Six Blueses, Five Joys & A Stomp

The Smoking Time Jazz Club don't just play music they throw everything they’ve got into it.

This overwhelmingly energetic and versatile group that originated in

New Orleans is most known for breathing fresh air into traditional styles.

In the 13 years since their formation the band has released a plethora of records

that reimagine older styles for modern audiences. Drawing on the diverse musical

influences of early New Orleans jazz and blues.

Jack Pritchett trumpet

John Joyce upright bass, vocal on Step It Up And Go

Charlie Halloran trombone

Jory Woodis clarinet, saxophone

Mike Voelker drums

Sarah Peterson vocals

Brett Gardner guitar, banjo

Hunter Burgamy guitar, banjo

James McClaskey banjo, vocal on Am I Blue

Recorded by Jon Atkinson at The Tigermen’s Den

Art by Sarah Peterson

Played with respect and admiration for the artists who wrote, performed and lived these songs.

*Our favorite recording

Mean Tones & High Notes

Everything is oaks and herbs my nerbs. The city’s music is it’s rhythmical unguent, a melodic tisane born of the earth and the characters of it’s inhabitants. It transforms and transports and leads us to another place and helps us forget our troubles. Musicians are modern day healers, griots, culture bearers and repositories of oral tradition.

Smoking Time Jazz Club is celebrating their tenth year as a working traditional jazz band in New Orleans. There is a coruscating musical tradition to draw from in the city of New Orleans and their aim is to bring that music and those great musical ideas into the future and to play them with reverence and gratitude for those who created and lived them. 

The sounds on their new album Mean Tones And High Notes grow hair go blind and explode. The horns growl, hiss, cough and squeak as notes bend, break, weaken, collapse and leave home. Rhythms spill over in syncopation and are compulsively juggled in handfuls then flung wildly away.

Jack Pritchett’s trumpet on Love Songs Of The Nile sounds fresh and alive but it’s not all blast and thunder, when the suit is hearts he’s a teddy bear.
Polycropped in the indigenous mode and a bad whamma-jamma, Sarah Peterson has a singing voice that shouts, hollers, calls, moans, weeps, cries and wails.
Thinking about it doesn’t cook rice, just ask Brett Gardner. On Railroad Blues his guitar simultaneously sounds as sophisticated as silk lingerie and crude as cotton overalls.
Then there’s the saxophone cyclone James Evans whose hearts delight is flutter tonguin’ a low down moan and holding high notes a long time on Playin’ My SaxOphone.
The bray of the sackbut is heard loud and clear on Blue Trombone Stomp when Russell Ramirez comes swingin’ out with his sidekick Munch Munch and a trombone shout! 
Fate dealt Joe Goldberg four of a kind and when the smoke cleared he stood alone with his clarinet and his saxophones. He always plays a winning hand just listen to The Breeze as it blows through his reeds.
Be it gold it breaks be it jade it shatters, John Joyce and Mike Voelker’s bass and drum run together like two halves of a zipper in 4/4 time. Hear their handy work on Big Chief Battle Axe a jaunty little number that kicks like a backfiring chainsaw.

That’s Mean Tones And High Notes and it cert’ly sounds good to me!

Sarah Peterson - vocals

John Joyce - bass

Mike Voelker - drums

Jack Pritchett - trumpet

Russell Ramirez - trombone

Brett Gardner - guitar & banjo

Joe Goldberg - clarinet trx 1,7,8 & tenor saxaphone trx 4,6

James Evans - clarinet trx 1-3, 5-7,10-12 & c melody saxaphone trx 4,6,9,13 & vocals track 9

Recorded and mixed February 5th, 2020 at Marigny Studios, New Orleans by Rick Nelson

Mastered by Justin Armstrong

Collage & pen album art by Sarah Peterson

Key to artists on the front cover collage left to right. Top row: Fess Williams and Bessie Smith. Middle row: Bunk Johnson’s Band (Bill Robinson, Alcide Pavageau, Bunk Johnson, Warren Baby Dodds, George Lewis, Alton Purnell, Lawrence Marrero) Joe King Oliver, DeDe & Billie Pierce, Baby Dodd’s hand, Trixie Smith. Bottom row: Sidney Bechet Quintet (Freddie Moore, George Pops Foster, Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet, Hank Duncan) Louis Armstrong’s Hot 5 (Louis Armstrong, Johnny St.Cyr, Johnny Dodds, Edward Kid Ory, Lil Hardin Armstrong) and Roy Palmer.

