DUKES Symphony Programs

Florida International Festival

The Orchestrator

A Publication of The Florida International Festival
Featuring the London Symphony Orchestra

Dukes Move to Peabody

What to do if an entire performance is virtually sold-out before the box-office opens?

Festival First Night guests, the Dukes of Dixieland, met such an overwhelming response for their July 30 concert at the 650-seat ormond Beach Performing Arts Center that the Festival management decided to move the performance to Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach.

The change was made in time to be included in the Festival Single Ticket Brochure with a first printing of 150,000 copies.

(more)

The News-Journal Saturday, July 31, 1992

REVIEW

By Rick de Yampert

Dukes of Dixieland Get Festival Off to a Royal Start

"Tin Roof Blues," one of those laaaazy blues times, showcased the Dukes' strength — a willingness to let individuality bend the cliches of Dixieland into refreshing shapes.

DAYTONA BEACH — Friday night's Dukes of Dixieland concert at Peabody Auditorium....Wait a minute — what kind of brand-X, chutzpah-bloated, sham moniker is Dukes of Dixieland?

And Peabody — who'd want to hear Dixieland in any place other than some smoky nightclub with bourbon stench and sweating walls?

Anyone who caught the Dukes at Peabody on Friday night, that's who.

Despite their cheesy name, and taht Dixieland might seem like a fish out of water in an auditorium, the Dukes lived up to their royal sobriquet as their concert opened this year's Florida International Festival.

"Tin Roof Blues," one of those laaaazy blues tunes, showcased the Dukes' strength — a willingness to let individuality bend the cliches of Dixieland into refreshing shapes.

Clarinetist Jeffrey Walker took the song's opening solo and delivered a flittery melody, then trombonist Ben Smith followed with a perky solo, followed by trumpeter Kevin Clark's sassy brass and a bluesy take by pianist Tim Harvez. The band sewed all the styles together into an arresting sonic tapestry.

Such flights of fancy served the Dukes well in other songs Clark reeled off be-bopish lines on Louis Armstrong's "Shine." Smith turned in a purposefully bleating, goofy solo on "Fidgety Feet," one of those classically jaunty Dixieland tunes with just a touch of Joplin thrown in.

Drummer Richard Taylor and bassist Everett Link had fun — as did the audience — with "Big Noise from Winnetka." For this bass-drum duet, Taylor poinded his sticks on Link's bass while the bassist fretted the notes — the result was one funny and absolutely cool tune.

The entire band turned loopy on "Tiger Rag," a "crazy, man, crazy" ditty which found Smith once again hamming it up on the trombone. The Dukes showed they could swing with an utterly blistering take on Benny Goodman's "After You've Gone."

But the highlight of the concert was Walker's rendition of "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." Walker set a mournful yet soulful mood with a slow, throaty solo, then tastefully weaved his way into a soaring flurry to end the song. Walker's performance was one that the ghost of any jazz man would have been proud to have played at his funeral.

The concert wasn't without its stumbles. "Twelfth Street Rag," that perfectly giddy Dixieland tune, was spoiled when only Link delivered anything but an inspired solo. And while the playing of pianist Tim Hervez was solid, the volume of his instrument frequently was puny compared to the blastings of his mates.

And, yes, the Dukes, who were founded in New Orleans in 1949, ended with a suitably proud version of "When the Saints Go Marchin' In."

How did taht television ad go? "With a name like that, it's got to be good." After Friday night's concert, the Dukes won't be abdicating their title.