When I stepped from High Holborn into the Pizza Express, I was only slightly bemused to be confronted by a life-size replica of the Tardis. I figured they were shooting an episode of Dr. Who on location. Out of curiosity I walked inside, and stone me if I didn’t find myself in the heart of the Big Easy, circa 1895, sashaying down Bourbon Street, up to my ears in 2/4 emanating from the bell of Buddy Bolden’s cornet, the crash cymbal of Big Sid Catlett’s drum kit, the reed of Jimmie Noone’s clarinet. What should have been the basement of Pizza Express was Mahogany Hall, and there was Miss Lulu White herself, leading me to a table. Or, if you prefer the no-frills version, the Easy Rollers are back in town and struttin’ their not inconsiderable stuff in WC1.
I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to encounter a line-up of 30-somethings who are more than happy to acknowledge that popular song didn’t actually originate with You Ain’t Nothin’ But A Hound Dog, and that there really were songwriters before Bob Dylan. The room was SRO with their admirers, who stretched across the spectrum, and no one was really surprised when tour manager Chloe Xiao, doubling as CD vendor, had to turn wannabe purchasers away, having sold out.
In case you’re wondering, the Easy Rollers are a septet, founded in 2016 and comprising Dani Sicari (v), Alex Hill (p), Tom Sharp (t), Jamie Stockbridge (ts, ss, cl, bcl), James Girling (g), Sam Jackson (b) and Matt Brown (d). As it happened, Matt Brown was ill and unable to appear, and rather than looking for a dep the others worked around him, adapting the charts accordingly, and so seamlessly that no one noticed.
Repertoire-wise they kicked off with Tiger Rag, a little bauble composed and recorded in 1917 by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band – that’s the same ODJB that recorded the very first jass – as it was still known – record, Livery Stable Blues, in that same year. They moved on seven years for les frères Gershwin’s Lady Be Good, and even ventured as far as 1937 for Terry Shand and Jimmy Eaton’s I Double Dare You. They also turn out originals, and here again they contrive to fashion these in the old style, literate true-rhyme lyrics welded seamlessly onto melodic melody, rather than the kiss-my-assonance clumsily cobbled together by the modernists.
I relish the fact that they draw their repertoire largely from the 1920s, with occasional forays into the 1930s, never venturing any later lest they suffer nosebleed. If I had my druthers the Easy Rollers would play at best, one gig per week, at worst, one gig a month within 16 bars of my home. This coming Saturday I’ll be checking out the 30-piece Down For The Count, who specialise in 40s swing. They have, in Lydia Bell, one of the final female vocalists working today. As fine, in fact, as Dani Sicari – or vice versa – and I can pay the Easy Rollers no greater compliment than to describe then as Down For The Count-lite.
The Easy Rollers at PizzaExpress Live, Holborn, London, WC1V 6LF, 30 September 2025
