The New Wonders - Steppin' Out (2024) [Hi-Res]

“Steppin’ Out” is a personal milestone because all of the songs, despite being from the jazz age, are my own arrangements not adapted from period recordings (plus one original by our pianist), and I think we’ve achieved our goal: to create new, hot music that could have existed during the period that inspires us. It’s not a copy or re-creation, but an entirely new program of music, which nevertheless casts the spell of time travel through the players’ expertise and taste. ARTIST BIO “Eloquent trumpet prodigy” Mike Davis (Wall Street Journal) has a voice beyond his years on his instrument. His playing is imbued with the sounds of prohibition-era speakeasies, Hoovervilles of the depression, and glittering jazz palaces of the swing era, creating a timeless cocktail of American music. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Mike began his trumpet instruction at age nine with Jerry Oram in Seattle and went on to study with Laurie Frink during his undergraduate years. Both encouraged his interest in early jazz styles, which led to his beginning to work professionally in New York City while still in college. He now appears regularly around New York City as the leader of the New Wonders and with Dandy Wellington and his band, Emily Asher’s Garden Party, Glenn Crytzer, Terry Waldo, Baby Soda, Dan Levinson, and many other traditional jazz and swing bands. A regular at the celebrated jam session at Mona’s Bar, Mike is one of the vanguard of young musicians bringing traditional jazz to the forefront of the NYC music scene. The New Wonders, a New York City based septet led by cornetist Mike Davis, vividly invoke America’s Jazz Age during the 1920s, when jazz was the soundtrack for dramatic national changes and played a central part in people's dreams, adventures and romances. Exquisite attention to musical detail and the band's deep passion for the original recordings is evident in each performance. Named for the model of cornet played by the enigmatic genius Bix Beiderbecke, the New Wonders craft each song as if it were a 78 rpm record, and the result has been praised by Downbeat Magazine and the New York Times. The New Wonders perform regularly around New York city, chasing the echoes of bootleg liquor and dancing feet.