Today we’d like to introduce you to the Absinthe-Minded Professors who shared their story with us below:
The Absinthe-Minded Professors – AMP for short – got started as four coworkers with a love for 1920s jazz and blues music and hidden talents for playing upright bass (Joel Glogowski), trumpet (Bryan Sinclair), piano (Tricia Clayton), and accordion (Mandy Swygart) – the latter also a closet chanteuse looking for a mic and a spotlight. We started jamming on weekends in our trumpeter’s basement, and soon we’d gained new members on trombone (Drew Zoller), banjo (Aaron Lewis), clarinet (Lindsey Siegel), and drums (Mike Zimmerman). Now we are an eight-piece band on a mission to bring the trad jazz/blues revival to the “Gate City” of Atlanta.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Let’s just say playing century-old-music in today’s world ain’t exactly putting food on our tables…yet. We started as hobbyists jamming in that tiny basement, and, ironically, it took the COVID pandemic to get us to “go public” playing in another member’s front yard. Whether due to cabin fever or true appreciation of our music, folx pulled up lawn chairs and some danced in the streets – encouraging us to dream bigger. So, we graduated to playing various metro-Atlanta neighborhood festivals (East Atlanta Strut, Oakhurst Porchfest, Cabbagetown Reunion, Decatur Book Festival), a few yard parties, and in the lineup of the Music Maker Foundation’s Homebrew Hootenanny. Going forward, we aspire to AMP up (all puns intended) our public appearances at local music venues, and we’ve saved up a few bucks along the way in hopes of getting into a recording studio soon.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We specialize in traditional jazz music – alternately known as trad jazz, hot jazz, or New Orleans jazz – and we like to mix in some early blues as well. It’s the music of the early 20th century, the kind played by Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, a young Louis Armstrong, and sung by Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. In today’s New Orleans, you can savor this music at various clubs all day and night on Frenchman Street – fitting, given jazz was born in the Storyville red-light prostitution district that once existed mere blocks away. Not coincidentally, our band name pays tribute to the piano-playing “professors” of Storyville. This music is rooted in sin and the South, and it is definitely enjoying a revival in The Big Easy. But it’s still pretty scarce in Atlanta – and that’s something we aim to change.
We play several traditional songs from the period, including standards like “Basin Street Blues”, “At the Jazz Band Ball”, and “St. James Infirmary Blues.” But we also spice it up with some originals written in that old-time style – including our “New Decatur Street Blues”, which celebrates Downtown Atlanta’s neighborhood where “sex, booze, and music got your blood a’burnin’” a century ago.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/absinthemindedprofessors/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/absinthemindedprofessors/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@absinthemindedprofessors
- Other: https://bit.ly/amp-songbook
Image Credits
All photos © The Absinthe-Minded Professors
