CD Review: The Cafifornia Feetwarmers

Charles De Castro (tpt/acc); Justin Rubenstein (tmb); Joshua Kaufman (clt/pno); Jeffrey Moran (gtr/vcl); Brandon Armstrong (sousa/bass); Patrick Morrison (plec bjo); Juan Carlos Reynoso (wbd); Dominique "Chief" Rodriguez (bs dm.) + Phil Alvin (vcls/gtr - 3 tracks); Leah Harmon, Becky Blanca harmony vcls - 1 track); Andy Bean (ten bjo - 8 tracks).
(Review by Lance)

Stylistically, these feetwarmers from The Golden State go back to practically the beginning of time! Not that I'm complaining. History should never be forgotten in any art form - without the past there is no future.

Good-time Jazz is back - for many it never went away.

Fresh interpretations of tunes from the roaring twenties. De Castro has listened to Bix and Red Nichols, vocalist Moran recalls early Jolson, there's also a bluegrass feel to Morrisons banjo features - The Banshee and A Banjo Vamp. Whilst, sacrilegious as it may seem, some of the tracks with harmony backing vocals sound like an American version of Chas and Dave. Not surprisingly, given the name, The California Ramblers also spring to mind.
The opening Jazz Me Blues, surely the most easy, relaxed, swinger of all the old warhorses, and San, that followed, have a Bix/Trumbaeur feel about them that just make you want to fill up your flask with bathtub gin, jump in your Flivver, pick up a Flapper and Charleston the night away!
It's all good fun.
The band are hopefully heading to Europe in 2015 and maybe will touchdown at a Lindy Hop lounge near you. In the meantime, if this is your kind of music check it out here.
Lance