The post-K Busker Invasion continues with the appropriately named Roamin’ Jasmine, a sextet equally happy turning trad-jazz out to walk the streets, taking it into the clubs on Bourbon and in the Bywater as party music or bringing it into the city’s museums as living history.
They’ve got the balance between reverence and interpretation just right, in other words, and that translates to the music on their debut, a reboot of an earlier demo that keeps most of the songs but gives them the studio polish they need.
A little less roaming, a little more jasmine.
Anyone who can make “Shine on Harvest Moon” breathe again has all the cred they need, but stranding it among two Lionel Belasco numbers and topping it off with Earl King’s obscure ‘57 single “You Can Fly High” shows they’ve practiced both chops and context.
“Eclectic New Orleans Jazz,” as they put it.
Better still, the group’s originals, mostly shoved to the rear so as to sneak up on purists, largely avoid the alcoholic snark of most vintage hipster bands, whether essaying bad romances (“Little Lovebirds”), loneliness (“Dark Winter Nights”), or flat-out depression (“When I’m Dead”).
Taylor Smith’s voice is the one flaw, neither strong enough to hold its own on the blue notes nor idiosyncratic enough to make up for it with personality. They’re simply too authentic to get by on feel-good moves alone.
But they have all the tools they need.