Tim Laughlin and Connie Jones revive lost jazz standards on new CD

Photo: George Long

By Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune

There was no such drama during the making of “If Dreams Come True,” his new collaboration with veteran cornetist Connie Jones. Laughlin conceived of the project, released via his own Gentilly Records, to spotlight Jones, who for most of his six-decade career has worked as a sideman.


Though never formal band mates, Jones and Laughlin have shared bandstands at festivals and nightclubs for more than 20 years. “He’s too good of a player to be behind me instead of next to me,” Laughlin said. “After we played a tune, we’d say, ‘We need to record that one day.’ I finally got off my duff and did it.”

The result avoids the usual New Orleans standards but still comes across as a classic New Orleans jazz record, a lively conversation between musicians fluent in a shared, joyful language.

Laughlin and Jones celebrate the new CD with two shows on Saturday, Sept. 17 at Snug Harbor. They’ll be joined by Matt Lemmler on piano, Larry Scala on guitar, Tim Paco on bass and Bryan Barberot on drums.

Jones, 77, launched his professional career at age 18 on Bourbon Street with the Basin Street Six. In the 1970s, he switched from trumpet to the mellower cornet. He’s backed such band leaders as Billy Maxted, Jack Teagarden, Pete Fountain and Freddie Kohlman. Between 1994 and 2003, he worked two-week shifts aboard the Delta Queen and American Queen riverboats.

“I’m like a saloon musician,” Jones said. “I go with what I’m asked to do, if possible. I’ve learned a lot about my instrument by playing with different types of bands.”

Save a four-year-stint in Philadelphia in the 1960s, Jones has always called New Orleans home. For 60 years and counting, he’s made a living playing music. As he puts it, “I never did a day’s work in my life.”

In 2008, Jones teamed with local pianist Tom McDermott for “Creole Nocturne,” an enchanting collection ranging from “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans” to Jelly Roll Morton’s “King Porter Stomp” to a host of McDermott originals.

In Laughlin, Jones has found another simpatico advocate and collaborator. Laughlin is heir apparent to his close friend and mentor Pete Fountain’s mantle.

“I told Tim recently, ‘You’ve gotten to the point in your playing where I’m really interested in what you’re doing,’” Jones said. “He just keeps getting better and better. He’s very musical and very knowledgeable. You can’t sneak a chord change past him. He knows how to swing. And he knows how to play clarinet in an ensemble.”

To help sustain the vitality of traditional jazz, Laughlin generally includes original compositions on his CDs. But for “If Dreams Come True,” he and Jones selected a program of once-familiar jazz standards, mostly from the 1920s, ’30s and ’50s.

“It’s repertoire, but not common repertoire,” Jones said. “It’s something that you wouldn’t be able to do with a so-called Dixieland band. It wouldn’t be traditional in any sense.”

Laughlin favored tunes with a degree of difficulty and humor. “It’s A Wonderful World,” which he discovered via an Ella Fitzgerald recording, is not to be confused with the better known “What a Wonderful World.”

“Wang Wang Blues” is popular with New Orleans audiences. Spencer Williams, the composer of “Basin Street Blues,” wrote “Tishomingo Blues”; Jones also sang it on “Creole Nocturne.” The swinging “If Dreams Come True” title track, co-written by Benny Goodman, Irving Mills and Edgar Sampson, often turns up in Laughlin sets. Irvin Berlin’s “The Best Thing for You Would Be Me” is an example of how the composer’s melodies lend themselves to a New Orleans band.

“If You Were the Only Girl in the World,” with its unorthodox melody, dates to 1916. “It’s another song that slipped under the rug,” Laughlin said. “You hear a lot of guys in town saying, ‘You know, I used to play that 30 years ago.’ Connie knew it. I’m like, ‘Is there anything you don’t know?’ ”

Larry Scala first taught Laughlin the Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelli chestnut “Tears,” from 1938, which Laughlin translated from guitar to clarinet.

“I just played a festival out-of-town and two guitarists came up to me and said, ‘I’ve never heard a horn player play that song,’ ” he said. “It’s like Sidney Bechet’s ‘Petite Fleur.’ What’s wrong with a trumpet player playing ‘Petite Fleur’? It doesn’t have to be a clarinet or soprano saxophone.”

When the downtown Marriott first opened years ago, Jones heard Louis Jordan, the great rhythm and blues band leader, in a lounge on the 41st floor. Jordan’s band showcased an unfamiliar song called “New Orleans and a Rusty Old Horn.” Afterward, Jones asked Jordan for a copy, only to be told he didn’t have one.

Decades later, Jones found a recording of “New Orleans and a Rusty Old Horn” on eBay. Pianist David Boeddinghaus transcribed the chords so that Jones and Laughlin could record it for “If Dreams Come True.”

“It’s sort of a musician’s, I wouldn’t say anthem, but more of a lament,” Laughlin said. “It’s a perfect musician’s story. You have a bad night, you think about giving up. You go through all these different emotions being a musician.”

Laughlin hoped a relaxed atmosphere in the recording studio would encourage Jones to improvise solos. To that end, he asked Jones to hand-pick the rhythm section.

Memphis-based drummer Danny Coots dates to Jones’ tenure aboard the Delta Queen. He’s been friends with pianist John Sheridan for 40 years. He and bassist Ed Wise often gig together. Scala, another familiar face, contributed guitar to four songs.

The ensemble rehearsed at Laughlin’s restored 1811 classic Creole home in the French Quarter. “It was the easiest rehearsal I’ve ever had,” he said.

During the two-day recording session in December at the Music Shed — documented in a 10-minute DVD, “The Making of ‘If Dreams Come True,’ ” sold separately from CD — Jones didn’t use sheet music. That suited the spirit of the project.

“I didn’t want it to be an overly tight album, as most of my albums are,” Laughlin said. “I wanted it to be a conversation. You want to challenge the listener to hear things they didn’t hear the first time. That’s what I enjoy about listening to a jazz record, the different nuances and levels.”

The spry interplay of the clarinet and cornet puts listeners in a New Orleans frame of mind. “We didn’t do it as a Dixieland album,” Jones said. “We did it as a swing jazz type of thing.”

Within that context, “Connie does something interesting,” Laughlin said. “He lays off the melody time-wise; he doesn’t play the melody too straight, to where I can anticipate leading him with counter lines. So you really have to be on your toes, and listen, when we’re playing the ensemble.

“We’ve worked together 20 years, and I’ve gotten kind of used to it. But I’ll still get tripped up, and that’s a lot of fun.”