Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys - It's the Girl

Styles: Vocal, Jazz, Retro Swing
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:05
Size: 149,2 MB
Art: Front

(2:39)  1. Sing to Me
(2:39)  2. Doin' the Uptown Lowdown
(3:23)  3. In a Little Garden
(3:09)  4. It's the Girl
(5:43)  5. Close Your Eyes
(3:39)  6. Old Man of the Mountain
(3:20)  7. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
(3:38)  8. I Double Dare You
(2:45)  9. I'm Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now
(1:44) 10. Let's Don't and Say We Did
(3:25) 11. Look What You've Done to Me
(5:30) 12. Willow Weep for Me
(3:55) 13. You Learn About Love Everyday
(4:17) 14. Left Bank Medley: Bad Boys of Belleville / La Route Bleu
(2:40) 15. Shiny Shoes
(2:49) 16. The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
(3:00) 17. Music Makes Me
(5:40) 18. Moonglow

The long awaited 8th CD by Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys is OUT! Entitled “It’s the Girl!” the disc is jam packed with delicious delights. All the sensational titillation and panache of pre-code era music-making is here in this ensemble’s latest 2015 tour de force. Well worth the wait (last release “Whoopee Hey Hey!” 2010), this is surely the band’s most ambitious project to date. With band arrangements that certainly would have delighted Hal Roach, the group is at the top of its game. Eleven of the eighteen songs are culled from old films, including Wheeler and Woolsey comedies, and Vitaphone Vaudeville performance shorts. With top-notch ensemble musicianship on par with a studio orchestra of the 1930s, the group here has added original newly composed sections that seamlessly interweave with the old to make a final product even more thrilling than the original. Two transcending examples to note are the effervescent mid-sections of “I Double Dare You” and the dark sexy tango interlude in “Close Your Eyes”. Rare archeological treasures abound on Janet’s CDs and this latest is no exception. In the hands of these early jazz hunters, better known song selections like “Moonglow” and “Willow Weep for Me”, shine like new as the band has gone the extra mile to unearth little known and rarely performed verse sections. Leaving no stone unturned, Janet and the band bring to life hot jazz, tin pan alley and ballads from early twentieth century radio, film, dance halls, nightclubs, Vaudeville and even conjure some cartoon music of the time.

To support the immersive adventure, together with cartoonist, Thom Foolery, the group built and painted a full-scale cartoon set, ala 1920’s Felix the Cat and early Disney’s Little Alice silent cartoons. The set was constructed as an interactive space for Janet’s black and white clad band to mug and frolic for imaginative CD packaging photos and a music video: YouTube - “Sing To Me”. The original inspiration of live action actors mixing it up in a cartoon environment is drawn from Max Fleischer’s office antics with animated characters Koko the Clown, Bosko and Betty Boop leaping off the animation cells and the little living girl - Alice walking into 2 dimensional black and white 1920’s cartoonland in Disney’s earliest achievements. The tune “Old Man of the Mountain” sung by band member John Reynolds is originally from a Cab Calloway/Betty Boop cartoon, a live action mash up fantasy of that same title. For the photos, Janet designed two costumes for herself; one made to resemble a 1920s Max Sennett bathing beauty checkered and rolled stocking get-up and another satin ensemble ala 1930’s Ruby Keeler tapdance outfit that includes two handmade charming, unique and kooky hats, with parts hunted down from the last standing millinery supply house in LA. Janet & Her Parlor Boys (produced by Robert Loveless) have never sounded so good. The sweet and melodic tunes’ rich tapestry has an immediate sound quality that draws the listener into the inspired performances. As a whole this CD emotes the love the musicians feel for this genre and a playful authentic charm that will appeal to a modern ear.

Janet has been performing early music since 1996 and released her first CD in 1998 - “Come Into My Parlor”. She and the band currently live and perform around Los Angeles and have played in many old music halls and theatres in the US and around the world. The CD includes two original songs by Ian Whitcomb; an English Yiddish novelty number written about Janet plus the fanciful instrumental “Left Bank Medley” featuring the amazing accordion playing of Josh Kaufman from Petrovich Blasting Co. Recently (2014-5) Janet’s voice was featured in the Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time” and “Over the Garden Wall”. She has a hit song (200,000+ views) on YouTube from her most recent characterization as the lovelorn school teacher (Miss Langtree) for forest animals in the exquisitely beautiful cartoon “Over The Garden Wall” Her song “Langtree’s Lament” can be seen and heard - see below “Videos and Clips” https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/janetkleinherparlorboys1

Personnel:  Janet Klein – Vocal & Ukulele;  Benny Brydern –Violin;  Corey Gemme – Cornet, T-Bone & Percussion;  Marquis Howell – Stand Up Bass;  Josh Kaufman – Accordion;  Dan Levinson – Clarinet, C-Melody Sax & Tenor Sax;  Geoff Nudell – Alto Sax, Bass Clarinet & Clarinet;  John Reynolds – National Steel Tricone Guitar, Banjo, Vocals;  Jonathan Stout – Drums;  Ian Whitcomb – Vocal;  Randy Woltz – Piano, Celeste & Vibraphone

It's the Girl

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Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys - Whoopee Hey! Hey!

