Here’s the saga of WNC’s Firecracker Jazz Band…related by founder JE (pronounced “Jay”) Widenhouse:
“I’m from Concord North Carolina. I played trumpet in the marching band in high school. Both there and in college I studied jazz with Bill Hanna, who still plays piano and trombone in Charlotte. I studied for two years at Appalachian State, but dropped out in 1987 to start touring with a rock group with a horn section. I’ve been doing the performing music thing ever since.
The Firecracker Jazz Band idea started in the summer of 2003 when Bill Smith, now with The Truth and Salvage Company, came over to visit me. He thought we could put together a traditional jazz band with Reese Gray and Joe Edel. He and Joe had played around town with a local group called Scrappy Hamilton. Reese had performed with me in the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
Our first shows were at Tressa’s downtown and grew out of a “Traditional Jazz Night”. It was there where I said to Bill, “I’d like to call our project “The Firecracker Jazz Band”. Everyone was challenged to come up with a better name. No one did, so we stuck with it. Shortly thereafter, Joe approached Chris Jones, who’d opened a New Orleans themed restaurant called “Thibadeaux Jones” with his wife Ashley Thibadeaux, and asked if they’d like to have music in their restaurant. Immediately, many local musicians came to our performances to support the project.
Our reputation has grown and ever since I’ve been leading the band, with a lot of help from our trombonist Earl Sachais. We’ve had many personnel changes over the years so there’s a growing list of Firecracker Alumni. To do a Traditional Band right, you need seven players. We’ve always had six live and brought in a reed player to record when we wanted to publish a CD. We’re planning on recording our fourth CD soon.
We sent out our second CD “Firecracker Jazz Band Explodes” all over the country to traditional jazz festivals and the “Americana Radio” mailing list. I got an immediate response from the Seaside Oregon Traditional Jazz Festival, plus the Sacramento Jazz Festival, then we played at other traditional jazz festivals in California. We’ve also performed in Nelsonville, Ohio with Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks, and Willie Nelson.”
“JE always plays with a raw, exciting sound and reminds me of Lester Bowie or Steven Bernstein…creating something new while drawing from the tradition.” ~ Bassist Zach Page
“While traveling with the Squirrel Nut Zippers on our 2007-2009 victory lap tours, I managed to get the Firecracker opening slots in a half dozen East Coast venues. We’ve played at Bele Chere, LEAF, MontfordMusic and ArtsFestival, White Squirrel Festival in Brevard, French Broad River Festival and more. After seven years, we’ve accumulated quite a rap sheet.
“I’m motivated to keep the band together by my own ambition to perform wherever I can get a booking, and by my belief that people should experience live music. Traditional Jazz grew alongside a dance culture in the early 20th century in New Orleans, New York, Chicago, LA, Texas and anywhere a hall that could get a dance band. I want to do my part with The Firecracker Jazz Band to grow a dance culture and see it thrive!” ~ JE Widenhouse
“The audience has given (the new) Firecracker Jazz Band a positive and welcome response. There’s always a chance that when new members (in this case four, to be exact) come into a group, they’re sometimes not well received by the fans. This is not the case with FJB. They come to dance and dance they do – they love the new songs and the new singers. The dancers react to the strong rhythm and the high energy by getting out on the dance floor and dancing their butts off.” ~ Drummer Russ Wilson