Contrapuntal Stomp

Contrapuntal Stomp Smoking Time Jazz Club’s newest CD is a recording that will be mighty popular with the folks that crave red hot jazz music. Sarah Peterson and the band have everything it takes to turn out tantalizing dance tunes and they have put it all into this recording. Songs from their favorite artists such as Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith capture the free wheelin’ feel and style of smokin’ hot traditional jazz and slow burning classic blues. 
Using tradition as a guide with a forward movement made sure footed by experience they have assembled a collection of traditional jazz songs that will tickle your feet with that swingin’ beat. 
So get in the mood to groove, pull up your socks and put on your dancing shoes and join the Contrapuntal Stomp.

released March 25, 2019

Sarah Peterson - vocals 
Russell Ramirez - trombone 
Joe Goldberg - clarinet, saxophone, piano, vocals track 5 
John Joyce - upright bass 
Mike Voelker - drums 
Jack Pritchett - trumpet 
Brett Gardner - guitar, banjo 

Recorded at Marigny Studios in New Orleans by Matt Aguiluz 
Earl Scioneaux III - mixing 
Bruce Barielle - mastering

Take Your Time And Fly

We are pleased as punch about our new album Take Your Time And Fly. 
Popular culture is most vivid when rooted in the rhythms and language of a particular place. 
Smoking Time Jazz Club live and work in New Orleans and draw inspiration from a city with a great musical legacy. 
Sarah Peterson sings with a fresh vocal style that is full of ginger and soul. From start to finish she takes her cues from some of New Orleans greatest female blues singers. 
When you hear the chug a lug of the How Long Blues you'll want to catch the next thing smokin' with John Joyce on the upright bass. 
Russell Ramirez calls it jazz because it wobbles when you play it. His trombone playing on Dear Old Southland is done with skillful crooks, turns, slurs and appoggiaturas. 
On Weed Smokers Dream Byron Asher arranges a unique contrapuntal stomp and gives 'em the grape with a fine and sublime clarinet wail. 
Joe Goldberg's great exploration into the source of jazz continues with a cheerful little earful on the clarinet feature Temptation Rag. 
The dancers will grind till they lose their mind when they hear Jack Pritchett's smeared half valved freak trumpet effects on Tight Like This. 
Mike Voelker's big beat keeps things rockin' with a steady roll on Birmingham Black Bottom. 
Joseph Faison, Brett Gardner and Molly Reeves on banjo and guitars remind the listener that a feeling of the beautiful things that happen to you is in the blues. 
An ace on every instrument and a marvel all together. Take Your Time And Fly with the Smoking Time Jazz Club.  

released September 22, 2017 

Sarah Peterson - vocals 
Russell Ramirez - trombone 
Joe Goldberg - clarinet, alto and soprano saxophones 
Byron Asher - clarinet, tenor saxophone 
Jack Pritchett - trumpet 
John Joyce - upright bass 
Mike Voelker - drums 
Jack Pritchett - trumpet 
Joseph Faison -banjo 
Brett Gardner - guitar 
Molly Reeves - guitar 

Recorded by Earl Scioneaux III 
at Living Room Studios, New Orleans 
Mastered by Bruce Barielle 
Cover collage art by Sarah Peterson

