Cornet coronation

It's all Chop Suey to Gary Bohan

by Don Fluckinger

There are a few places where vintage jazz reigns supreme. Preservation Hall in New Orleans' French Quarter is one such place that comes to mind; Boston's Dick's Last Resort is not. Yet it was this insane beehive of low culture that brought together Gary Bohan and His Hot Vintage Jazz Band in 1994 for the first time.

"That was quite a scene," says ringleader and cornet player Bohan. "Among the food fights and buckets of beer and blowing up condoms on people's heads, we were all right there providing them with the entertainment they so dearly needed. I thought we were going to last one night. . . . We ended up playing there one or two nights a week for 14 months."

On the bandstand, in front of paying customers, the sextet (banjo, clarinet, cornet, bass, drums, and guitar) developed a style and a "happy" repertoire mostly derived from Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven era, with a few blues and pop tunes from the 1920s thrown in to liven things up. "Pennies from Heaven," "Stardust," and "Just a Gigolo" were in regular rotation for nearly hundred performances at the club until Dick's Last Resort changed managers, and the Bohan group were cut loose.

Since then, the group have played about a dozen gigs a year. Last year, a jazz critic saw one of their shows at the Sherborn Inn and suggested they play the Hot Steam Jazz Festival in Connecticut. Once they got on the roster for this year's event, Bohan got the band together in a Westwood studio, not only to have a release to peddle but to get a record of the group "while everyone's still in their prime." Their Sherborn Inn gig next Tuesday celebrates the release of Cornet Chop Suey, the resulting CD.

Each of the Bohan Band members is a professional jazz player, with his hands in several projects. Bohan, who also works as an electrical engineer, toured the world playing in the Klezmer Conservatory Band for 10 years. He also took part in Itzhak Perlman's klezmer project "In the Fiddler's House" and was a part of Broadway star Joel Grey's Borschtcapades vaudeville revue.

It was klezmer music that first got him interested in playing cornet, the "period instrument" of the genre. Hitherto a trumpet player, Bohan studied the idiosyncrasies of the cornet and its mellower sound, and he enjoyed it. Then came an interest in early jazz.

"Before, I felt jazz started with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and ended with John Coltrane. As many people are, I was interested in 1945 to '65 and really didn't want to hear much about any other period," he says. "As I got proficient [on the cornet], there was a natural tendency for me to get interested in some of the jazz of the 1920s."

Bohan followed the footsteps of Satchmo, who played cornet on his early Hot Five recordings, as did his white counterpart, Bix Beiderbecke. Although some great individuals such as Rafael Méndez -- with his prolific work across many genres -- have showcased the cornet, it has never completely captured the imagination as it did some seven decades ago.

Hooking up with tenor banjo player and singer Jimmy Mazzy cemented Bohan's interest in vintage jazz. Mazzy's repertoire and vocal style inspired Bohan to put together the Hot Vintage Jazz Band; and it's from his deep knowledge of the era's compositions that the group pick their tunes. It started out at Dick's Last Resort, where they built their songbook on the spot; and since, the spontaneous on-stage experimentation has become part of the schtick.

"Every gig we do is a gig-slash-rehearsal," Bohan says. "With Jim Mazzy's repertoire -- which is seemingly endless -- it's sort of a throwback to Doc Severinsen and his `stump the band' routine. We even make a joke of it at some of our gigs. We'll just have Jim pick a tune and see if he can stump us. That's not too far off from how we add repertoire to the band."

So far, the group play close to home; though Bohan is contemplating a winter tour of Florida if things work out. But for now, they're having fun getting together occasionally and making sure their efforts benefit charity: 20 percent of the proceeds from Cornet Chop Suey sales are donated to the Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center in Hopkinton, a facility that provides temporary care and employment for people with disabilities.

Gary Bohan and His Hot Vintage Jazz Band play at 7 p.m. on June 22 at the Sherborn Inn, in Sherborn. Tickets are $8. Call 655-9521.