Chris Hazelton and his Boogaloo 7 release live Kansas City jazz album
Home to live, local jazz seven days a week, the Green Lady Lounge is the inspiration behind the first full-length record from Chris Hazelton’s Boogaloo 7.
Local ensembles, playing amid the warm lighting and red walls of the upstairs lounge and bar, draw patrons every night free of cover charge.
Boogaloo 7 is synonymous with Fridays at the Green Lady. The septet came together in April 2013 and features Hazelton on organ, Nick Howell on trumpet, Nick Rowland on alto and tenor saxophone, Brett Jackson on baritone saxophone, Matt Hopper on guitar, Danny Rojas on drums and Pat Conway on congas.
“We wanted a record to capture what we’ve been doing at the Green Lady for the last couple of years,” said Hazelton. “My favorite albums from the ’60s and ’70s were recorded live, people like Grant Green and Lonnie Smith. It’s done in an old-school way to make it sound like an old-school record.”
The record, “Soul Jazz Fridays,” is available on CD and LP in black vinyl and red vinyl limited to 100 copies.
Hazelton says Fridays at the Green Lady can get “rambunctious,” so the band recorded three identical sets on a Monday in October 2015 and harvested the best live takes of each track. The album was recorded by Tim Braun with mastering by Adam Boose and mixing by Braun and Hazelton.
It’s the fourth release in the growing catalog of Hazelton’s Overland Park record label, Sunflower Soul Records.
Founded in May 2014, the label previously released three 7-inch records: Boogaloo’s “Alright Now!” and “The Chartreuse Woman” as well as “Food, Inc.” by Lawrence-based Afrobeat group SUNU.
“It started as a vehicle to release our first 7-inch record,” said Hazelton. “I had shopped it to a few other labels but decided, you know what, I’m just going to do it on my own.”
He plans for Sunflower Soul to release two more titles in early 2017.
“I’ve got one 7-inch at the press right now that is a collaboration with a band from Oakland called The M-Tet,” he said. “Those guys use the same tape machine that I do, the Tascam 238, so they laid down bass and drums, then mailed me the cassette tapes.”
Boogaloo 7 added the horns, and Kansas City singer Julia Haile, of Good Foot and Hi-Lux, provided the vocals.
The label is also planning to set loose another title from Haile’s Hi-Lux in the coming months.
“There’s a whole list of heavyweight musicians in this town,” said Hazelton. “My hope is that as more of us start releasing records and hopefully pushing them into the national spotlight, the rest of the country will start picking up on what kind of incredible music we have here.”
“Soul Jazz Fridays” is available online at sunflowersoulrecords.com and at local record stores.
See Hazelton at the Green Lady, 1809 Grand Blvd., in his Chris Hazelton Quartet at 9 p.m Thursday and in the Green Lady’s downstairs Orion Room at 9 p.m. Saturday. Boogaloo 7 plays at 10 p.m. every Friday.
This story was originally published December 1, 2016 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Chris Hazelton and his Boogaloo 7 release live Kansas City jazz album."