*** Duke Heitger

RHYTHM IS OUR BUSINESS

(Fantasy)

Don't let the jitterbugging cat and kitten on the front cover, or the endorsement from former Squirrel Nut Zipper Tom Maxwell, fool you: this is not big bad voodoo jump blues. Rather, Heitger, who himself played trumpet on the Zippers' Hot, has zeroed in on easy, precise '30s-style Basie swing. That means classic riff tunes from Lester Young ("Jammin' the Blues") and Gene Krupa ("Swing Is Here"), and Ellington in a New Orleans mood ("Stevedore Stomp"). This is a little big band -- eight or nine pieces on most tracks -- for maximum intimacy and mobility. Heitger has an explosive, ripping trumpet style that's out of Armstrong by way of Roy Eldridge, and his soloists are all equally capable -- the liquid Goodman runs of clarinettist Tom Fischer, the broad trombone of "guest" Dan Barrett (who also arranges), the authoritative stride of pianist David Boeddinghaus. Heitger sings with the boozy warmth of Jack Teagarden after hours ("Yours and Mine"); Rebecca Kilgore mixes the "white" conversational diction of Ella Fitzgerald and Anita O'Day. The band play all "covers," so whereas Maxwell and like-minded Zipper associate Andrew Bird use ancient styles as a key to their own invented worlds, Heitger here comes off as a preservationist. Which isn't necessarily bad -- when you hear the leader leap out of a break on a cloud of backing reeds, you probably won't care.

-- Jon Garelick