The Dab'Dixie

Anyone who recognises the first letters of Bertrand Dabo’s surname in the band name has already found the man at the washboard. Dabo plays washboard, sings and scats, and gives this Nantes formation its rhythmic pulse. The Dab'Dixie is devoted to the music of New Orleans as it sounded in the 1920s, and plays it where it belongs: in the street.

The instrumentation follows an old logic. Instead of double bass and drums, sousaphone, banjo and washboard provide the foundation. Xavier Aubret lays down the bass lines on sousaphone in two-beat style, Marc Brébion strums the chords on banjo, and the washboard supplies the rattle and clatter known from old recordings of washboard bands. This combination is easy to carry and works just as well in a parade as on a small stage.

The melodies belong to trumpet and saxophone. Etienne Poinsot on trumpet and Alain Pierre on saxophone take turns leading, play the themes in two-part harmony and toss phrases back and forth. Depending on the occasion, the band appears as a quartet or a quintet; sometimes a trombone joins the frontline and brings the ensemble closer to the classic New Orleans sound.

Their repertoire includes pieces by King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton, titles associated with Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke, as well as the Creole-flavoured melodies of Sidney Bechet. The musicians have gained plenty of experience in the jazz scene of western France and rely on good spirits and close contact with the audience. A concert by The Dab'Dixie is often a stroll: the band sets off, and the people follow.

This is what happened in Fontenay-le-Comte in the Vendée. After a performance in the market square, the musicians were invited back the following year, this time for a free parade concert at the Moulins Liots. Invitations like these say a great deal about a street band, because outdoors, only people who expect to hear something will stop and listen.

For the Dixieland Festival, this way of playing is a familiar language. Banjo, sousaphone and washboard are part of the basic equipment of street jazz, ever since brass bands and spasm bands made their way through New Orleans, and The Dab'Dixie shows how alive that sound has remained on the Loire.