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I grew up right outside of San Francisco, just 10 minutes from downtown. In San Francisco, people still shop on Market Street, the general equivalent of Canal Street here in New Orleans. However, San Franciscans tend, like New Orleanians, to shy away from the overtly tourist areas of the City. Except for one. Alcatraz. Taking a boat out to "The Rock" never disappoints. Al Capone and the Bird Man, there are good stories to be heard and it's an interesting way to spend an afternoon. I bring this up because I've found an Alcatraz here in New Orleans: the Natchez Paddlewheeler. While certainly the story of, say, the Battle of New Orleans being fought after the peace treaty was signed is interesting, as are other bits of information dispensed via intercom, what makes the trip worthwhile is Duke Heitger.
Sadly, you've probably never heard of Duke Heitger. Strangely, Duke Heitger is (I'm guessing here, but I'm pretty sure about this) the only young trumpeter in New Orleans with a platinum record on his wall, and he got it without ever being seen. Duke Heitger was the individual who almost single-handedly put the heat in Hot the million-selling record by the North Carolina aggregation that seized the popular imagination a few years back, the Squirrel Nut Zippers. "He never plays a wrong note," Zipper Tom Maxwell said, "which is, for a musician, as demoralizing as it is thrilling." They, like you most likely, had never heard of Duke Heitger when he walked into Kingsway studio. They did not provide him with music, rather, they just hummed what they wanted him to play. They were demoralized and thrilled. They plied him with drink and asked him to join the band. He declined. "We couldn't do better," Maxwell said, "but we couldn't get him for love or money."
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Duke, with customary humility, says of that decision, "Do I regret not going, well, that's not what I do musically and certainly it's a different lifestyle; you know, living the life of a rock and roll musician which, well, I guess that could be a good thing [insert wink here]. The Zippers had popularity for two or three years, but in the long run I'm better off. I was happy and proud to be involved in something that was, you know, a kind of pop culture sensation. I didn't make a lot of money off it, but I do have a platinum record which is kind of neat."
In deference to Duke, the video to the disc's hit single "Hell" features a disembodied trumpet flying and dancing through the air, soaring both in a physical and musical sense. And in some ways it's the perfect image for not only him, but an entire class of musicians in New Orleans who provide music of the highest quality for visitors to New Orleans but tend to elicit blank stares and empty shrugs when their names are mentioned to locals. Duke Heitger has been here close to ten years.
As a youngster in Ohio, Duke found his future in the past, in his fascination with the sounds embedded in the grooves of his dad's 78 rpm record collection, discs by Louis, by Bunny Berrigan, by Roy Eldridge, by Red Allen, by Bobby Hackett, by Bix. His father played traditional jazz, and rather than rebel against that music, he joined the band. "I was 12 when I got serious, when I started to really enjoy it," Duke says, "I was fortunate because my father exposed me to those records early on, to Bechet and Muggsy Spanier, all those great players and although I didn't realize it at the time, I was falling in love with this music."
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Duke went to the University of Toledo and majored in geology,. He met Jaques Gauthé while performing with his Dad's band at a jazz festival in Central City, Colorado. Gauthé heard him and hired him on the spot, asked him to join his band in New Orleans, at the Meridien Hotel. Duke told him he would finish college first. Thankfully for us, the job was still available when he flipped the tassel and tossed the mortarboard. He's currently getting his Masters in geology at the University of New Orleans.
It just seems to me that people in New Orleans oughta know Duke Heitger. In the last nine years he's played with Gauthé and with John Gill and Banu Gibson. He's traveled the world playing at festivals and concerts. He's performed on Garrison Keillors' A Prairie Home Companion four times with Butch Thompson and Gibson's band ("playing live for millions of people, what a thrill" Duke says). Go see him at the Palm Court on Thursday nights, he's one of the Crescent City Joymakers, you'll become a regular. Or the Can Can Café on Tuesday nights. He lends his fiery trumpet to the Shim Sham Revue. He was featured at the "Tornado of Trumpets" at the 92nd St. Y in New York City with Dick Hyman, Dick Sudhalter, Joe Wilder, Randy Sandke and Dan Barrett. He's featured annually at a Bunny Berrigan tribute out on Long Island. He's on Tom Maxwell's solo album, Samsara, even one tune on the new Royal Fingerbowl CD. And there are the two discs where he's the leader including his recent effort for Fantasy Records with his Swing Band called Rhythm Is Our Business. It's getting big notices across the country. He's putting a tour together with a band in Europe. "I'm not too comfortable in the self-promotion department, you know I spent nine years being a sideman, so I'm just finding my way with that part of business." As of this writing, he has booked a tour of Finland.
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On the Natchez he is the genial leader of a trio, the Steamboat Stompers. On a recent afternoon, passengers were treated to Heitger, with pianist Steve Pistorious and Otis Bazoon on reeds, playing tunes like "Farewell Blues" and "Little Girl." His torrid muted chorus on "Clarinet Marmalade" made clear that he had listened to Bubber Miley. They played "I Wish I Was in Peoria," and "Basin Street Blues." The real moment of the excursion was when they went into "Just a Gigolo.," when he plays, Heitger holds the trumpet at a slight angle towards the left, while his head tilts ever so slightly to the right. From the first note he is in the center of the tune, extracting every bit of meaning from the melody (it's always about the song by the way, it's rarely about him; Duke Heitger seems utterly without ego). After his languid Teagarden-esque vocal, the band picks up the tempo and swings like mad and has the crowd in its palm. At the end they take the tempo back down and he ends on quavering Armstrongian high-note. This performance alone seemed worth the price of admission. You oughta go, the boat leaves twice a day (11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.) and Duke's on it every day but Sunday. It is "touristy," sure, but it's some of the best traditional jazz in this town and you really should hear it. If you want a preview, an expanded version of the Steamboat Stompers will be playing for free at Café Brasil on Sunday, October 22. It's part of the Nickel-A-Dance series and lasts from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Is Duke bothered by the lack of recognition in his adopted hometown? "I'm living in New Orleans doing what I love to do. Certainly there are bad days, but come on, to be able to make a halfway decent living playing music from the '20s and '30s, and having a good time doing it...things could be worse."
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