The following comments are from Ron L'Herault
- New England Jazz Web Site (
www.nejazz.com)
MaGlockner's Restaurant - Bellingham, Ma. June
21, 2007
"The band played to an almost capacity crowd, due
mainly to the move from the usual room to a small room
off the bar. It worked to the band's advantage and they
were able to easily engage the listeners with hand
clapping and singing along to some of the songs.
The DDs lead off with "Royal Garden Blues"
at a nice medium tempo, allowing the listener to savor
the harmonies. They followed that with The Wabash
Blues. This tune was slow paced and full
textured, with great harmonic interplay. Vocals were
handled by Dick Jenkins, one of the three banjo players
and by Rick Foster, cornetist and band MC. He, along
with trombonist Jim Kelleher wrote the tune that opened
the second set, "Aku Aku", (pronounced Eh
Coo), a romantic medium tempo song which I would like to
hear again soon. Although the band reads most of the
time, this allows them to use some nice arrangements
which added variety to many of the well known tunes they
played. A good example was "Muskrat Ramble",
written by Kid Ory. It had a nice, ragtime feel to it,
harking back to the time before this music was called
jazz, when bands such as this were ragging the music.
Two more tunes should be singled out for special
mention. One is "Midnight in Moscow"
which had a delightful Klezmer flavor to it. The other
tune was "Tuck Me to Sleep In My Old Kentucky Home"
(Words by Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young/Music by George W.
Meyer, 1921). It is a great tune with fun lyrics and is
based on Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home".
It was quite refreshing to hear a tune that I have not
heard done by any of the other local bands. It's
another one I look forward to hearing again soon. The
band wrapped up this pleasant evening of music and good
food at Ma Glockner's with "Just a
Closer Walk with Thee" segued with a rousing
version of "The Saints Go Marching In"
during which members of the band threaded their way
around the tightly spaced tables, much to the delight of
their fans and of the patrons in the bar who were
keeping a close eye on the proceedings."
http://home.comcast.net/~newenglandtradjazz/DixieD_MaG.htm
