bassist Beau Sample, the Babies evince the totality of the trad jazz songbook as their stomping grounds. Solid Gassuh is their fifth album and the third since the helm passed from pianist Paul Asaro to Sample. The title riffs on a late 19th century slang term describing something especially pleasing or successful. It’s far from a case of fraudulent advertising as Sample and his colleagues bring the bandstand heat from the opening raucous rendering of Luis Russell’s “Doctor Blues” onward.
Fourteen more cuts follow and cover the idiomatic bases from Benny Goodman’s “After a While” through Lili Armstrong’s “Pencil Papa” and to Clarence Williams’ “Slow River”. Asaro doubles as vocalist on five numbers as he, banjoist Jake Sanders doubling on guitar and drummer Alex Hall lock in with the leader to provide chugging rhythmic support to the horns. Cornetist Andy Schumm, trombonist Dave Bock and reedist John Otto fielding clarinet and alto sax combine into a by turns ferocious and felicitous frontline. Rhythm and melody overlap with an unflagging energy on the ensembles and Sample threads plenty of solo space into the arrangements. Only “Did You Ever See a Dream Walking” cracks the four-minute threshold and another seven get the job done in fewer than three. That level of propulsive economy keeps the pace from slacking.
Sample’s snapping strings take center studio stage on “Feelin’ Good” bouncing against the unison horns and then Asaro’s parlor-style runs on the ivories. Otto’s alto spars with Schumm’s brass and Hall gets in some good Baby Dodds-nodding fills on woodblocks. The transitions throughout are tight while resisting rigidity and it’s music that breathes beautifully in the finite space allotted. “Parkway Stomp” finds the band parsing off in various subdivisions with agility and velocity through a string of brief, but boisterous solo features. Asaro is the underlying saddle on the old nag of a warhorse “Alabamy Bound” as the horns swirl in martial harmonies. Hall once again works the wood blocks and peripheral percussion as his chums take their requisite rounds and converge on an effervescent finish. Otto’s clarinet sortie on the pastoral “Delirium” perfectly encapsulates the band’s relaxed side. Nearly a century old in some cases, the Babies musical moorings show no signs of sundering from their relative antiquity.
