Vintage jazz from the pre-amplification era, roughly the period between Prohibition and the end of World War II, might seem like the least likely music to stage a revival. However, for the Zzymzzy (rhymes with “whimsy”) Quartet, the era is a treasure trove of songs and sounds that has led them to a new, young, hip audience. The quartet, which performs at the Ocean Beach Peoples Co-Op on Friday, Feb. 20, actually brushes upon a range of pre-World War II music, from show tunes to swing and beyond. “There is a worldwide mini-craze right now for gypsy jazz \u2014 which is basically anything that sounds like (guitarist) Django Reinhardt when he was young and buck-wild,” said guitarist Beston Barnett. “Because I play with that Django-ish je-ne-sais-quoi, and since I did name my son after the guy, I can see how we might fall into that category,” he said. He said there are some differences, however. “We sing the old tunes, lovingly, and I make some attempt to arrange them in a manner more akin to outfits like Benny Goodman\u2019s than Django\u2019s quintet.” The end result is a sound that has attracted both avid listeners and swing dancers. Why would thirty\/forty-somethings in San Diego in 2009 play old-time jazz? “Well, on the one hand, it\u2019s great music that all four or five of us have been listening to, via parents\u2019 or grandparents\u2019 record collections all our lives,” Barnett said. “For another, once you can do it it\u2019s a joy to play. And it\u2019s not the easiest trick in the book \u2014 there\u2019s way more than three chords,” he said. “For me, gigs with the ZQ are twice as fun as any other group I\u2019ve played with. I wish we gigged every night.” The group comes with an impressively diverse resume. Barnett has spent time with his own hip-hop combo as well as with Ghanaian highlife group Bolga Zohdoomah. Meanwhile, vocalist Peter Miesner was a key member of the iconic rhythm and blues band The Crawdaddys as well as garage rockers The Tell Tale Hearts. Rounding out the group, clarinetist Matt Gill is a fixture of local stage productions, with bassist Patrick Marion also heard playing alongside groove-oriented jazz combo Pocket and auxiliary member and bassist Paul Hormick, formerly with Hot Club of San Diego. Together for four years, the Zzymzzy Quartet can trace its beginnings to the birth of Barnett\u2019s son, Django. “I met Pete Miesner through his wife, who assisted at Django\u2019s birth,” Barnett said. Having coincidentally recently acquired a Selmer-style guitar similar to the type that the original Django played, Barnett took it to a party at Miesner\u2019s house. “Though my own knowledge of old show tunes and standards is small potatoes next to Pete\u2019s librarian-like stacks of tracks, we discovered a shared fondness for Irving Berlin,” Barnett said. With Marion and Gill soon rounding out their lineup, the quartet began gigging under the short-lived name The Speak Easy Quartet. The shift to Zzymzzy Quartet was for both artistic and pragmatic reasons, said band members. “We like it more than our original name because it functions better on the Internet and because it heightens our air of mystery,” he said. “We\u2019re, alphabetically, the Last Word in gypsy swing, see?” Barnett said. “Zzymzzy was actually coined by a critic in the \u201930s to describe his favorite jazz group \u2014 so it actually contains some authentic-era Zeitgeist, though you\u2019d need Wikipedia to work it out.” According to Barnett, the best parts of working with the quartet is singing harmony with Miesner and whenever dancers hit the floor. “We do have something you could actually call a little following with the swing kids (and) it\u2019s a pleasure to play to them,” Barnett said. “I always imagine pointing my notes at their feet.” Though he is unsure about recording plans, Barnett is hopeful the Zzymzzy Quartet is built to last. “At the very least, I\u2019d say we\u2019ve got another 15 years in us,” he said. “If I did this for 15 years, I\u2019d be so at home in the music I could loll in it like a raft on the river. That sounds good to me.” Zzymzzy Quartet performs at Ocean Beach People\u2019s Organic Foods Co-Op Deli, 4765 Voltaire St., on Friday, Feb. 20 at 5:30 p.m. The concert is free. For more information, visit www.obpeoplesfood.coop.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vintage jazz from the pre-amplification era, roughly the period between Prohibition and the end of World War II, might seem like the least likely music to stage a revival. However, for the Zzymzzy (rhymes with “whimsy”) Quartet, the era is a treasure trove of songs and sounds that has led them to a new, young, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":285032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Zzymzzy Quartet puts that old-time swing back in play","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11561,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-peninsula-beacon","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}