Nothing warms the heart or soothes the soul like the mellifluous tone of metal hitting metal. A saw finding a nail in a plank, a wire brush on rusty iron, the bumper of a ’74 Cutlass hitting the door of your parked vehicle, and our regional favorite, spoons scraped repeatedly at a high rate of speed over corrugated steel. Let’s face it, the washboard, as an instrument, is a deadly sonic weapon when placed in the wrong hands. Fortunately, Louisiana is home to many of the world’s finest players of the instrument. It may look easy from the crowd, but it doesn’t take more than a few seconds of standing within earshot of a half-drunk, bead-laden audience member smacking a helpless sheet of tin to know the difference between what it sounds like when a pro is handling the axe and any other time that board happens to get hit with a hard object.
Of the many fine washboard players in Louisiana most play in zydeco or Cajun bands using the modern version of the frottoir, the large, all metal boards that have shoulder straps and are designed specifically to be musical instruments. This incarnation of the washboard was created by the King of Zydeco, Creole accordionist Clifton Chenier, and mastered by his brother Cleveland, who played his board with a fistful of bottle openers in each hand. Prior to the advent of the modern frottoir, the washboard (the smaller, wood framed variety designed for washing clothes), usually played with sewing thimble-capped fingertips, had a place in American popular music through its use in early jug band and blues recordings. Masters of this approach are much harder to come by in this area, and the most prominent local practitioner of this style of washboard playing is the affable singing politician, Washboard Chaz.
A New York City native, Chaz Leary moved to New Orleans from Colorado four years ago. Since then he has been a fixture on the local scene, leading the Washboard Chaz Blues Trio featuring harmonica stalwart Benny Maygarden and Italian-born National Steel guitar whiz Roberto Luti (who is married to Lisa “Ragtime Annie” Driscoll, also a notable player of blues-style washboard), as well as co-founding the Tin Men with Royal Fingerbowl alumni Alex McMurray and Matt Perrine. Chaz can also be seen regularly sitting in with the New Orleans Jazz Vipers and many other acts around town, including New Orleans premier (and only, to my knowledge) 20-something piece experimental jazz/whatever else comes into their nutty heads ensemble, the Naked Orchestra.
Chaz began his musical journey as a youngster in Queens, New York playing the valve bugle in drum and bugle corps in the 1950s, and by the early ’60s he was playing percussion in garage bands around the New York area. A 1971 trip to Key West would introduce him to the washboard, courtesy of the Florida State champion of the instrument, Vaughn Cochran. Chaz brought the instrument home to the northeast with him and began using it in addition to his congas in a country rock band. For practice, he would play along with jazz and blues records. “At the time,” he explains, “I was listening to a lot of bebop, but I was listening to Washboard Sam also.”
A move to Colorado in the mid-’70s would put Chaz in contact with many touring blues musicians as well as a music scene that provided ample opportunities to develop his technique on the washboard. He opened numerous shows for the likes of Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt, and played with Delta Blues master Bukka White, whose style is a major influence on the sound Chaz’s Blues Trio. During this time Chaz would also play with one of the greatest acoustic blues duos of all time, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. This combination of guitar, harmonica and washboard would serve as the template for Chaz’s current line-up.
While in Colorado, Chaz was elected mayor of the town of Gold Hill, which had a population of “about 250, including the ghosts at the hotel. I served two terms, duly elected…both times,” Chaz states proudly. Believing that it was important to balance his political career with honest work, Chaz maintained his performing schedule and was known as the “musical mayor.”
While pre-war blues, mixed with a little swing, is primary influence on the repertoire of the Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, the Tin Men provides a broad canvas for Chaz to apply his scrubbing skills. Driven by the eclectic and often hilarious songwriting of guitarist Alex McMurray and virtuoso Matt Perrine’s formidable sousaphone chops, the Tin Men’s debut CD, Super Great Music For Modern Lovers, caused considerable stir in the local music community. Chaz is well featured in the band both as instrumentalist and vocalist. Chaz’s affinity for the project is exemplified by his claim that the Tin Men is “the only band I’ll sleep on the floor for.” Despite each member having a very full schedule of their own and McMurray’s recent departure for New York, the Tin Men still perform in New Orleans and do short tours in other parts of the country. Another release is due from them soon.
With a tin board, a couple of old cans, a wood block and a bicycle bell, Washboard Chaz has scratched out (sorry, I couldn’t resist) a happy place for himself on the New Orleans music scene. A new CD from his Blues Trio, as well as trips to Italy and Japan, are coming in the near future, and the rough and tumble world of politics is behind him. All thanks to that sweet sound of metal hitting metal.
The Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, with special guests, will be celebrating the release of their new CD Dog Days at the Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street, Saturday, December 4th from 6:30-9:30 p.m.
