By Eric Stevens

Hampton, VA. A much-needed shot of New Orleans jazz came to this "Trad"- starved area on Groundhog Day (the vast majority of such music takes place in California and
elsewhere west of the Mississippi River).

The historic American Theater was an appropriate venue to present this treasure trove of music. Besides the building itself, the Phoebus section is a trip into the 1940s and Ôfifties, with its clapboard houses, including a few Victorians, its art galleries, antique shops, some art deco, and many restaurants. I like this village so much that I once wrote a song entitled, "By The Time I Get To Phoebus."

The instrumental sextet gave us the first set with Royal Garden Blues, Second Line, Basin Street Blues, and Bourbon Street Parade. It's so stimulating to hear that joyous Dixieland sound of trumpet melody, trombone smears, and the reed player counter-weaving, invariably ending with a four bar drum break and a four bar tag by them all.

Leader Leroy Jones played rather modern trumpet lines: lotsa notes, but they made sense; so much so that you could almost see logical, symmetrical lines of notes etching onto the staff. Trombonist Freddy Lonzo knows what that big horn is for: NAS-TEEE!!
His vivacious demeanor added to the party mood. Tenor-man Alonzo Bowens really shone on the blues.

As a pianist myself, I was constantly delighted by the work of Mari Watanabe on the Steinway. Mitchell Player played the string bass, and drummer Shannon Powell rounded out the rhythm section adroitly. He and Jones also sang.

After intermission, Jewel Brown delivered a consummate "seminar" on showmanship
and vocal expertise gleaned in more that a half-century on stage. Her nightclub smarts showed in countless remarks; her authoritative count-offs would have made General Patton proud.

The Texan once worked for Jack Ruby of assassination infamy; her positive credentials included singing with Louis Armstrong for most of the sixties. Although she can belt like a red-hot-mama, her slowww ballads included What A Difference A Day Made, This Bitter Earth, and the show-stopping Satchmo hit, What A Wonderful World. She swung Lover Come Back to Me (with countless tags), and belted Bill Bailey, Baby Won't You Please Come Home, and All Of Me before "killing" with a long blues medley.

Of course, the only way to close was with "Saints," as the horns walked the auditorium followed by a snake line of beaded enthusiasts.

For more on future presentations, type in Hamptonarts. net. And I'll bet these crowd-pleasers come back again next year.

Pianist-singer-songwriter Eric Stevens can be reached at (757) 481-7792