"Just don't ask us about the band name," said Peter Ford, bass player for Brooklyn-based trad-jazz outfit Baby Soda just moments before a live performance and interview on Boston Public Radio. And why not? "Well, there's no real interesting story behind it. It's just an idiosyncratic name."
Maybe the story behind the group's name isn't worth listening to, but their music most certainly is — a unique blend of '30s-era swing, New Orleans jazz and Southern gospel that they simply call "street jazz."
And the band really does play it on the street. And the park. And the subway. But they've also brought the music to venues like NYC's legendary Knitting Factory and the Super Jazz Festitval in Ashram, Israel. Baby Soda made their WGBH Radio debut ahead of an Oct. 19 gig at Boston Swing Central's weekly dance at the Crosby Whistle Stop in Charlestown.
Is the music old-timey? Sure. And yet, there is something about it that is unmistakably contemporary. Even cutting edge. As the band likes to say, "Both pediatrics and geriatrics agree, Baby Soda is the sure cure for the aches and pains of the modern world!"
Watch Baby Soda perform live in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjHjWTXhYmo&feature=plcp
