Fresh Air - Traditional Jazz With The EarRegulars

Episode Date: November 22, 2023

In 2007, trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso and guitarist Matt Munisteri founded the band The EarRegulars, who play Sunday nights at a very old bar in Greenwich Village called the Ear Inn. But don't let the word "traditional" fool you. Although some of the songs they play are a hundred years old, the way they play is vibrant and exciting. They brought their instruments to the studio to play us some tunes.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. And 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, one, two, three. uh

uh Thank you. do do Thank you. That was great. That was the song No One Else But You from John Eric Kelso on trumpet and Matt Munisteri on guitar that's on their album uh with their band the irregulars the new album is called live at the ear and when i was listening 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 said largely on that arrangement we were really borrowing from our two heroes Ruby Braff and George Barnes's 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 to them 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, you know, 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. 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. Yeah. 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 Marini? That's right. Yeah, that's what I thought. So Joe Marini 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. Yeah. 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. Thank you. ¶¶ 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. More after a break. This is Fresh Air. comes from Wise, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply.

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, 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 Irreg 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 like 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 like 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 um 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 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. You know, 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 not playing stayed 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 in how you play. Yeah, depending on who the other guys are, it may lean a little bit more towards swing, Or just 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. 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 Thank you. ¶¶ That was great. That was Tishomingo Blues, played by 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 small bands, that he was using a plunger and making these kind of growling sounds and wah-wah sounds. And that thrilled me to no end. Like an actual 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 with that. Yeah, that'd be great. Would that be good?

Okay. All right. So this is playing with just the Pixie Mute. Okay. So now this is with the Pixie Mute and the plunger without the pixie. That's really cool. Well, thanks for doing that. Sure.

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. That's yeah. 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 styles 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 and also just grouchy older players who would yell at me and tell me to 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. Hey, it's Terry Gross. Since you're listening to the Fresh Air podcast, I hope that means you like what we do here. You probably already know that your financial support is what makes our work possible, as well as the news and podcasts you listen to across the NPR network. Even though our show is available to you for free, it's not free to produce. If you already donate to public media, thank you.

But if you're listening and are thinking about becoming a supporter, now is a great time to start. Thank you. episodes. You can also make a tax-deductible donation to your local NPR station, to the NPR network, or all of the above. I hope you'll consider joining the community of listeners who make this work possible. We can't do it without you, and your support makes sure everyone can listen. You can give today at donate.npr.org slash fresh air, or subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org. Thank you. 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 grandfather sang and uh

there were other cousins and aunts and uncles i had a great uncle who uh played you know just sicilian songs on a old guitar and i inherited that guitar when i was 12 it was an old gibson 1948 l7 um and uh so yeah i was around music all the time and um sort of always knew that i wanted to play and i think that originally you you went down quite a dark path by playing bluegrass banjo is that correct uh 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 uh fourth grade i think dueling banjos was suddenly a top 10 hit and i had a little am transistor radio that i'd listen to you know the pop music of the day and, 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. Um, 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 like the smell of that guitar, the look, you know, 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 like have to be forced to practice, you know. 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 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 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 course 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 chorus after chorus after chorus in e i couldn't hear the bass he was 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 hip. So 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. Yeah, 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. Supposing that I fell 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 supposing I declare it

Would you take my love and share it? Oh, I'm not supposing 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. 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 know, 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 um and we both work as you know when when you say session it's like

we work as side people with a lot of different people in different bands in different contexts um 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, you know, 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 me doing it the way I would do it. Sometimes it's like, we need somebody to sound like Miles Davis. And one of my first jingles, I think it actually was my first jingle in New York,

Howard Alden got me on this session and it was something like therapeutic mineral ice or something and uh and they they they said they wanted this track to sound like miles davis's um all blues and so they kind of came up with a tune that was reminiscent of that you know without actually playing that song and uh and you know 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, you know, trying to copy him and learn from him. So I guess I did a good job stopped they stopped things at one point and you could see

they're all having like a huddle in the in the booth and they they said uh john can you sound a little less like miles davis and i i took that as a high compliment i thought all right well okay i guess i guess i i did what i was trying to do there it sounded you know 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. Do 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. Thank you. 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 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. Tomorrow, on the Thanksgiving episode of Fresh Air, we feature an interview and performance by jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran. His recent album, From the Dance Hall to the Battlefield, is a tribute to James Reese Europe,

who led the Harlem Hellfighters Regiment Band in World War I. I hope you'll join us. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salat, Phyllis Myers, Sam Brigger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Ann Marie Baldonado, Teresa Madden, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelly, and Susan Yakundi. Our digital media producer is Molly C.V. Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. Our co-host is Tanya Mosley.

I'm Terry Gross. All of us at Fresh Air wish you a happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. guitar solo Thank you.