IT’S a long way from New Orleans to Roseneath but that’s where – if you’re lucky – you’ll find the Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band practising in a big old house on the hill. Mike Jensen and Dayle Jellyman, friends and co-founders of the band, are inspired by the brass bands and ragtime jazz that characterised The Big Easy early in the 20th century.
MIKE, from Auckland, was studying drums at jazz school when he met Dayle, a pianist who’d moved down “to get out” of Wanganui. Over a few Wellington summers, the pair kicked back with beers and instruments to write songs before officially starting the seven-piece ragtime-inspired band in February. Most of RCRB’s members have been to music school and they’ve known each other for years through the close-knit Wellington music scene. They’re all musos by trade – though Dayle is studying engineering and a lot of them teach music alongside – and they play together in other bands around town, though this one specifically features the big sound of The Crescent City.
Mike’s lived in North America and particularly likes the Second Line tradition that came out of New Orleans, a place that became a vibrant part of the American music scene in the 1900s. With a notably poor population, upbeat music such as jazz and ragtime was embraced as a way to raise the spirits and banish the worries of the common folk. The music could be heard at christenings, funerals, and many a dance floor in between.
Poorly paid African-American workers became members of so-called ‘pleasure societies’ which arranged funerals for members after they died. The societies were also in charge of arranging a band to play during the procession.
“The band would play dirges, we play one ourselves that’s inspired by those events,” explains Mike, “On the way to the graveyard a whole line of people would bring their instruments and join the procession, then at the graveyard gates these ‘taggers-along’ would play a more lively, upbeat song. They were called the Second Line and that’s the kind of drum feel I like.”
Dayle gives a solid basis to the band’s sound with honkytonk, which he describes as “old, out of tune, 1940s piano”. The word honkytonk actually means a disreputable saloon or brothel, many of which could be found in old-time New Orleans.
In the authentic style of New Orleans, a place where instruments are often handed down and around between different family members, there are two sets of siblings in RCRB. Mike and Dayle both roped in their brothers to come and play. Mike’s brother AJ is on guitar and Dayle’s brother Hamish takes the opportunity to play his trombone loudly and raucously in the band as a break from studying the classical side of the instrument up in Hamilton. The band have convinced him to move to Wellington to continue his musical studies so that he can play with them more regularly. The band practises at least once a week, more often now that Mike’s set up his own RCRB home brew beer enterprise.
“Yeah it’s become a bit of a passion, it does mean we get together more regularly now,” he laughs.
At early practices, the band realised that none of them were naturals when it came to singing. The solution?
“We all sing. It started out us all drinking and singing songs and now other people come along and join in, drinking and singing songs,” laughs Dayle.
Now they’re just about to release their first album, a self-titled affair featuring 12 tracks recorded at The Surgery with Lee Prebble. Set down in one day due to cost, Dayle became the taskmaster to motivate the band to get it done, and get it done fast. The resulting tracks are a bit rough around the edges, and that’s the way they like it.
“There’s no more than two takes on anything,” says Mike, “They’re not perfect but they all worked. It’s not supposed to be high-brow music so it adds to the good time feel.”
Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band is to release the album at The Garden Club, showcasing a mix of sing-along songs about the band’s humble beginnings, that is, days spent drinking and sitting in the sun. The music’s not all liquor-inspired, though. Some of the tunes come with more serious messages about love and war.
Dayle’s piano will also be part of the night. It’ll be wheeled into the back of his station wagon and brought to the show. He’s just worked out a complicated rail system, probably the first of its kind in Wellington, letting him show off the real thing instead of using a keyboard.
Mike’s in the middle of planning a dream trip set for after the show, when he’s going to get back to his New Orleans inspired roots. He’s headed to Louisiana and Texas with his wife, where the pair plans to trace a well-traversed old blues trail.
Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band, The Garden Club, November 19.