Fresh Air - Jazz With The EarRegulars

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

Our dark week continues with a performance by and conversation with two of the best traditional jazz musicians around, trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso and guitarist Matt Munisteri. In 2007, they founded the band The EarRegulars which plays Sunday nights at a very old bar in Greenwich Village called the EAR inn. They spoke with Fresh Air producer Sam Briger.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. We have a great entertaining show for you as you head into the holiday weekend. Trumpeter John Eric Kelso and guitarist Matt Munisteri are going to play and talk about the music they make in their band, The Ear Regulars. That's E-A-R, Regulars. They perform jazz, mostly from the 20s through the 40s, and they have a new live album. They spoke with Fresh Air producer Sam Brigger. Here's Sam. Sunday nights I find myself feeling jealous of New Yorkers. That's because every Sunday night at a small old bar in the West Village called the Ear Inn, you can hear some really amazing music.

Vibrant and vital jazz, even though some of the repertoire is 100 years old. The band The Irregulars was founded by our guests John Eric Kelso and Matt Munisteri and is led by Kelso. The band is usually a four-piece combo with friends sitting in. They set up in the corner of the ear inn and pass the hat at the set break, which is kind of remarkable considering that these are some of the best jazz musicians around. I first heard The Irregulars on YouTube, where their weekly concerts have been pretty well documented, and I used to visit those videos during the pandemic when I needed a pick-me-up, because when you listen to this band,

you can't help but smile. The Irregulars have just put out their first live album. It's called Live at the Ear Inn, and with the sound of the bar crowd in the background, you can close your eyes and almost believe you're there. John Eric Kelso and Matt Munisteri founded the Irregulars in 2007, but that band is just one of the many credits to their names. They've both recorded albums under their own names and with their own bands and appear on countless artists' albums. They are first-call session musicians whenever someone is recording any sort of traditional jazz and other genres of music.

They were kind enough to bring their instruments today for our conversation. But before we get to that, let's hear a track from their new album. This is I Double Dare You, first recorded by Woody Herman in 1937. That's the song I Double Dare You from the Irregular's new album Live at the Ear Inn. Our guests are the founding members of the band, John Eric Kelso and Matt Munisteri. Welcome to Fresh Air. Thank you. So why did you guys want to do a live album? The last album you did was recorded in a studio.

Well, I've wanted to do a live album really since we started the gig there, but I've always been a little concerned that it might be too loud in there at times to do a live album. But, you know, sometimes you can hear a pin drop, and sometimes, you know, we have some people that go there just because it's a bar, and they act like people in a bar. That's my little mantra I tell myself if I start to get upset about it being noisy. Start getting particularly dark. But, yeah, we've been thinking about it for 16 years and we finally got around to it.

It also, I think that room sounds really good. It sure does. And we thought that when we used to play there late nights, you know, and there would be no one in the place. It was just the room sounds really good. It sure does, yeah. And we thought that when we used to play there late nights, and there would be no one in the place, and it was just the room sounds good. It's wood and a lot of knickknacks and, I guess, beer-soaked floorboards. That's good for acoustics?

Beer-soaked floors? Apparently, yeah. Also, just the idea of doing a live album with this band is appealing because of the energy that we generate there as far as the spontaneity in this group. It's hard to recreate that in a studio setting. You kind of can, but it's not the same as just the actual bouncing off of each other as we do at the year. Well, I'd like to ask you to do a song. You said that you would do No One Else But You, which is on the third track of the album.

