It's funny how you can miss out on worthy things due to false perceptions. That was my experience with Sweet Papa Lowdown, a group offering a unique but underappreciated repertoire of vintage jazz, blues and related styles. About a year ago Jeff Shucard, Sweet Papa Lowdown's leader, sent me a copy of the quintet's 'Til Times Get Better. I gave the CD a cursory listen before relegating it to a pile on the floor beside my desk. I can't remember why I dismissed the disc, but it had something to do with thinking that the band mainly played Dixieland, which I'm not a fan of. So I never really gave the CD a chance.

'Til Times Get Better languished in that pile until I heard that trombonist Chris Barber will perform Sept. 15 and 16 with Sweet Papa Lowdown at the Hot Jazz Club. Barber is a British legend who has played traditional jazz, skiffle, blues and more as a bandleader and with the likes of Louis Jordan, Wild Bill Davis, Van Morrison and Dr. John. So I figured if the group is good enough to share a bandstand with Barber, then there must be something to Sweet Papa's "post-modern retro-fusion Afro-American hokum jazz & blues," which is Shucard's somewhat tongue-in-cheek but still appropriate description of the music. I gave the CD another listen.

The music actually goes far beyond Dixie and has nothing to do with the hackneyed sounds of men in candy-striped jackets and straw hats. 'Til Times Get Better is a treasure trove of rarely heard songs with a simple but robust essence. The gems include "I'm On My Way To New Orleans", which Jimmy Durante — yes, the comedian with the enormous schnozz — wrote when he was a ragtime pianist and composer. Then there's Bo Carter's hilariously suggestive "Banana In Your Fruit Basket". The album ends with a short yet effective take on Blind Blake's "Gamblin' Blues".

Once I got beyond the Dixie stereotypes, and groundless concerns about white boys playing black music, it was easy to enjoy Sweet Papa Lowdown. The group members — vocalist/guitarist Shucard, Alan Matheson on cornet, clarinetist/soprano saxophonist Lloyd Arntzen, slide guitarist Dan Smith and trombonist/tuba player Dan Marcus — play with a relaxed exuberance.

[Excerpted from an article by Chris Wong, In Sync, September 23, 2000]

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