From: "Doug Bright" <75366.2463@compuserve.com> To: Subject: Article: March, 1982 Date: Thursday, August 18, 2005 10:13 PM MARCH, 1982 Great EXCELSIOR REMEMBERS Joe By Doug Bright Ever since its beginning in 1962, the Great Excelsior Jazz Band has been an unques- tioned institution in Northwest traditional jazz circles. Now the band has a new Voyager album dedicated to the fond memory of perhaps its most colorful personality of all time. He played drums with the band for fourteen years and his name was Joe Loughmuller. Born in Indiana and raised in Mississip- pi, Joe was deeply influenced by the music around him during his formative years: every- thing from jazz to blues to the field hollers of the notorious prison farms he visited. He got his working start at sixteen in a hotel band in Jackson. He eventually came to Seattle and was discovered by Bob Jackson playing Greek music in a bar near the Seattle waterfront. Jackson was quite im- pressed, and so began a working relationship that would span the key years of Great Excel- sior's history. There was a lot of material recorded during the course of these important years. The band's latest album, REMEMBERING JOE, is a nostalgic effort to capture and preserve the essence of the deceased drummer's colorful personality. The material dates from 1978 to 1980. Most of it was recorded during a long-standing gig at Skipper's on Eastlake Avenue. As with all Voyager products, the produc- tion quality is excellent and the stereo quite lifelike. It's very easy to imagine yourself at Skipper's listening to Great Excelsior in person. The band is in good form on these sessions, and a few early jazz classics prove the point well. Jimmy Blythe~s "Messing Around" is one of the highlights of the album. Everybody gets loose on this up- beat tune. Ham Carson, who often tends to get a bit experimental, does an exuberantly melodic clarinet break that has to be one of the most authentic solos I've heard him play. "Sidewalk Blues" is mostly taken right off Jelly Roll Morton's original except that Joe converts the ragtime beat into a nice swing. The band is obviously having a good time, and even the usually reserved Bob Gilman gets hot on this tune. Listening to Joe's rhythm on these in- strumentals, hearing his perfect blend of simplicity and exciting inventiveness, it's easy to see why Bob Jackson was so impressed. Joe's voice, unfortunately, is a different matter. Although a few good phrases appear, his blues style is no more impressive than most white folks who try to sing the blues. It's hard to believe he spent so much time listening to blacks in Mississippi. The basic idea is there but the reel essence of the blues seems to have eluded him. To borrow a phrase from the world of hockey, it's close but no cigar. He does best on up-tempo num- bers that enable him to shout the blues like Joe Turner. The best examples of this are "Drinkin' Wine" and "Rather Be Sloppy Drunk". All in all, the band sounds good but Joe is certainly not such an impressive figure as to merit the dedication of an entire album on artistic grounds. The motivation for the album is primarily nostalgia and thus it will probably stir fond memories for those who followed the band closely during the lough- muller period. Some of these~ close followers say that Joe's best material wasn't selected, but I wasn't there so this is the only evi- dence I have to go on. ----------------------------------------