What can you tell us about the song before you place it? It was originally played by Louis Armstrong, and it's written by Don Redman, who was a well-known arranger and bandleader and composer in those early days. And later on, it was played by one of our heroes, Ruby Braff, and another hero, George Barnes, on guitar. They had a great quartet, and we kind of borrow mostly from version of it, as far as just the format. Okay, well, we're going to hear No One Else But You with my guest, guitarist Matt Munisteri,

and trumpeter John Eric Kelso. And they also play this on their new album, Live at the Ear Inn, with their band, The Irregulars. So let's hear it. One, two, 1, 2, 3 Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo do do Thank you. That was great. That was a song no one else but you from John Eric Kelso on trumpet and Matt Munisteri on guitar. That's on their album with their band the irregulars the new album is called live at the ear and

when i was listening to that there was a point in the song where john you were doing this like descending line and matt you played chords that sort of descended along with them. Did you know he was going to do that, or did you just hear it in the moment and follow along? Yes, I knew. I wish. I feel like this is asking a magician how he does his tricks. We don't really have very many arrangements, but this is sort of the melody of the tune,

and it's also taken, as John said, largely on that arrangement. We were really borrowing from our two heroes, Ruby Braff and George Barnes' version. Right. So let me ask you about Ruby Braff and George Barnes. I think, John, you knew Ruby Braff, right? Yes. Yeah. I got to know him. It was a pretty amazing thing for me. I was one of my heroes. Is there anything in particular that you might have talked with him about that he taught you about how he played the trumpet that's influenced the way you play? Well, he didn't really, he wasn't trying to teach me anything specifically about how to play the trumpet. And, you know, he would sit down at the piano. He was actually a pretty decent piano player for a cornet player.

And he would say, hey, do you know this song? And start to play something. And I'd say, no. And he says, good. I'm going to teach it to you right now. So he would show me songs. And he would show me chords that he figured out from some of the masters, like Teddy Wilson.

He said, I finally figured out what Teddy Wilson is doing on the bridge to Sweet Lorraine. And he'd show it to me. So he taught me in those kind of ways. And mostly we were just hung out. And I listened to him tell his great anecdotes. And it's just a lot of fun. Well, although you're admitting that the piece you just did has some arrangements, I mean, one of the amazing things about the arrangements on the new album is they're really not arrangements. Like, you guys are playing together. The horns are doing collective improvisation in the sort of style, I guess, that was originated in New Orleans. And I just wanted to hear some of that from the album. I was thinking that we could play part of the song, I'm Coming Virginia. And we're going to cut in a little bit to the track. Matt, you start playing rhythm, and then one of the irregular, Scott Robinson comes in with something, first of all, that sounds like a clarinet, but it's not, right? He likes to play a lot of sort of odder instruments. What is that instrument he's playing?

It's called a tarragato, and I'm not sure I'm pronouncing it absolutely perfectly, but it's a Hungarian folk instrument, basically, used primarily in Hungarian folk music. And I like to think of it as kind of like a wooden soprano sax, like a kinder, gentler soprano sax. At least in Scott's hands it is. It's kind of scary in most people's hands because it's not a factory-made kind of precise instrument. It's like you have to know a guy up on the hill to get one. And, you know, there actually is a real connection to traditional jazz history and the tarragato. And, John, you might have to correct me on this, but was Scott's first tarragato one that he got from Joe Moraney? That's right. Yeah, that's what I thought. So Joe Moraney was a Hungarian-American clarinetist who played with Louis Armstrong's All-Stars in the 1950s? 60s. He was in his last version of the All-Stars.

And we all knew Morini also, and Scott and he were close. And I think he turned Scott onto the Terragotto, and he's since had several made in Hungary. Including a Contrabass Terragotto, which is maybe the only one in existence as far as we know. Let's hope. Let's hope, yes. No, no, no. We kid. Well, let's hear this. We're going to hear John Eric Kelso come in on the melody and weaving around him doing an improvisation will be on trombone John Allred and on the tarragato

