L to R Roscoe, Jeremy, Alanzo, Craig and Leroy

Jeremy Ryan, Jazz Pianist, is hosting a benefit for
New Orleans Habitat Musician’s Village,
The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, and Seattle Habitat for Humanity.
The concert will be @ Seattle’s Jazz Alley on Monday, August 11th.

The Show Will Benefit Habitat For Humanity’s
efforts to help the people of New Orleans recover
from the devastation of Katrina.

Special guest artists from New Orleans will be on hand,
including Herman Roscoe Ernest III and John Fohl from Dr. John’s Band as well as Leroy Jones and Craig Klein from Harry Connick’s Big Band.

Jeremy Ryan’s new album, Getting Back Down To New Orleans, took a long time to make, but a single listen will have you rocking along to its funky, New Orleans inspired groove. Ryan says there’s also an important message in the music. “Attention has turned away from New Orleans; people not connected to the city have forgotten about it. Roscoe, who plays on my album, has played for five presidents in his career. Three years after Katrina, he’s still living in an apartment, fighting to get his house rebuilt. People are getting sick from formaldehyde leaking out of the FEMA trailers. The Ninth Ward is still a disaster zone. That’s why we’re doing this benefit for New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity’s rebuilding programs. It includes The Musicians’ Village, which is building 70 single family units for displaced musicians and other qualifying families, and The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.”

Jeremy Ryan is a well-known presence on the Seattle scene, with four well-received contemporary jazz records to his name. He’s also an in-demand musician for rock, jazz, blues and commercial sessions. Eight years ago, he began revisiting the music that originally inspired him and discovered most of it came from New Orleans. “I followed Fats Domino, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint and The Meters and delved into their roots as deeply as I could go. Lee Dorsey once said, ‘I’m not sure, but I think all music comes from New Orleans.’ As I investigated the music, I saw how the great American styles, blues, jazz, funk, and rock’n’roll got started in The Crescent City. I fell under the spell of the music.

Ryan asked Herman Roscoe Ernest III, the drummer from Dr. John’s band, to co-produce Getting Back Down, and drew up a set list of seven standards and seven of his own compositions and a wish list of New Orleans players. Roscoe rounded up John Fohl, guitar man for Dr. John, as well as Dr. John himself, who drops a bit of piano and B3 into the mix. Horn men Leroy Jones, Craig Klein, Lucien Barbarin, from Harry Connick’s band also joined in. Unknown to the musicians, Katrina was lurking in the Caribbean and hit the city the day after sessions ended.

“[Making the album] was an amazing experience,” Ryan recalls. “Roscoe introduced me to Fats Domino and he gave me a lick to use on ‘Roscoe’s Blues.’ When I got stuck on ‘Southern Nights,’ he called up Allen Toussaint and had him talk me through the session. If I threw out an idea, we hammered out an arrangement right in the studio.” Tunes include “New Orleans Sunset,” an impromptu conversation between Ryan’s piano and Jones’ flugelhorn; the funky second line strut of “Big Chief,” with a wicked vocal by Herman Roscoe Ernest; the tongue in cheek “Nice to Be You,” a jaunty salute to a know-it-all friend and the title track, driven by Roscoe’s syncopated New Orleans’ stop time drumming. Getting Back Down To New Orleans is guaranteed to get you out of your chair and onto the dance floor with a happy smile on your face, but while you’re grooving, remember the fate of the Crescent City and make a donation to Habitat For Humanity.

Jeremy Ryan grew up in Tacoma, Washington and fell in love with the piano when he was six. His sister had been practicing Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” for months, when he sat down and played it by ear. Piano lessons followed. “Helen Feely was my piano teacher, but I wanted to play by ear so I quit,” Ryan says. “I was more interested in jazz, blues and Fats Domino. I went back to her at 13 for classical lessons. After a year, she told me there was nothing more she could teach me.” At 18, Ryan attended Pacific Lutheran University and studied classical piano and performance with Professor Richard Farner, and even before graduation, he was playing jazz in clubs, both solo and with small combos. Jeremy made his first CD while he was still in school. After graduation, Ryan made three more contemporary jazz albums, including one with 18 members of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, playing his original arrangements. Then the New Orleans bug bit. “I took a few years off to investigate the music of New Orleans. Every time I heard a new song, I’d get a big grin on my face, and ain’t that what it’s all about? It’s like no other music in the country. When you hear Dr. John or Louis Armstrong or Lee Dorsey, you have to get up and move. If I can play this music and make people feel as good as I do when I’m listening to it, then it’s a good deal.”