Artist: The Stolen Sweets
"Shuffle Off to Buffalo" - CD
Label: Self-Released
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Portland, Oregon must be a city of secrets. Every time I encounter this North West city I find some interesting hidden thing about the town that I never knew before. This time the secret was delightful as well as surprising: "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" the debut CD by The Stolen Sweets.
My first response to the CD was not aural, but visual and textural. It's not uncommon to find bands using cardstock packaging for their CDs but The Stolen Sweets are one of the few who've done it with such a nice aesthetic, such style. The cover is muted, but lovely. The neutral gray of the background is overlayed with just two more shades of gray and accented in dull gold. The text and image are stlightly inset into the mildly textured cardstock so that the package actual feels nice in your hand. When's the last time you said that about a modern product?
In many ways this isn't a modern product. The simple graphic, the typeface and the coloration of the CD are meant to evoke another era. When I first looked it I was reminded not only of vintage record sleeves but of old movie credits where the cast is persented to you all together on a splash screen so that the cast is seen as a unified whole, not just a collection of artists. But this album also opens like an invitation. It's like being welcomed to a lovely party where you're being reminded to bring your dancing shoes. After listening to this CD I can tell you that it's a party that you want to RSVP to. But in the end packaging is just something to contain the real product. This product, this collection of confectionary songs, is well worth sinking your ears into.
The Stolen Sweets may be a contemporary act but they aren't "modern". If there was justice in the world the 1990s swing revival would have been followed by interest in more the intimate styles of vintage jazz. Much of the music of the 1920s and 1930s moves, swings, makes you want to dance but doesn't need to bludgeon you with the bombast that modern audiences my think of when they think of swing. "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" isn't the sound of a massive orchestra playing in a cavernous hall it's more personal than that. It's the sound of a small, tight, and talented combo playing the corner gin joint where there may not be much room to move around but that doesn't stop anyone from dancing.
There was a lot going on with jazz during those years between the wars and this band carefully selects their key elements from that honeyed menu of sounds. I don't know how you could listen to this recording with out being struck by the lovely three part harmonies of the performed by Jen Bernard, Lara Mitchell and Erin Sutherland. Most contemporary listeners may only be familiar with this style form late comers The Andrews Sisters, but the style was pioneered by the Boswell Sisters. It is from these founding ladies that the Stolen Sweets take their lead from.
The Boswell Sisters were raised in New Orleans and the hot style of the city mixed with the area's distinct instrumentation formed their sound. The ghosts of that zesty time and place haunt this recording. But that's a good thing, that means this CD has spirit. It's that honest, heartfelt spirit that keeps "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" from being a dull museum piece. It's more like a time machine. You're not going to sit there as a placid spectator when you put this on you want to find a partner and dance, you want to sing along with your favorite cocktail in hand. There is a legitimacy here that was missing with some of the acts during the swing revival. You never feel like The Stolen Sweets are just a rock band "playing dress up".
Not that they don't look good, of course. After seeing them Iive I can attest that they are damned sharp dressers. I give them credit for making me feel underdressed but still not unwelcomed. I also have to give credit for the band itself. With such excellent vocal maneuvering going on it's easy to miss the fact that it is the talented musicians here that give the women such amazing sounds to sing with. The men in the combo can sing, too. Pete Krebs especially has a wonderfully rich voice that counterpoints the ladies' harmonies perfectly. And it's a treat when he takes the lead as he does on one of may all time favorites: "St. James Infirmary".
So if you find this CD open it with wonderful expectations. The sweets inside are well worth indulging in.
