Jazz Trombones to Play The Little Room Jazz Club

“The Bone Island ‘Bones” are back. The group, three trombones and rhythm section, will give their 11th annual jazz concert at the Little Room Jazz Club, 816 Duval, on Wednesday, March 22, at 6:30 PM. The group consists of Joe Dallas, Jr., his father Joe Dallas, Sr., and Harry Schroeder on tenor trombones. The bass trombone slot will be filled by Georges Hemund, on baritone sax. The rhythm section is Tim McAlpine, guitar, Bubba Low Notes, bass, and Skipper Kripitz, drums.

“’The Bones Island ‘Bones’ has kind of a clunky rhythm to the name,” Schroeder says. “It certainly doesn’t swing. But ‘The Hip Bones’ seemed too strong for a group that plays, among other things, some old fashioned blues and an old tune called ‘New Orleans,’ and nobody wanted ‘The Funny ‘Bones.’ And this one at least fits.”

All of the musicians are regular players with the Paradise Big Band. Joe Sr. is a regular visitor as trombone soloist. “He’s a great player, truly major league,” Schroeder says. “He has a completely relaxed time feel, and a great deal of eloquence on the horn.”

“Four trombones is a lot of weight to push around,” Schroeder says, “but this rhythm section can do it. They all have great time, as well as being inventive and tasteful soloists.”

All the charts were written by Schroeder for the group: many of them have never been heard before. “There’s a great advantage to writing for people you know, whose playing you’re familiar with,” he says. “That way you can write to their strengths.”

Since its inception several years ago, this concert has become a local favorite for jazz fans. Al Sachs, reviewing one year’s concert, said this: “I once heard someone say

‘The trombone is the voice of God.’ That voice was used most elegantly by four fine talents nicely augmented by the other musicians.”

Trombone quartets go back many years, to Beethoven and beyond. They became popular in the Fifties and Sixties, when the great jazz trombonists J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding put several such groups together. The “Bone Island ‘Bones” is dedicated to continuing that tradition.

Tickets are $15 at the door. Students free. The Little Room Jazz Club, 816 Duval.

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