Scott Robinson. And the bass player on this is Neil Minor. ¶¶ That was the song I'm Coming Virginia from the band The Irregulars, and I'm speaking with the two founding members of the group, John Eric Kelso, who plays trumpet, and Matt Munisteri on guitar. They have a new album with their band The Irregulars. It's called Live at the Ear Inn. You can find the band every Sunday night at the very old West Village bar, The Ear In. Matt, when we were sort of trading emails talking about doing this interview, you wrote something that I wanted to talk about. You said, the tradition of collective improvisation is central

to the irregulars, and the role of the trumpet is decisive in any successful performance in the style. John is a master of shepherding the structure and feel of each performance through his musical cues. Some of this language is well-established tradition, but some is derived from John's personal vocabulary. Can you talk a little bit about what those cues are, like how that works on the stage? I started playing with John in 96, I think. Occasionally we would play in the same bands. And then I started having John on some of my own gigs when I was leading again in the 90s. And I'll just say one thing that happens sometimes with John is even if there's another leader,

John will expect that people are going to follow the trumpet. So I wasn't familiar when we started playing together with sort of the trumpet's role in traditional jazz and how the trumpet really determines the structure of a tune. And I was like, no, I'm determining the structure because I'm the singer and I'm telling you what's going to happen on stage. And he'd be like, no. And sometimes there'd be train wrecks that would happen in this other band that we played and John would get really mad and just be like, listen to the trumpet.

And I was like, well, dude, you're not telling us what to do. But, you know, the truth is, he's right. Once you understand that it is a language and that the trumpet is actually, if it's played correctly in this style of music, it's giving all the information that you need to be able to follow along. I know his vocabulary and his repertoire very well. If I'm listening to the radio and John's even like in a band somewhere in the mix,

I can pick out his sound. Like any soloist that I love, any jazz musician that I love, if I'm listening to a record and suddenly that soloist comes on, it's like a good friend just walked into the room. And so I feel like that's what I meant by the combination of stuff that's like very traditional and established, and then your own really sort of unique sense of play and your own cues that we all know. Well, John, can you give an example of a cue

that you might give to the other horn players? Yeah. One of the ways I describe it to people when they ask about this stuff is I say that by default, often the trumpet player in certain styles of jazz bands is like the traffic cop or like the quarterback. I like the traffic cop analogy in that the trumpet kind of directs the order of the solos sometimes, or he will cue how many ensemble choruses are in the beginning or in the middle or at the end. He's often the one that will initiate improvised background figures or riffs, and you have to do it in a way that the others, first of all, know that you're trying to get their attention and then play something clear that they can latch on to

and that lends itself to either harmonization or whatever it is you're going for. And also with the endings, often the trumpet will kind of lead which type of ending, whether there's a tag at the end or whether there's a retard where it slows down and there's a hold or that kind of thing. And also with the dynamics as well, whether you're going to play a loud one and then a soft one and then a medium one. Sometimes you'll do things like that and hope that people are paying attention so that you're all on the same

page. You're playing a lot of music from the 20s and 30s. This is called usually traditional jazz, but sometimes I think the word traditional gives the wrong impression. It's going to be like a museum piece. But you're not playing staid or boring music, as listeners can hear, like this is really vibrant and exciting. But you're also, it sounds to me like you're being respectful of the era that the music

comes from. Can you just talk a little bit about finding that balance? Sure. I think the way we've come to a sort of a style of our own at the ear end is a mixture of a respect for the style and knowledge of the earlier styles of New Orleans jazz, for lack of a better term for it. The terminology is tricky. Yeah, certain words upset people, but, you know, anyway. So we come from this place of knowledge of the earlier styles of jazz, and then we also are open-minded and kind of find our happy medium

with whoever is in the quartet du jour there. Because that changes the dynamics on how you play. Yeah, depending on who the other guys are, it may lean a little bit more towards swing, may lean a little bit more towards New Orleans, may be a little beboppy, and some versions of the quartet are more adventurous as far as it can kind of go almost anywhere. I don't try to rein anybody in as far as

stylistically there. It's also, like you said, really dependent on the individual voices. Each of the players, the horn players on that CD, Scott Robinson and Evan Christopher and Jay Ratman and, of course, John Allred on trombone, are all, like, fully formed, strong musical personalities, you know, who've likewise digested a great deal of music. And so things happen, you know,

when all those personalities come together and everyone's being honest and had a drink maybe or two. It is a bar. It is a bar after all, yeah. That's fair. That's fair. That's Matt Munisteri and John Eric Kelso, founding members of the jazz band The Irregulars. They have a new album out called