Styles: Americana, Early jazz, Early pop
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:15
Size: 135,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:17)  1. Honey Child
(2:41)  2. My Honey's Lovin' Arms
(4:28)  3. Delta Bound
(3:51)  4. I Found A New Baby
(4:15)  5. Isn't Love The Strangest Thing
(2:39)  6. Shanghai Shuffle
(1:51)  7. Poppa's Back With Momma Now
(3:41)  8. Baby
(3:27)  9. I'll Never Be The Same
(3:03) 10. Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Love
(2:24) 11. Maybe She'll Write Me, Maybe She'll Phone Me
(3:11) 12. Under The Moon (Yoo-oo-oo-oo)
(4:38) 13. A Little Bit Independent
(2:44) 14. Mississippi Mud
(3:52) 15. Ambling Along
(3:22) 16. Keko
(2:22) 17. A Room With A View
(3:19) 18. Bye Bye Blues

“Whoopee Hey Hey!”, Tunes to Cheer In Tumultuous Times, is Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys’ 7th CD release and times couldn’t be more ripe for this vibrant and evocative bunch of rare and wonderful tunes from the 1920s and 1930s. Performed with freshness and zeal these long lost tunes are alive again with timeless perspectives on life’s ups and downs and will surely have listeners musing over parallels with our current state of affairs. Songs from the 20s and 30s reflect culturally "tumultuous times"- the heady frivolity and sassy wild good times followed by modernistic stylings colored by “The Crash” and the Great Depression that followed. The enchanting and effervescent Ms Klein’s singing on "Whoopee Hey Hey!" is sweeter than ever. The album is chock full (19 tracks) of rich and bold music and lyrics vivid with heady parlance of the period. Included are eleven tunes from the 1920s… It is the first time Janet and Boys have tried to get a characteristic 1920s dance band feel. You can hear the crisp foxtrot and vertical clip on ‘Honey Child’ 1929, ‘Shanghai Shuffle’ 1924, ‘I Found A New Baby’ 1926 and ‘Bye Bye Blues’ 1929. ‘Honey Child’, the CD’s opening track at once transports the listener to a 1920s dance hall with its bright tenor guitar and up-beat, bouncy accordion stabs. The record then leads with more Southern fantasy tunes such as the yearning ‘Delta Bound’ and playful romping of ‘Mississippi Mud’. 

The six 1930s songs and arrangements let on a more "knowing", lush and world-weary sound with sophisticated undulating rhythms, ie “Delta Bound”, “Isn't Love the Strangest Thing”, “I'll Never Be the Same”. A novelty song on the CD (written by band-member, the incomparable Ian Whitcomb) is lovingly inspired by the English Music Hall favorites- Flanagan and Allen who were known for their down and out but jolly tramp tunes such as "Underneath the Arches", 'Two Very Ordinary People', On the Outside Looking In'. In this vein Ian’s tune, "Ambling Along”, complete with old style introductory patter, is a bitter sweet strolling melody and a heartfelt hobo song for our own agitated times. Featured are two new full time Parlor Boy band members: best on the planet 1930’s style guitar and plectrum banjo whistling master-John Reynolds and hobo bon vivant Marquis Howell who plays stand-up bass with an authentically inspired vintage panache. Other notable performers are: Daniel Glass who literally “wrote the book” on vintage percussion styles. Set to the task, he succeeded in deciphering and recreating in his own style the fantastic percussion effects of Paul Whiteman’s original recording of ‘Mississippi Mud’ and discovered a rare devise called a bockety bock. Also, Randy Woltz who continues with his marvelously adroit Vibraphone and xylophone playing is featured on jaunty piano duets with Janet. One of these tunes ‘Poppa’s back With Momma Now’ (from a lost Vitaphone short) is a virtual laundry list of pre 1929 whoopee lavish lifestyle ‘when every fella from a banker to his caddy’ had lots of dough and wandering ways only to find they are now all staying home with momma because they’ve discovered ‘there’s a kick in the old gal still’. Having come so perilously close to the brink of economic calamity... what better time than now to contemplate the zeitgeist of pre and post Depression America…

