Remember how music used to be, before live bands needed an electrician? Back when a piano, some horns, a doghouse bass, and a drummer beating swing-time used to be enough to rouse a room? We do! From the syncopated heart of New Hampshire, the Tall Granite Jazz Band sound is a spirited homage to Chicago-style "Hot" jazz from the Roaring 1920s, into the Swing jazz of the ‘30s and ‘40s, and the swinging "Cool" jazz of the ‘50s and early ‘60s. Our influences range from King Oliver to Oliver Nelson, with stops at Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, Miles Davis, A.C. Jobim, and many other greats.
So if the Mashed Potato or the Funky Chicken don't have quite the appeal that they did in 1958 or 1968...or if you're done with dueling banjos or screaming guitars, this is the band for you! Grab your two-tone shoes, turn back the clock and Swing and Stomp or just relax to the Tall Granite Jazz Band's good-time jazz.
Well, it's been a busy summer for the Tall Granite Jazz Band, culminating with our televised (6 seconds on Channel 7) appearance at the Eastern States Exposition on New Hampshire Day. But now, with the firewood all stacked, we're hibernating in the cliffside Tall Granite Club House, cleaning our horns and waiting for the Batphone to ring. So while we are arguing about the color of the new band bus, we are busily tweaking our repertoire, swapping out "Easy Street" for "Brother Can You Spare a Dime."
Engagements, divorces, wakes, rallies, revivals, company picnics, clubs, bars, birthdays, gazebos, grand openings, government bailouts, celebrity sightings, surges, early acceptances, early releases, office parties, official openings, official denials, inaugural balls (hint hint, Mr. President-elect)...we play 'em all ! For quotes and bookings, click to contact David Dustin at Moldy Fig Productions, LLC.
-- Jazz Fan Stan Hallinan, Bow, NH
Click the arrow on the left of the bar to hear samples of the Tall Granite Jazz Band in performance (mp3 format).
A Tall Granite sampler... (playing)
Moten Swing (excerpt)
Bye Bye Blackbird (full length)
Sweet Georgia Brown (excerpt)
Represented by Moldy Fig Productions LLC, Contoocook, New Hampshire, Tel. 603-746-2669.
Photos by Margaret Landsman Winer and Holly Dustin. Some audio clips courtesy Jack Duncan, WKXL 1450. Tall Granite logo by Eric Palson, AIA.
Visit the Tall Granite Jazz Band photo gallery. . .