Live at the Ear Inn. We'll hear more from them after a break. I'm Sam Brigger, and this is Fresh Air. Hi, it's Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. Before we get back to our show, the end of the year is coming up, and we're reflecting a bit here at Fresh Air. We've loved sharing conversations with you in 2023. Leslie Jones, Barbara Streisand, Kerry Washington, Zadie Smith, Ronan Farrow, David Byrne, and so many others. And we're looking forward to 2024, hopefully with your financial support. This is where we want to say a big thank you to our Fresh Air Plus supporters and anyone listening who already donates to public media. Your support is the reason everyone has free access to NPR shows and podcasts. To anyone out there who isn't a supporter yet, right now is the time to start,

especially with journalists gearing up for an important election year. Supporting public media now takes just a few minutes and really makes a difference in what's possible moving forward. So join NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a tax-deductible donation now at donate.npr.org slash fresh air. And thank you. This is Fresh Air. I'm Sam Brigger. My guests are the founding members of the traditional jazz band The Irregulars, John Eric Kelso and Matt Munisteri, who play trumpet and guitar respectively. They play Sunday nights at the New York bar in the West Village called The Ear Inn, hence the band's name. Don't let the word traditional fool you into believing that this is some sort of nostalgia act. Although the songs they play are old, a lot of them from the 20s and

30s, their performances are as exciting and lively as anything out there. They have a new album. It's called Live at the Ear Inn. They brought their instruments to the studio. Let's hear a song they played for us that's not on the new album. It's called Tisha Mingo Blues, written by Spencer Williams in 1917. Thank you. guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. That was great. That was Tishomingo Blues, played by a trumpeter, John Eric Kelso and Matt Munisteri on guitar. They're here because they have a new CD with their band, The Irregulars, that's called Live at the Ear Inn.

That was really wonderful. Thank you for playing that. I think it's perhaps time to talk about mutes, hearing that song. Don't reach for that dial, everybody. Mutes? What? You want to hit the mute button on our – Next we're going to be talking about minds.

Trumpet players like to accessorize. Isn't that right, John? You have all sorts of things you stick at the end of your trumpet. Oh, yes. Yes, this is a fetish for trumpet players. And for me, it started pretty much right when I started playing trumpet at age 10. I was listening to my parents' old 78 RPM records from the swing era, and immediately it caught my ear the guys like cootie williams

with the duke ellington band and with the benny goodman uh small bands uh that he was using a plunger and you know making these kind of growling sounds and wah-wah sounds and that that thrilled me to no end like an actual plung plunger, like a toilet plunger, right? Yeah. Yeah. We like to call them sink plungers mostly, you know, mostly the trumpet uses the smaller. I'm hoping they're not used whether they're sink or toilet plungers. Nah, nah. Yeah. Maybe I'll demonstrate the little Pixie Mute by itself and with the plunger and without the Pixie Mute, just so you understand what that. Yeah, that'd be great. Would that be good? Okay. All right. So, uh, this is, uh, playing with just the pixie mute.

Okay. So now this is with the Pixie Mute and the Sync Plunger. see. That's really cool. Well, thanks for doing that. So I wanted to talk a little bit about how each of you got started. John, I would like to start with you. You grew up in Detroit, right? What was your family like? What was your house like there? Well, I grew up in a suburb of Detroit, yes, called Allen Park. And I had a brother and a sister and my mom and dad. My dad had played trumpet when he was young. And it was interesting because I didn't know that until after I told him that I wanted to play the trumpet. And he said, oh, really? You want to play the trumpet? Let me see if I can find mine. So he dug out his horn, and he was my first teacher. And he sounded kind of like Harry James, who was his big idol. And around the same time, at age 10, I was finding my parents' old records, these 78 RPM records from the swing era. And so I got interested in that style of music at a very young age

