Box Car Shorty | Panorama Jazz Band featuring John Boutté and Dr. Michael White | Panorama Jazz Band / Panorama Brass Band - New Orleans

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Panorama Jazz Band featuring John Boutté and Dr. Michael White - Box Car Shorty

from Song-of-the-Month Club: Good Music For You by Panorama Jazz Band and Panorama Brass Band plus special guests

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about

Hi everybody! This is our 55th consecutive song-of-the-month since May, 2014, and it's a real party. For this one I called up two of my oldest friends in New Orleans, singer John Boutté and clarinetist Dr. Michael White. The tune, "Box Car Shorty," was written by New Orleans' jazz genius, Sidney Bechet and recorded by him with Bob Wilber and his Famous Jazz Band in 1950. Where the vocal on the original recording is by a calypsonian from Trinidad called The Duke of Iron, we managed to tempt John Boutté, the "mighty man from across the pond" to drive over the Causeway from his North Shore hideaway and record with Panorama.

The Bechet/Wilber recording, which I have listened to nearly without ceasing for the past 20 plus years, features two clarinets so, for the role of "hot stick" I called up a mentor of mine, Dr. Michael White. I originally met Michael in 1985 (before I even moved to New Orleans), when he played at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. He takes all the ad lib clarinet parts on this one where I play the section parts.

Check out the growl in John's voice when he utters the phrase "sly like a mongoose," the heat in Dr White's tone when he jumps off for his ad lib chorus, the recurring tutti fanfare and the rhythm section punching that "half clavé" rhythm.

We hope you dig the music and that we can put a little extra bounce in your step. If so, consider joining our song-of-the-month club, Good Music For You.

Thanks for listening,
Ben Schenck
Clarinetist / Leader
Panorama Jazz Band
New Orleans, LA

lyrics

(Special thanks to Panorama friend Ray Funk and Trinidad language expert Dr. Lise Winer for help with the lyrics. There were a few of them I really couldn't make out. -Ben)

Box Car Shorty

Well I’ve got to tell you ‘bout this mighty man
Mighty man from across the pond
Box Car Shorty is the man I mean
Chunky, short in height but like dynamite
He's so witty and so powerful
Moves boxcars, don’t care near or far
Shorty got his name from boxcar fame
But that isn’t all, he answers any call

Chorus:
Shorty, Box Car Shorty
Shorty, you’re just a wonder man
Lord, man, you just kickin’
Mighty, with everyone you walk
Shorty, Box Car Shorty
Shorty, you set the world to talk
Sly like a mongoose, chock full of might
Got all de world, man, it's lock up tight

Verse:
Shorty said that he would love to fly
Way up high past the stratosphere
Once up there nobody would deny
That he'd land on Mars and solve the cause of wars

Chorus

Verse:
So, he went up in a yaeroplane
Somersault, landed on his head
Crowd start yelling, thought that he was dead
But he got right up and wiped his face instead!

Chorus

credits

from Song-of-the-Month Club: Good Music For You, track released October 1, 2018
Recorded September 26, 2018 at Oak Street Recording, New Orleans, LA

Panorama Jazz Band feat. John Boutté and Dr. Michael White
John Boutté - Vocals
Dr. Michael White - Clarinet
Ben Schenck - Clarinet
Tomas Majcherski - Alto Saxophone
Charlie Halloran - Trombone
Michael Ward-Bergeman - Accordion
Gary Washington - Tenor Banjo
Matt Perrine - Tuba
Paul Thibodeaux - Drum Set

Music and lyrics by Sidney Bechet (Warner Chappell Music France/SACEM ) and arranged by Ben Schenck (Snack Daddy Music/ASCAP).
Recorded, edited, mixed and mastered by Lu Rojas at Oak Street Recording, New Orleans, LA
Cover photos by Greg Miles (instruments) and Michael Reiber (John Boutté, Ben Schenck + Michael White)
Graphic design by Ben Schenck

Special thanks to Panorama friend Ray Funk and Trinidad language expert Dr. Lise Winer for help with the lyrics. There were a few of them I
really couldn't make out. -Ben

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Panorama Jazz Band / Panorama Brass Band - New Orleans image

Panorama Jazz Band / Panorama Brass Band - New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana

"New Orleans' genre fluid jazz band"

The Panorama Jazz Band and the Panorama Brass Band have been working steadily in New Orleans and beyond since 1995. Many hundreds of nightclub gigs, festivals, weddings, crawfish boils and Mardi Gras parades have added to this community of musicians' collective experience, all of which they bring to each of their recordings. ... more

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