Make A Tadpole Holler Whale

Nominated best Traditional Jazz Album of 2016 by Offbeat Magazine's Best Of The Beat music awards. 
It's a fine time to get up off your seat and stomp your feet to the new Smoking Time Jazz Club CD Make A Tadpole Holler Whale. This new CD starts off smokin' and just keeps getting hotter. It's a genuine romp and stomp through 1920's era jazz and blues with the band wailing away from beginning to end.  
The new CD features the vocals of Sarah Peterson and Make A Tadpole Holler Whale is a great vehicle for Sarah's style. Listen to her belt out the River Bottom Blues a saga in witch she summons the power of the Mississippi River that she sings about. Also featured on the new CD and a new addition on the reeds is Joe Goldberg. Joe tears it up on clarinet and alto, tenor and baritone saxophones with great ensemble work, smoking hot solos and a real honesty and fire in his playing. Check out the alto sax on the classic Maple Leaf Rag and you'll know what we mean. Comin' out ready to swing, Byron Asher has been busy transcribing, revising and improvising on The Penguin. Byron's tenor playing lit a spark in the studio that is sweet music to the ears. Check out Byron and Joe playing clarinet duets on Your Mother's Son In Law, Rhumba Negra and Fare Thee Honey Blues. On Shake A Little Bit and Drag It Colin Myers delivers a hypnotizing blues drenched rendition of an early New Orleans classic trombone solo. Reconstructing the monstrous melody complete with growls and smears, Colin delivers the traditional low moan of the slide trombone with a fresh flavor 'ala New Orleans. Black And Tan Fantasy finds the high octane trumpet sounds of Jack Pritchett "callin' the children home" and on the habanera serenade Goodbye Daddy Blues Joseph Faison sets the stage for lost love, loneliness and heartbreak with the six strings of his guitar while Mike Voelker and John Joyce beat out a latin tinged rhythm that seems to stick with you for days. 
When we play the greats like Louis, Duke, Jelly, Bessie or Billie it's because they really were geniuses and the contributions and insights they made to jazz are relevant right now. We aim to bring that music and those great musical ideas into the future. It has been said that music is a great big tree with very old roots. A tree that is indeed still living and growing and if you look at the top it's still sprouting leaves and it's still comin' out waving in the breeze.  

released February 9, 2016 

Sarah Peterson vocals 
Colin Myers trombone 
Joe Goldberg reeds 
Byron Asher reeds 
Jack Pritchett trumpet 
John Joyce upright bass 
Mike Voelker drums 
Joseph Faison guitar 

recorded by Earl Scioneaux III 
mastered by Bruce Barielle 
recorded at Living Room Studios, New Orleans 
art design Shannon Brinkman 
painting by John Joyce

Aint We Fortunate

The new recording by the Smoking Time Jazz Club that brings the musical ideas of their 1920's heroes into the twenty first century with a Bang! 
Where there's smoke there's fire and Joe Goldberg is hot on the trail of his musical mentors with a romping rendition of Johnny Dodds' clarinet showpiece Shreveport Stomp and a salute to Sidney Bechet on Petit Fleur. Jack Pritchett and the echoes of Bix Biderbeck can be heard on the classic Copenhagen and he plays a searing trumpet introduction on Louis Armstrong's Gully Low Blues while Jack and Joe share a vocal track that gives you the "low down on the low down" 'ala Armstrong. Seeking inspiration from the great "Tricky Sam" Russel Ramirez is on fire. He plays breaks like he has all the time in the world. He’s red hot from the tailgating trombone on Jubilee Stomp to the singing trombone on Blues Of The Vagabond. John Joyce is livin' the dream with a hard driving beat on the upright bass and a visceral "man on fire" scream on Taint A Fit Night Out For Man Nor Beast. Hot jazz finds a home when Joseph Faison plays the banjo. From the first song Downtown Doins he lights a fire under the band and then warbles a gut bucket blues on King Oliver's Snag It. On the drums Simon Lott aka "Context Killer" kicks out the jams on Tiny Parham's Washboard Wiggles and can't go wrong when he bangs a gong on Jelly Roll Morton's Jungle Blues. You won't hear Sarah Peterson singing on this recording because she was out of town for a season but we are happy to report Sarah and the band are now in New Orleans gigging and rehearsing songs for the next recording project...Ain't We Fortunate!  

released February 8, 2017 

Russell Ramirez trombone 
Joe Goldberg clarinet and alto saxophone 
Jack Pritchett trumpet 
John Joyce upright bass 
Simon Lott drums 
Joseph Faison banjo  
 
Recorded by Earl Scioneaux III 
at The Living Room Studios in New Orleans 
Mastered by Bruce Barielle

Everything Is Righteous

Fasten your seat belts folks you're in for a big fat New Orleans bump in the road with the Smoking Time Jazz Club album Everything Is Righteous. 

Recorded In New Orleans in November 2014 by Richard Bird and mixed by Earl Scioneaux III. We had the good fortune to record Craig Flory, Tomas Majcherski and Byron Asher alternating between the clarinet and the tenor and alto saxophone throughout the entire recording and what a wonderful and glorious sound it is! 

