Here is the flyer announcing the formation of my new jazz band based in Cleveland. I'll have more information about gigs to pass on very soon! Many thanks to all of my readers for the past several years here on The Jazz Clarinet! Your enthusiasm for jazz clarinet has been unflagging!
Eric
Seddon’s Hot Club is a jazz band in the New Orleans
tradition, emphasizing soul, blues, tuneful melodic invention, and a beat so
warm you’ll have to put ice in your drink to cool down.
The Hot Club
was formed in 2015 to continue and promote the tradition of New Orleans Jazz: a
uniquely American way of music, demanding equal invention from all band members;
whose goal is to express the whole range of human emotions. From our deepest
joy to our most piercing sorrow; from restless dissatisfaction to tranquility, New Orleans Jazz has the capacity to identify, charm, and excite that
which is central to our lives. Bringing this powerful art form to the community
in live performance is, for us, the completion of the music, and our greatest
pleasure.
The band is based in Cleveland, lead by Eric Seddon on clarinet. A native of
New York, Eric has performed in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and with
such celebrated artists as the Emerson String Quartet, Doc Severinsen, and Mark
O’Connor. In addition to leading his Hot
Club, Eric is active on the Cleveland jazz scene, frequently performing
with such popular groups as Hot Djang!,
George Foley & Friends, Gene’s Jazz Hot, The SpYder Stompers, and the Nostalgia
Factor. An advocate of the sound and history of jazz clarinet, he performs
on refurbished, vintage clarinets with mouthpieces from the golden era of jazz.
Other members of the group include:
Bob
McGuire on banjo & guitar. A Cleveland legend, nationally
known for “Moon Over Parma” (his original theme song for the Drew Carey Show),
Bob brings a depth of knowledge and skill on his instruments, seasoned by a
life spent mastering the language of early jazz. A veteran of the Cleveland
scene, in addition to being a Hot Club
member, he is leader of The Nostalgia
Factor: a group he formed with Al Mazur on vocals and Gene Epstein on bass,
to perform and promote the Great American Songbook. In addition to his jazz credentials, Bob is a composer of classical compositions as well: his pieces for cello are available for sale at Derek Snyder's cellocelli.com.
Gene
Epstein on acoustic bass. Gene is a much-in-demand bass player
on the Cleveland early jazz scene—a mainstay in such groups as George Foley
& Friends (you can hear her on Monday evenings holding court at the Tavern
Co.), The Nostalgia Factor, where she
holds down the bass chair, and her own Gene’s
Jazz Hot—an early jazz ensemble patterned after swing bands such as the Hot
Club de France.
Bill
Fuller on drums. Bill is
a rarity among today’s drummers: an artist whose craft was built and polished
around the rhythms and timbral language of early jazz and swing ensembles. In
addition to Eric Seddon’s Hot Club,
he plays regularly with George Foley and Gene’s
Jazz Hot, at top venues all around Northeast Ohio. A mainstay on the
Cleveland scene for decades, his drumming is unique for its warmth and
sensitivity to ensemble—key characteristics for traditional New Orleans jazz.
Eric
Seddon’s Hot Club is available for booking, with music for
all occasions. Just as the old New Orleans jazz bands played music appropriate
to any circumstance: weddings, funerals, wakes, private and corporate parties,
or jazz brunches, so we continue that tradition, lending our soulfulness to your
event. Send us an email at Eric[dot]Seddon[at]gmail
to set up your New Orleans jazz experience.