As Janet likes to say, ‘This music got folks through the Depression, the last time’. So Bye By Blues… Since Janet’s last release (‘Ready For You’ in 2008) the band has toured Japan and Australia and played at the famous Fuji Rock Festival and Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The group plays regularly in and around Los Angeles. “Whoopee Hey Hey!” is produced by Robert Loveless (Scenic, 17 Pygmies and Savage Republic) with gorgeously crafted vintage style artwork adornments designed by Janet, David Barlia and Robert...http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kleinj7

Personnel: John Reynolds, John Reynolds (vocals, whistling, National guitar, tenor guitar, banjo); Ian Whitcomb (vocals, ukulele, accordion, piano); Janet Klein (vocals, ukulele); Marquis Howell (vocals, upright bass); Tom Marion (guitar); Robert Loveless (mandolin); Benedict Brydern (violin); Dan Levinson (clarinet, C-melody saxophone); Chloe Feoranzo (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, C-melody saxophone); Dan Weinstein (cornet, trombone, tuba); Corey Gemme (cornet, trombone); Randy Woltz (piano, vibraphone, xylophone, percussion); Brad Kay (piano); Daniel Glass (drums, percussion).

Whoopee Hey Hey

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Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys - Oh!

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 56:43
Size: 129.9 MB
Styles: Americana, Early jazz, Early pop
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[2:44] 1. Oh!
[3:06] 2. Concentratin' On You
[3:25] 3. When The World Is At Rest
[2:58] 4. That's Love!
[3:07] 5. Baltimore
[2:51] 6. Ida, I Do
[2:16] 7. Who-Oo You-Oo! That's Who!
[2:08] 8. Mon Ami Perdu
[3:25] 9. Don't Worry 'bout Me
[3:03] 10. Undecided Now
[3:03] 11. Sweet Man
[2:39] 12. Hello Bluebird
[4:07] 13. Little Coquette
[3:40] 14. I'm Busy And You Cant Come In
[2:26] 15. Lonesome & Sorry
[1:54] 16. Butterflies In The Rain
[2:55] 17. If You Hadn't Gone Away
[3:26] 18. Rebecca Came Back From Mecca
[3:22] 19. When

Throwback flapper Janet Klein is the very definition of an “old soul.” She grew up in 1970s San Bernardino, yet fell in love with the bits of the IE she never knew the historical images she’d seen of early turn-of-the-century postcards with orange groves and the old Carnegie Library with the onion dome. The way things were got into her blood, and today she’s the most refreshing anachronism to ever materialize from the ether of the Prohibition. Klein is a channel to a definitive time in American music when Eton crops were the rage and batting-eyes meant you had a live one on your hands.

Thing is, LA-based Janet Klein and Her Parlor Boys are more than some nostalgic shtick. She doesn’t merely perform songs from “lost America”obscure numbers circa 1900s-1930s such as barrelhouse jazz, foxtrots, chansonettes, ragtime ditties and vaudeville from the Great Depression she actually lives them, and transports her audiences along the way. Klein considers herself an “archeologist” for digging up buried treasures by the likes of Wilton Crawley and A.P. Randolf and Robert Cloud, the songs of the Victrola that her and the Parlor Boys featuring an all-star line-up playing banjos, uprights, trombones, trumpets, violins, piano, etc add all that authentic dang to feel the wild spirit of that bygone era. The “naughty” music of the day is Klein’s strong suit, and the ukulele chanteuse belts in an Olive Oyl-meets-Billie Holiday voice while coyly bobbling in step to the strump. ~Chuck Mindenhall

Janet Klein – Vocal & Ukulele; Benny Brydern * Violin and Stroh Violin; Corey Gemme * Cornet & trombone; Marquis Howell * Stand-Up Bass; Brad Kay * Piano; Tom Marion * Guitar; John Reynolds * National Steel Guitar, Plectrum Banjo, whistling and vocal; Dan Weinstein * Trombone, Cornet & Violin; Ian Whitcomb * Accordion, Ukulele, Piano and Vocal; Randy Woltz * Piano, Xylophone, Percussion and Vibraphone. Musician Guest Artists: Chloe Feoranzo * Alto, Tenor & C-Melody Sax, Clarinet; Daniel Glass * Vintage Drums and Percussion; Dan Levinson * C-Melody Sax and Clarinet; Robert Loveless * Marxophone, Uklin and Mandolin.

Oh! 

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