The High Society New Orleans Jazz Band

The High Society New Orleans Jazz Band brings its seven-piece New Orleans-style traditional jazz lineup to Birdland. Pianist and vocalist Conal Fowkes and trumpeter and vocalist Simon Wettenhall lead a group with clarinetist Tom Abbott, trombonist Harvey Tibbs, banjoist Josh Dunn, bassist and vocalist Brian Nalepka, and drummer Kevin Dorn. Their repertoire has ranged from New Orleans funeral music and tunes by Jelly Roll Morton and Freddie Keppard to early popular songs, giving the set a direct connection to the early jazz songbook.

The band has a weekly Birdland residency and documented that relationship on the album Live at Birdland. Fowkes and Wettenhall were members of Woody Allen’s band for several decades, and the group has been associated with Allen’s films and performances. During its earlier Café Carlyle residency, Chick Corea, Marian McPartland, and Diana Krall sat in. Chip Deffaa called the ensemble “essentially Woody Allen’s band, without Woody Allen,” noting its “appealingly organic feel.” Scott Yanow heard Live at Birdland as a showcase for “enthusiastic ensembles, colorful solos, and the general group spirit,” while a Front Row Center review described a performance played “with whimsy and a twinkle in-your-eye humor.”