Who We Are

To create an authentic New Orleans Dixieland sound, you need a group of musicians dedicated to preserving the great music of the early 20th century. Formed in 2005 by bandleader, Rollin Glaser, and now headed by Matt Schaffer, the Blue Notes Dixieland Jazz Band's mission is to deliver the dynamic energy and contagious fun this style of music provides!
 

The Blue Notes Dixieland Jazz Band plays New Orleans style as well as some other Jazz styles. The band is organized as the best of the great traditional Dixieland bands were - eight instruments: clarinet, trumpet, trombone, tenor sax, piano, banjo, drums, and string bass. Each musician is a soloist and an ensemble player. 

When the Blue Notes perform, the audience can't help but tap their feet, dance, smile, and sing along!

From the late teens to the early 1920's a highly-influential local brass band tradition came together with the blues and ragtime musical roots developed in New Orleans, Louisiana to create a new type of sound called Dixieland Jazz (also known as "Hot Jazz" or "Traditional Jazz") . This new music spread rapidly from New Orleans to Chicago, Kansas City, New York, and back across the Midwest into California. Over the years the term "Dixieland" has fragmented as jazz gained in popularity. The traditional version is credited as the New Orleans style, most likely stemming from the "Original Dixieland Jazz Band", a New Orleans group who made the first public recording of this style in 1917 gaining them international prominence as a result.
 

Common instruments in a Dixieland Jazz-Style group include clarinet, trumpet, saxophone and trombone. The rhythm section could include the banjo, piano, drums, tuba or a string bass (updated to electric bass). The music was often characterized by a steady, upbeat, tempo, 4/4 meter, and rhythms performed in an triplet swing style. The balance of the ensemble typically play melodies and countermelodies simultaneously and each take their turn soloing. The musicians often improvise melodies adding their own inflections throughout the song.
 

New Orleans style Dixieland Jazz - with the steady beat of its distinctive, infectious rhythms; intricate, stylized melodies and phrasings; and the generous use of vibrato and glissando - all serve to give the music its warm and familiar character.

Matt Schaffer - Clarinet

Andrew Paluzak - Clarinet (Alternate)
 

Walley Thurman - Trumpet

Hal Askins - Trumpet
 

Chuck Attardi - Tenor Saxophone
 

Stephen Pratt - Trombone

Mike Killam – Piano

Jim Haag - Banjo 

Jim Salmonson - Drums

Brian Short - Drums (Alternate)

Nigel Clarke - Bass

Bill Podrazik - Tuba (Bass Alternate)