and had a buddy that lived near me who was doing the same thing. We actually formed a big band when we were still in elementary school on our own. We put together a big band with ringers from the junior high band. And would you gig? We played at the school concerts, and we did some things like at the PTA meetings and stuff like that. And was there a point where you sort of realized, like, oh, I'm actually pretty good at this,

maybe better than some of my peers, and maybe I want to make a run at being a musician? I think in a way, yes. I mean, I always was driven. I just wanted to be really good. Like I couldn't stand not sounding good, so I practiced incessantly when I was young. I was just, you know, the band teacher in elementary school would have us

fill out this little chart of how many minutes we practiced each day, and then our parents would have to initial it and bring it in. And I would bring mine in, and he actually called my mother, and he said, John Eric is making things up. He's lying. He's saying he practiced 240 minutes on Saturday. No, no, that's right. Yeah, that's right. They had to tell me to stop practicing because it was getting late. When did you start gigging? How old were you?

My first paying gig, I was 12, actually. And then my first steady gig for two summers when I was in junior high and also the summer before going into high school, I had a steady gig playing at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, part of the Henry Ford Museum with that same buddy of mine, Mike Karub. And we had a little trad band, trad jazz band playing outside there six days a week, five hours a day. So that was a good chance to learn some songs and get some chops. Yeah.

And then when did you decide to move to New York? 1989. I was 25 years old, and I got called by Vince Giordano of the Nighthawks. And he was looking for somebody to join the band, and he had me come, flew me out to New York, and I played with the group for a week. And oddly, the same month, I had a call from a band called the Dukes of Dixieland in New Orleans. And they flew me down there for a week. And all this happened in one month in 1989. I got offered both gigs and those were my two favorite cities in the world that I had been to. So it was a pretty exciting time for me. And I went with the New York option and have never regretted it.

And so when you moved to New York, were you playing, because you're playing trad jazz, were you playing with a lot of musicians who were older than you, who came from a different generation? Like, were you the young kid? Exactly, Yeah. And same with my early years in Detroit, especially when I was playing the older style of jazz. You know, I was playing with some people that were quite a bit older than me with lots of experience. And I was lucky to have some great mentors that, and also just grouchy older players who would yell at me and tell me to, you know, stop playing too many notes or whatever it was I was doing wrong. So I got the tough love and I was happy to get it. Let's take a short break here. If you're just joining us, our guests

are trumpeter John Eric Kelso and guitarist Matt Munisteri. They have a new album out with their band, The Irregulars. It's called John Eric Kelso and the Irregulars, Live at the Ear Inn. More after a break. This is Fresh Air. This is Fresh Air. If you're just joining us, we're speaking with jazz musicians John Eric Kelso, who plays trumpet, and Matt Munisteri, who plays guitar. They have a new album with their band, The Irregulars. It's called Live at the Ear Inn. You can find the band every Sunday night at the very old West Village bar, the Ear Inn. Matt, what about you?

You grew up in Brooklyn. What was your family like? Were they musical? Yeah, my dad was a big music lover, and both my mother and my brother sort of were extremely gifted at music. But there was music all over the place, either, you know, being played on the record player or Sunday dinners were usually over at my grandparents'.

And I had an aunt that played piano and accordion, and my grandmother played piano, my dad and grandfather sang, and there were other cousins and aunts and uncles. I had a great uncle who played, you know, just Sicilian songs on an old guitar, and I inherited that guitar when I was 12. It was an old Gibson 1948 L7.

So yeah, I was around music all the time and sort of always knew that I wanted to play. And I think that originally you went down quite a dark path by playing bluegrass banjo. Is that correct? Yes, I traipsed down that path. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't sure what instrument I wanted to play. I was playing basically anything that came my way in elementary school, which is just, you know, this was New York City. Public schools used to have band programs and music programs. And I think that that's probably not like it used to be.

