Live, Love, Laugh & Be Happy is always good advice. Although in this case, the living and the loving are sort of up to you, the "laugh and be happy part" will be provided by Gene's Jazz Hot’s new CD. Big time. The words are taken directly from track 12 – Red, Red Robin. It’s a bouncy sort of wake-upper, even if you don't happen to like mornings all that much. Of course, mornings don't seem to have slowed down the robins all that much. In this rendition, Seth Rosen and Peggi Cella treat you to the words and music, with a neat transition to a minor mode for one chorus.

The four musicians who make up Gene’s Jazz Hot are founder Gene Epstein who specializes on string bass and occasionally chips in with a vocal, as she does here on Side by Side. In the middle, vocalist Peggi Cella adds some neat harmony, and Gene ends with a great bass solo. Seth Rosen is the guitarist (and occasional banjo player, although not, I think on this CD) who also contributes vocals, as does clarinetist extraordinaire Bill Kenney.

These four are mature musicians who’ve been doing this for a long time, and it shows! They blend together seamlessly, whether it’s planned that way or impromptu mixing and matching. The rhythms are so infectious it’s beyond difficult to sit still while listening to the CD or the performers in person. The first song on the CD - S’Wonderful, is a great example of this, as Bill and Peggy volley words at each other much like Serena and Venus do, except, of course, they do it with tennis balls.

The seventeen songs here range from lazy blues such as Cry Me a River (Peggi) to Mama, I Wanna Make Rhythm, in which we find that Gene really started as a cellist! Bill Kenney has a sort of triple-play with Don’t Blame Me, which is very like Up a Lazy River in mood, and then segues into the On the Street Where You Live, and then on to an up-tempo What a Little Moonlight Can Do. Of course, he’s not all by himself, the other three are always present and accounted for, but they happily share the spotlight. Seth Rosen does wonders with If I Had You and I Can’t Believe You’re in Love With Me. The songs here are all standards from a few years ago, and while they were fabulous to begin with, they become even more so at the hands and vocal chords of these four marvelous artists. It’s all very laid back and casual – and pure enjoyment in the process.

But, you don’t have to take my word for it -- you can hear for yourself (and purchase a copy of the new CD) on Thu 10/8 at Loganberry Books, 13015 Larchmere Blvd, Shaker Heights, which is the official CD release party, from 7-9 pm. If you can’t attend, call and reserve a copy for yourself. (216-795-9800). You’ll be happy you did!

Yet another from the Cleveland Film Festival party, January 14, 2009 at Loganberry Books

Another from the Cleveland Film Fest Winter Party at Loganberry Books, January 14, 2009

Another video from the Cleveland Film Festival Benefit January 14, 2009 at Loganberry Books. Thanks to brother Jesse.

GJH plays a benefit for the Cleveland Film Festival at Loganberry Books on January 14, 2009. Gene's brother Jesse was there with his camera.

Cleveland Free Times reviews

Local Arts and Entertainment weekly review:

Volume 14, Issue 17
Published August 16th, 2006

Locals Only: Hot Stuff
Gene's Jazz Hot Plays "seriously Happy, Swinging Music'

By Anastasia Pantsios

GENE'S JAZZ HOT Played by four cool cats.

It wasn't like Gene Epstein needed another band to play with. The acoustic string bass player was already playing with several other jazz ensembles around town, most prominently with veteran George Foley. And she wasn't really looking to start a group. But Epstein, who's also a visual artist, was looking for someone to play a benefit for SPACES Gallery, and she didn't want to go back to musicians she'd already asked for such favors before.

"You can only ask a musician for so many freebies," she says.

So she called clarinetist Bill Kenney who was playing with her in Foley's band, and guitarist Seth Rosen, whom she'd actually met 22 years ago when their daughters attended the same preschool and whom she'd been playing with in a Western swing outfit called Crazy Rhythm.

"They're both sort of leftish so they agreed to do it," she says. "We had a good time even though my amp died. We each brought our lists and did tunes we all knew. There was quite a bit of overlap."

That might have been that except that Epstein's friend Heide Rivghun, who owns Café Limbo on Larchmere, was looking for a regular band.

"I put together Seth and Bill and we were a trio and she loved it. And the more we played, the larger the repertoire got and the more we got in synch with each other that communication thing when you anticipate what other people are going to do."

The group, dubbed Gene's Jazz Hot, took a dramatic turn about a year and a half ago when it was celebrating Epstein's birthday at Café Limbo. Peggi Cella, who'd fronted the wildly eclectic Cleveland group Tiny Alice in the late '60s and early '70s, showed up. They'd been Epstein's favorite local band but she didn't really know Peggi.

"I'd met her only once before. But I was a big fan of Tiny Alice in the '70s. I was a bit of a groupie. If they were playing, I'd show up. They were the only band I'd do that for."

Cella got up and sang with the group and, says Gene, "Our jaws dropped. It was magic. It was so nice that we asked her to come back."

With Cella integrated into the ensemble, they decided it was time to get their music recorded.

"People kept asking, "When are you going to do a CD?' so we did," says Epstein.

The group put together a list of everyone's favorite songs and spent two days recording in Kenney's and Epstein's living rooms with producer George Faddoul, who primarily records classical music. In a similar fashion to recording an orchestra, he set up microphones and recorded the group playing together.

"It has more natural sound, but it's harder to mix," says Epstein. "I think it has a sound like you're actually sitting there in the living room listening."

Indeed, there's a cozy, informal quality to the group's renditions of the 15 pop and jazz standards that appear on the CD Hot, which it'll release at Loganberry Books on Larchmere Thursday, August 17. It calls what it does "seriously happy, swinging music," and these mostly up-tempo tunes have an upbeat lilt. It becomes outright comical on "Chicken Ain't Nothin' But a Bird," which it reinvents midway through as "Tofu Ain't Nothin' But a Curd," in tribute to Café Limbo's noted vegetarian fare.

Each member gets to showcase his or her individual talents on tunes like "Lady Be Good," with its series of brief, well-meshed solos that never digress from the song's main point. Cella's sultry vocals star on "Summertime" and "Wild Women Don't Get the Blues," while the bluesy "Sleepytime Down South" and "Spring Cleaning" belong to Rosen's well-worn, old-timey vocals and clipped acoustic guitar. "Nuages" shows off the beauty of Kenney's delicate, airy clarinet, and he sings in both English and French on "All of Me." Even Epstein has a lead vocal on "Moscow Nights," her burnished alto giving emphasizing the mournful edge of the least "seriously happy" track on the disc.

http://www.freetimes.com/story/604

CD Available for $15 through : Loganberry Books

http://www.loganberrybooks.com/order.html