Hot is the NEW HOT

October 18, 2016
by
4 mins read

“Hot” is one of those words that can enthusiastically describe nearly anything. Men, women, food, sex, celebrity, art … Linguists cite Chaucer’s use of “hot” in 1385 to describe an aroused man; the Oxford English Dictionary claims the word was first used to describe human passions as early as 971. But nobody did more to turn hot into the (ahem) hottest slang word of the 20th century than jazz musicians in the 1910s and ’20s, for whom “hot” was both a term of entreaty for the opposite sex and a way to accurately summarize the singular experience of watching horn players, singers and dancers perform with passion, vigor and a whole lotta sweat.

Prior to the popularization of vinyl records, such live entertainment was considered the pinnacle of human experience. Which is why, when Squirrel Nut Zippers, led by Mississippi native Jimbo Mathus, brought gypsy jazz, vaudeville, cabaret, jump blues, ragtime, calypso and Dixieland back into the mainstream in the mid-’90s, they decided to name their seminal 1996 album Hot. Yes, it was lumped in with that decade’s swing revival, but Squirrel Nut Zippers were not just rockabilly dudes from SoCal dressing up in zoot suits. Instead, they plumbed the depths of classic pre-war American art forms, addressing founding member Stacy Guess’ tragic heroin addiction in “Put a Lid on It” and diving into the deep in “Hell,” which became their biggest hit.

The Zippers’ flame burned bright but fast, though, and after they performed at the Atlanta Olympics and Bill Clinton’s second inaugural ball in 1996, they started falling apart. By 2001, they’d dissolved, mired in a court battle over unpaid royalties. Now, 20 years after the Zippers’ peak, Mathus and founding drummer Chris Phillips gathered expert New Orleans-based musicians to take Hot back on the road and revive this dark, satirical, self-deprecating shot of musical joy for the 21st century.

Folio Weekly: What made you and Chris get the Zippers back together, Jimbo?
Jimbo Mathus: All the years since Hot allowed me to go back to this material and really do it justice. I’ve been able to pick from the best young players in New Orleans who come from jazz, burlesque and vaudeville backgrounds. And all of them have been out hustling doing 200 to 300 gigs a year, so I’m getting 100 percent from nine people who are all bandleaders and writers themselves. We’ve tightened up our horn charts and stage antics, all to put on an incredible show and bring fresh life, a high level of talent, and real dedication to what we’re doing. It’s such a breath of fresh air.

Talk about the effort that went into Hot and turning Squirrel Nut Zippers into a mainstream force to be reckoned with.
Hot was a high-watermark, but it took a ton of research, work and elbow grease to make it happen. So to finally have it live up to the potential of what we did in those wild days — when we had more creativity and energy than skill — is amazing. To hear these songs taking off again and how much that means to people means the world to me. But I’m also looking at this as something I want to take into the future. It’s not so much a reunion as a re-launch, a revival and a reimagining. I don’t want to change up the old formula — hot jazz, calypso, cabaret and vaudeville are all still timeless components — but we can also move forward with new stuff. And I’m still a songwriter, so there’s a lot more where that came from.

How did these timeless forms change your artistic direction as a young man?

My goal when I was in my 20s was to figure out everything I could about American art. So whether you were looking at theater, art or music, you started tracking down the roots. I started out playing country and blues in Mississippi, but in Chapel Hill, N.C., where the Zippers came together, we had museums, libraries and a thriving music scene. We could explore the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz, Tin Pan Alley retrospectives and jazz standards, but instead of just referencing the charts, we came at it with a punk rock DIY formula. So it had darker undertones and commentaries about race and popular culture. The twist we added to it was unique.

It must feel good to be rebooting the Zippers at a time that isn’t dominated by a bunch of hokey “swing revival” bands.
In the ’90s, our songwriting approach and sense of entertainment separated us from the pack. But that took a whole lot of heavy lifting. This bedrock of American culture is still sitting there — it just needs to be poked and prodded from time to time to keep it from being a museum piece and make it vital again. That’s what we did and that’s what we’ll continue to do, with songs that are clever and contain elements of both black humor and pure joy. The jazz era dawned because people needed something to be optimistic about in the face of such bad forces.

Sounds a lot like 2016.
I can’t think of a better time to re-invigorate that concept — there are certainly evil things out there today. In the old days, we didn’t watch TV shows to applaud housewives behaving badly. Old-timey entertainment was about providing an escape, a fantasy, a circus, a vaudeville show, a dance band. The Zippers can offer that levity and gaiety through parody and satire. We sing about “The suits picking up the bill” and “the fat cats that keep getting fatter,” but it’s about laughing at those things, which is a great way to go about dealing with them. Another way is to register voters or protest issues that you feel strongly about. I for one think it takes a well-balanced approach to deal with reality. [Laughs.]

Folio is your guide to entertainment and culture around and near Jacksonville, Florida. We cover events, concerts, restaurants, theatre, sports, art, happenings, and all things about living and visiting Jax. Folio serves more than two million readers across Jacksonville and Northeast Florida, including St. Augustine, The Beaches, and Fernandina.

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