And so, yeah, I was eager to play any instrument. But when I was in fourth grade, I think, dueling banjos was suddenly a top ten hit. And I had a little AM transistor radio that I'd listened to, you know, the pop music of the day. And, um, suddenly that tune was like, I mean, that phenomenon of a tune, just being on the radio, like 10 to 20 times a day, you know, it set my hair on fire. I mean, it was just incredible. Um, so I started begging my parents to find me a banjo teacher and they finally did. So yeah, that was my path for a while. And then I started playing guitar in a summer camp in fifth grade. I remembered, you know, my uncle John playing guitar and singing the Sicilian songs when I was a kid. My great aunt was always saying, if you get good at guitar, I'll give you your

uncle John's guitar. And I'll just never forget the smell of that guitar, the look. It had just been sitting in its case since he died. So I practiced the guitar like crazy after that, and she gave it to me for my next birthday. And yeah, like what John said, you just, as a kid, just disappear into your room and practice as many hours as you possibly can because it's the greatest thing in the world.

It's always amazing to me that people have to be forced to practice. For me, it was always like there were other things. Everyone always wanted me to do other things, but I was like, oh, I'd rather just kind of practice. Was there a point when you were like, I'm going to give this a go and try to be a musician full time? I never thought that I would make a living at it. It was always just where my head was. I always heard music in my head constantly, constantly, constantly. So no, I never thought I'd make a living at it.

And I didn't start even going out and trying to sit in with people until I was way old, like 27. I didn't, you know, I mean, I'd been playing all the time, but not jazz at all, nothing connected to jazz. How'd that go? How did those first few times go? Oh, I got kicked off a bandstand. You did? Yeah, of course.

I got kicked, because I thought that jazz was like, I'd learned how to play Bob Will stuff from Western Swing, from, you know, Russ Barenberg and Richard Lieberson. And yeah, jazz musicians told me that. I got told to sit down and get off bandstands plenty of times. And then I played, this is the truth. I sat in at a jam session and I played a solo on a blues and everyone in the place went crazy. And so I took another chorus and people kept on being like yeah yeah and i kept playing course after course and after that my phone started ringing

and i just started like working um but when i got off the stage uh and i was listening from the audience i realized they'd been in the key of b flat and i'd played course after course after course in e i couldn't hear the bass who's on the other side of the stage, and that sort of made my career. Like, John, did I ever tell you that? Like, the phone started ringing after that. I was so hip. You were playing out of key, but it sounded hip to everyone. Well, I don't know.

It sounded hip to everyone. Everything was a tritone substitution. Everything. Let's not get too nerdy. It was a disaster. It was terrible. It was awful. Well, Matt, you solo, obviously, in these shows. But your main job is playing rhythm. There's a bass player, but there's no piano. There's no drums.

And so you're holding down the rhythm chair. And along with your guitar playing, you also sing. Not on this album, but on the one before this, which is called In the Land of Beginning Again, you sing on a song, Sposen, which I've heard versions of that by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby and Fats Waller. Why don't we hear your version of the song? This is from the Irregulars album, In the Land of Beginning Again. This is Matt Munisteri singing on the song Sposen. Sposen in love with you do you think that you could love me too supposing that I held you

and caressed you would it impress you or merely distress you supposing that I said for you I yearn would you think I'm speaking out of turn And Sposen

I declare it Would you take my love and share it Oh I'm not Sposen I'm in love with you That's the song Sposen played by the Irregulars, and sung by one of my guests, Matt Munisteri, who is also a guitarist. And the other guest is John Eric Kelso, who plays trumpet.

And they have a band together called The Irregulars that has a new album called Live at the Ear Inn. Why don't we take a short break here? We'll be back in a second. This is Fresh Air. This is Fresh Air. This is Fresh Air. If you're just joining us, I'm speaking with the founding members of the traditional jazz band The Irregulars, trumpeter John Eric Kelso and guitarist Matt Munisteri. They have a new album called Live at the Ear Inn. You both have done and do a lot of session work. Can you talk about what that's like in the life of a musician?

