Mal Sharpe’s Big Money & Dixieland Jazz Band & New Horizon Stompers at Healdsburg Jazz Festival at Costeaux Bakery and Cafe

Get the right musicians together playing Dixieland, and the result is an intense conversation that communicates joy. Trombonist Mal Sharpe has been having these conversations for decades, with a direct link to the origins of the music by way of his playing with George “Pops” Foster, who started working in New Orleans in 1907. Mal's Big Money in Jazz Dixieland Band is firmly in the tradition of San Francisco legends Lu Watters, who launched San Francisco's Dixieland revival in the 1940s, and Turk Murphy, who extended it into the '80s. Expect them to light a fire under standards like “Beale Street Blues,” “Sunny Side of the Street,” and “Mood Indigo,” among others, proving yet again that trad is rad....

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Get the right musicians together playing Dixieland, and the result is an intense conversation that communicates joy. Trombonist Mal Sharpe has been having these conversations for decades, with a direct link to the origins of the music by way of his playing with George “Pops” Foster, who started working in New Orleans in 1907. Mal's Big Money in Jazz Dixieland Band is firmly in the tradition of San Francisco legends Lu Watters, who launched San Francisco's Dixieland revival in the 1940s, and Turk Murphy, who extended it into the '80s. Expect them to light a fire under standards like “Beale Street Blues,” “Sunny Side of the Street,” and “Mood Indigo,” among others, proving yet again that trad is rad.
The New Horizon Stompers are a Dixieland distillation of a very large Sonoma County orchestra called the New Horizons Band. Ray Walker, a retired music instructor from the Santa Rosa school system who plays clarinet and banjo in various Dixieland bands, put together the Stompers, who include Dave Stare on banjo, Rob Taylor on trumpet, Richard Bloom and Bill Byrne on clarinet, Louise Graves and Neil Herring on alto sax, Bill Badstubner and Dave Graves on trombone, Gerry Turner on tuba, Jim Cunningham on drums and Bob Ressue on piano.

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