Listen for the classic clarinet trio on Mamanita and the wild and swinging triple clarinet threat of While They Were Dancing Around. Craig plays bass clarinet on Jealousy Blues and renders one of the most sublime recordings that the band has ever made. With the addition of Joseph Faison on guitar the Smoking Time rhythm section has been overhauled and turbo charged. 

This album is good old fashioned fun and our most exciting release to date with Sarah Peterson's fresh vocal stylings we recorded some fantastic songs. The album features River Man, Away All The Time and Alligator Pond Gone Dry. Check out the latin tinge of Ubangi Man and the traditional jazz classic Deep Henderson and the hypnotic New Orleans Bump. You'll also hear barn burnin' classics like The Chant, Rockin' In Rhythm and the opus blues Black Cat Moan and many more great songs. We find delight and inspiration from songs by the great turn of the century artists who made jazz the cultural legacy it is today. So if you like classic jazz and blues you will enjoy listening to the sweet, seductive, sultry sounds of the Smoking Time Jazz Club's release Everything Is Righteous. 

“Everything Is Righteous released January 2015 and is the seventh album from Smoking Time Jazz Club since 2011. With over 90 recorded tracks in that time span, Smoking Time Jazz Club is one of the most productive jazz bands in the world. Hailing from New Orleans, they are part of an amazingly talented musical renaissance that includes the preeminent Tuba Skinny the rebellious Little Big Horns and the acclaimed Shotgun Jazz Band and many more. It’s a jazz music scene like no other in the nation and Everything Is Righteous exhibits superbly why Smoking Time Jazz Club has earned their place amongst the New Orleans greats.”

-John Taylor  Vintage Swing Review

released January 20, 2015 

Sarah Peterson vocals 
Colin Myers trombone 
Tomas Majcheski reeds 
Craig Flory reeds 
Byron Asher reeds 
Jack Pritchett trumpet 
John Joyce upright bass 
Mike Voelker drums 
Joseph Faison guitar 

recorded by Richard Bird 
mixed by Earl Scioneaux III 
mastered by Bruce Barielle 
art design Shannon Brinkman 
recorded in the French Quarter, New Orleans

Stampede

released September 20, 2013 

Colin Myers- trombone 
Sarah Peterson- vocals 
John Joyce- upright bass 
Byron Asher- clarinet 
Jack Pritchett- trumpet 
Dan Oestreicher- saxophone 
Mike Voelker- drums 
Jason King-guitar 

recorded by Earl Scioneaux III at Piety Studios, 9th Ward, New Orleans

Oh Sister Aint That Hot!

Influenced by the music of Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith as well as other legendary classics of the Jazz Era. Their high stepping sounds can be heard all across the world famous French Quarter,  attracting tourists and locals alike. 

released January 2, 2013 

Sarah Peterson: vocals 
Colin Myers: trombone 
Jack Pritchett: trumpet 
Dan Oestreicher: saxophones 
John Joyce: upright bass 
Jason King: guitar 
Aurora Nealand: soprano saxophone 1,2,4 
Jimbino Vegan: clarinet  3,6,9,10,13 
Byron Asher: clarinet on 5,7,8,11, 
Mike Voelker: drums 3, 5, 6,8,11,12,13 
Benji Bohannon: drums on 1,2,4,7,9,10 

recorded at Piety Studios, 9th Ward, New Orleans by Earl Scioneaux III 
artwork by Magda Boreysza

Linas Blues

released February 29, 2012  

Jack Pritchett-trumpet 
Colin Myers-trombone 
John Joyce- upright bass 
Sarah Peterson-vocals 
Christopher Johnson-saxophone 
Dan Oestreicher-saxophone 
Jason King-guitar 
Mike Voelker-drums 
Jimbino Vegan: clarinet

recorded by Earl Scioneaux III in the 9th ward, New Orleans 

Livin In A Great Big Way

 released February 1, 2011

Jack Pritchett-trumpet 
Colin Myers-trombone 
John Joyce- upright bass 
Sarah Peterson-vocals 
Christopher Johnson-saxophone 
Dan Oestreicher-saxophone 
Jason King-guitar 
Blu Beverage-banjo 
Mike Voelker-drums 
Chance Bushman-tap shoes and vocals on LGBW

Recorded by Ratty Scurvics in the 9th ward, New Orleans