I came into town very early this morning for a session. It's trying to fit in. I mean, you're trying to fit into a situation where you're going to make the entire ensemble sound good. What I used to do a lot was then try to play sort of like in the background. And nowadays when I play on, you know, if it's even like a jingle or someone's date or something, I try to actually bring a lot of personality to it, musical personality. So you're trying to, you know, make someone's work with someone else's vision. And we both work as, you know, when you say session, it's like we work as side people with a lot of different people in

different bands in different contexts. So you're trying to do something that's going to help someone's vision, and at the same time, you're actually trying to step up and be a recognizable voice somehow in the ensemble. What about you, John? What about your experience as a sideman or session musician? Being a sideman and a session musician for me has been a real challenge, but a fun one. There are some bands I play with and some situations I'm in where it's in a recording studio for a soundtrack or something where they have a very specific idea of what they want to hear. And it isn't necessarily just that they want to hear and it isn't necessarily uh just that they want to hear me doing it the way i would do it you know sometimes it's like we need we need somebody to sound like miles davis you know and uh one of my first jingles i think it actually was my first jingle in new york uh howard alden got me on this session and it it was something like therapeutic mineral ice or something.

And they said they wanted this track to sound like Miles Davis's All Blues. And so they kind of came up with a tune that was reminiscent of that without actually playing that song. And as a teenager, Miles was one of the guys that I studied pretty hard. I don't only listen to earlier players. I like listening to all kinds of stuff. So I had spent a good amount of time trying to copy him and learn from him.

So I guess I did a good job because they stopped things at one point and you could see they're all having like a huddle in the booth. And they said, John, can you sound a little less like Miles Davis? And I took that as a high compliment. I thought, all right, well, okay, I guess I did what I was trying to do there. It sounded enough like him that they were worried that they were going to get in trouble or something. So, yeah, sometimes the gig is to copy somebody or give your version of some specific person or a very specific style. And sometimes they just want you to bring your flavor to the mix. Well, I wanted to end with a really beautiful song that you guys did on your last album,

which is In the Land of Beginning Again. This is a song called Smoke Rings, which I think was originally done by the Mills Brothers. Is that right? I think it actually went back to the Casa Loma band, Glenn Gray. Okay. You want to say anything else about this tune? I actually heard it first.

Oh, my God. What's the name of the great Canadian country jazz singer? Whatever. I guess the answer, Sam, is do we want to say anything else? No. Yes, but I don't know what it is. I do, but I can't. We'll let the music speak for itself.

John Eric Kelso and Matt Munisteri, thank you so much for coming in today. It was a real treat. Thank you, Sam. Thanks for having us. guitar solo Thank you. guitar solo John Eric Kelso and Matt Munisteri are the founding members of the traditional jazz band The Irregulars. Their new album is called Live at the Ear Inn. They play at the Ear Inn most Sunday nights, but they won't be there New Year's Eve.

They spoke with Fresh Air producer Sam Brigger. Kelso and Munisteri joined us from the studios of WNYC in New York, our thanks to recording engineer Irene Trudell. Throughout this holiday week, we've been featuring a few of our favorite interviews of the year. Monday, we'll celebrate New Year's Day with Barbara Streisand and listen back to the interview I recorded with her in November after the publication of her memoir. We talked about her two Broadway shows

and why she decided to never do another, how she learned the hard way that romance with your leading man can spell trouble, the two different sides of her personality, and more. We also played and talked about some of her great recordings. I hope you'll join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at NPR Fresh Air. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller.

Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering from Adam Staniszewski, Joyce Lieberman, and Julian Hertzfeld. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salat, Phyllis Myers, Roberto Chorak, Sam Brigger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Teresa Madden, Ann Rehbaldonato, Thea Chaloner Sam Brigger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Teresa Madden, Ann Rebodenato, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelly, and Susan Yakundi. Our digital media producer is

Molly Seavey-Nesper. Our co-host is Tanya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross. All of us at Fresh Air wish you a healthy and fulfilling new year.