For the DVD included with The HotJazz Jumpers’ album release, The Very Next Thing, the band dresses up in circa1920s costume and perform banjo plucking, tub thumping Dixieland—as well asmusic that edges into other places, including the acoustic ethno-jazz worlds ofcrossover pioneered by Ry Cooder. Led by guitarist-banjo player Nick Russo, theband is loose and snapping, flexible as a rubber band.
In an interview on the DVD, singerBetina Hershey says that the Jumpers grew out of a shared love of swingdancing. But as evident from the performance videos as well as the music on TheVery Next Thing’s CD, swing was only the door opening to a pre-rock and rollhistory of American music. And yet, even that isn’t entirely excluded, with theBo Diddley beat heard on “Jock-a-Mo.” Eclectic is the operative word. TheJumpers pull Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” into ‘60s avant-garde territory andinfuse “You Are My Sunshine” with scat and memories of African syncopation.Everything is performed with evident joy.
