The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band is a seven-piece blues rhythm and blues band based in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England. The band play original material influenced by 1920s and 1930s jazz and 1940s

jump blues Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s as ...

. The band has been cited for its "extraordinary enthusiasm" and "pulling in fans who would never otherwise contemplate dancing to a jazz band". They alternate between raucous club and festival sets and recently featured on

Mark Lamarr Mark Lamarr (born Mark Jones, 7 January 1967) is an English comedian, writer, radio DJ, and television presenter. He was a team captain on '' Shooting Stars'' from 1995 to 1997, and hosted ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' from 1996 to 2005. Early li ...

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

programme, ''God's Jukebox''.

Band members

* "Baron" Stuart Macbeth (bandleader, vocals, piano, kazoo, composer/arranger) * Martin Watermelon (trumpet, vocals) * "Red" Wilkins (tenor sax) * "Carlo Matassa" (guitar/mandolin) * Buzz Booker (double bass) * John "Skippy" Gannon (drums)

Ex members

* David “Lucky” Nickerson (drums)

History

The band was founded by "Baron" Stuart Macbeth as a proper three piece spasm band playing

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

skiffle Skiffle is a genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, country, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a form in the United States ...

on homemade banjos, ukuleles and washboards. Their first performance was at the Hollybush Inn in Oxford on 21 October 2006, advertised as "Banjo Madness". By 2007 the band had begun to shift away from skiffle and more firmly towards blues and jazz. The instrumentation of the band began to reflect this change with the addition of bass and drums and a horn section. The band's repertoire is now made up exclusively of original compositions by Macbeth. In February 2009 the band played a gig at Oxford's Wheatsheaf pub which met with a favourable review in Oxford's '' Nightshift'' magazine. ''Oxford Music Scene'' described their performance at the OX4 Festival that summer as "completely brilliant" and "a breath of fresh air". They have played at Glastonbury Festival, The Royal Albert Hall, Ronnie Scotts, and the Royal Festival Hall and released a single on wax cylinder. One of the highlights of their schedule is their annual Christmas headline show at the O2 Academy in Oxford. Macbeth discussed the origin of the band's name in a 2009 interview:

"Many of our heroes, like
Ma Rainey Gertrude "Ma" Rainey ( Pridgett; April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was an American blues singer and influential early blues recording artist. Dubbed the "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of s ...
,
Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and ...
and
Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as " the King of the Jukebox", he earned his high ...
, started out with a black touring troupe called who used the Rabbit Foot in their name. Spasm bands in New Orleans in the 1890s made music out of homemade instruments, which is how we started out. The Original bit is just quite funny, and a little homage to a whole host of early Jazz bands who stuck that at the front of their name.
Kid Creole Thomas August Darnell Browder (born August 12, 1950), known professionally as August Darnell and under the stage name Kid Creole, is an American musician, singer and songwriter. He co-founded Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band and subsequently f ...
had his Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band as well, and he was about as original as we are."

The band released their first album ''Year of the Rabbit'' on 3 February 2011, which was described as "a damn addictive ride from start to finish...vivid, fun and full of life". Their second album ''Party Seven'' was released on 16 September 2013 on the Jump Steady label. As a warm up for the album the band kicked off 2013 by launching their own brand of cider.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band, The English jazz ensembles English blues musical groups