Shiner On

Westin McDowell of the Shiner's Club Jazz Band is only 32, but that doesn't stop him from having a love of music that is, let's say, not entirely relevant. We're talking old-timey jazz, swing, blues, roots music and the like: the sort of musical styles that enjoyed a brief resurgence in the mid to late '90s, thanks to films like Swing Kids and bands like Squirrel Nut Zippers, but that eventually lost momentum and were left to bleach in the sun on the ash pile of history. "I saw my first New Orleans-style jazz show in 2007, and since then, I've been so into what I guess you'd call revival music," McDowell says.

Oh, and by the way, calling his preferred writing style irrelevant isn't actually an insult in this case, it's more of a commendation. It means that he's shirking trends and attempting to get back to the passion and emotive nature of the one truly universal art form (music, nerds) and doing so entirely on his own terms, whether anyone particularly likes it or not.

"Santa Fe is kind of a musical void, and there's an absence for what we're bringing to town," he says. "I mean, how many bands or varying styles have come out of Santa Fe?"

He ain't entirely wrong, and here's the weird part: People have been liking McDowell's interpretations of these older styles, and not even in some ironic, post-hipster BS way.

"Basically, I'm a traditional jazz musician in love with New Orleans jazz and swing and what I call roots blues," McDowell, a graduate of the College of Santa Fe's Contemporary Music program, tells SFR. "I understand that these scenes are kind of esoteric, but they still pop up in little pockets all over the country; it's the cultural tie of what it represented then in the social landscape that's trying to be recaptured by the present-day swing dancers. My mission as a musician is to find common ground in a disparate culture."

For two years, McDowell and his father Scott—a clarinetist who McDowell calls his "right-hand man"—have honed their sound in conjunction with a cast of rotating local musicians like Greg Butera, Tom Rheam, Michael Kott and Noah Martinez. What they've come up with is a revival style that culls from the aforementioned genres but that also takes into account the audience to which they'll play. Through the Shiner's Club Jazz Band, McDowell has composed the soundtracks for Zircus Erotique shows as well as Wise Fool's recent Dark is the Night Circus. For these performances, the music created sounds entirely different than what they would play if performing at Skylight's weekly Wingtips & Windsors event or a swing dance at Odd Fellow's Hall. But there's a common thread found throughout, namely, McDowell's affinity for the less-technical aspects of jazzy roots and blues.

"Honestly, we would probably call it 'New Mexico swing,' and Shiner's Club becomes whatever the recipe of players it's comprised of at any given time," he says. "It's taken me years to detangle my formal, analytical approach to music and realize that it doesn't matter if you're classically trained or a novice, getting back to the emotion is where it's at."

This is a musician who cites 1928 as his favorite year for music, who can easily quote Bob Dylan to make a point and who says he loves Louis Armstrong, because "he was such a great player but he wasn't ever arrogant about it."

McDowell's a real salt-of-the-earth type who has studied the formalities and uses them in his compositions, yes, but would much rather truly feel what he is playing than have it be compositionally impressive. It's a laid-back response to the music industry's bedlam (and a refreshingly real take on the super-serious local scene) that seems to provide him with constant opportunity and an ever-growing fan base. Relevant or not, that's something to be excited about.

Shiner's Club Jazz Band Duet
w/Westin McDowell and Noah Martinez
7 pm Wednesday, Sept. 9. No cover.
Santa Fe Spirits Tasting Room
308 Read St.,
780-5906

Santa Fe Reporter