Music Review by Andrew Poretz . . . .
Some of the greatest acts in show business history have been family acts, going back to the days of vaudeville. Some of these were musical acts, some were circus performers, and all included high levels of proficiency, professionalism and entertainment, the kind of acts that those of a certain age might recall from The Ed Sullivan Show. (A few that come to mind are the Seven Little Foys, the King Family, the and more recently, the New Orleans family band, Ingrid Lucia and the Flying Neutrinos. Swedish jazz star Gunhild Carling and her incredibly talented family harken back to these old-time family acts.
The family played a five-night, ten-show residency at Birdland Jazz that sold out every performance. Your correspondent last saw Gunhild and the family in December 2021 (review HERE). Their performance warranted a second visit during the residency.
Gunhild is a star with megawatt energy and a breathtaking breadth of talent. She plays many instruments, including trumpet, trombone, ukulele, banjo, drums, medieval flute and bagpipes, all of which manage to utilize traditional jazz at its finest. She is an excellent singer and can even tap dance. She is funny as hell, and a beauty whose blue eyes can melt a heart.
Gunhild was backed by brothers Max (clarinet) and Ulf (drums), her daughter Idun (trombone, trumpet), her mother Aina (banjo), along with local talent Dave Budway (piano) and David Ostwald (tuba). Several additional family members were scheduled to replace several performers after the Thursday shows, but were stuck in Iceland. Though the personnel swaps were canceled, the Saturday performance saw the addition of drummer Daniel Glass for some numbers, and tap dancer Demi Remi.
The evening kicked off with Gunhild leading the band through the audience in a New Orleans-style marching band parade, playing Louis Armstrong’s “Bourbon Street Parade.” Gunhild and Idun, playing trumpet and trombone, respectively, then sang the remainder of the song as an energetic duet, with tight harmonies. With Mardi Gras around the corner, it was a taste of New Orleans, if the meatballs were Swedish instead of Cajun. Another Armstrong number, “Butter and Egg Man” (Percy Venable), followed. The increasingly wild beat, with a cacophonous ending, raised the roof.
“My weakness is sweet melodies,” Gunhild declared, as brother Ulf, a marvelous physical comedian with a rubber face, performed a faux sword-swallowing shtick with his drumstick. The band performed Gunhild’s original, “My Sin is Loving You,” which easily passes for a Tin Pan Alley standard. In fact, while many of the songs performed in this residency were traditional jazz standards, a good number were written by Gunhild, including several she wrote that very week.
A slow, hot rendition of the gospel “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” gave Idun a bluesy vocal solo. In a unique and wonderful trombone solo, Gunhild somehow made her instrument sound like a theremin before going full throttle. This was one of several show highlights.
With Idun singing in flawless Portuguese, the band played “Girl from Ipanema.” Here, Gunhild took a “medieval recorder” and pulled some serious jazz sounds out of this little instrument. This business of taking an unexpected instrument and utilizing it for jazz would prove to be a trademark for the performer.
A delightful addition to the evening was Gustav Carling, Ulf’s four-year-old son, who already displays the showmanship of a true veteran. This adorable kid performed an impressive chair-balancing act, with many “ta-da!” moments.
On “Wild Cat Blues,” Gunhild not only performed a killer harmonica solo, but also played three trumpets at once. If this sounds gimmicky on paper, it was actually quite the show stopper.
The night’s tour de force came in the form of the Original Dixieland Band’s 1917 “Tiger Rag,” in a superfast, frenetic arrangement. Gunhild announced that each member would do something they hadn’t done before. If you could imagine the entirety of the Ed Sullivan Show jammed into one song, this song had it all: tap dancing, juggling, magic, and musical virtuosity.
The “final” number was original in more ways than one. After a brief, traditional piece of music with her “medieval bagpipes,” she asked the crowd, “Are you going to clap for 29 minutes? Let’s rock and roll!” At that, the band played “Bagpipe Blues,” which she wrote. The star took this droning instrument and somehow made it into one of the great instruments of rock. Let it be stated, Gunhild Carling is the Jimmy Hendrix of bagpipes!
A few highlights of the penultimate set on Saturday included a terrific turn by Idun on “Out of Nowhere” and an even more over-the-top rendition of “Tiger Rag.” This time closing the show, it featured fabulous tap dancing by both Demi Remi and Gunhild Carling, and a wild, improvised drum-off between Daniel Glass and Ulf Carling that had Ulf using everything in sight for percussion, from the stage, to customers’ glasses, to his own head.
Gunhild Carling and Family All Stars appeared from January 16 to 20 at Birdland Jazz, 315 West 44th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenue (www.birdlandjazz.com).
Photos: Nadette Stasa
