Local jazz band shaking off the rust with neighborhood front porch sessions – WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - One local jazz band is shaking off the rust from the stay-at-home order in a unique way.

Since the band members havent been able to play together in the past two months, The Jazz Souls have started playing, what they call, 'front porch sessions' in the Poets Corner neighborhood of Baton Rouge.

Were the type of people that if were not playing, you get this itch. Its nice to be able to scratch it, upright bass player David Randall said.

That itch had been building for weeks for Randall and the other three members of the band.

We play jazz standards, some might call us an American songbook band, drummer and founding member of the band Dale Harris said.

For two months, the group of 12 years had no gigs to play, and no practice sessions together.

So, we missed that during the outbreak. And Gary says... no, it was my idea. I said, let's get on our porch, thats enough social distancing. And let the neighbors listen if they want but lets practice. I really missed it, Randall said.

We sounded a lot better than we thought we would, having not played together for a while. We thought we were going to sound pretty terrible. But, I dont know, sounded pretty good. The people seem to enjoy it, Harris said.

Thursday night was only their third front porch gig on the corner of Homer and Pericles Street, but theyve already acquired some neighborhood fans.

It was quite a surprise the other day when about 10, 15 people showed up, and actually, threw money in the tip jar. It was sweet. We werent looking for that. Though we did put the tip jar out, Randall said.

Randall says theres a lot of noise surrounding our lives right now, but not the kind you tap your feet to.

We take the masks off when we play. I have it in my pocket, dear, I promise, Randall said, laughing.

Jokes aside, he says this time has given him a greater overall appreciation for his passion for music.

I didnt even realize how much live music there already was in Baton Rouge, and its gonna come back. Slowly, but surely, Randall said.

The Jazz Souls will be playing at least once a week either on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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Local jazz band shaking off the rust with neighborhood front porch sessions - WBRZ