NH Jazz Fans 2025: Meet Lorraine Arlan and “The Jazz Laugh”
Lorraine was introduced to jazz through a friendship with a musician. Her story comes from that familiarity with standards and variations. Being tuned to knowing smiles and laughs got her a pair of tickets to Sunday’s Swingin’ to Victory show with the Aaron Tolson School of Dance and the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra featuring Taylor O’Donnell.
The Appreciative Audience viewpoint of the Jazz Laugh.
For Lorraine, The Jazz laugh – is the audience reaction. This is the frequent attendee who knows when and where soloists are being playful within the musical structure without missing a beat.
In Lorraine Arlan’s own words:
Years ago, I had a boyfriend who played drums, studying under drummer Alan Dawson in Massachusetts. My boyfriend was in a top 40 cover band, but he was personally into jazz. Thus, I was introduced to a life-long, thereafter love of jazz. We frequented Boston area clubs often enough that I made seat cushions for the hard chairs, seeing Pat Metheny, Phil Woods, Ray Baretto and Dizzy Gillespie. We also saw pianist Eubie Blake at a club in Beverly, MA called Sandy’s Jazz Revival.
It was there that I first heard what I like to call The Jazz Laugh. When Eubie seemed to get extra playful on the piano, the audience shared a subtle chuckle with heads nodding. It was very new to me, but I caught on. I don’t know if this sort of phenomenon has an actual name, but that’s what I affectionately and appreciatively like to call it – The Jazz Laugh.
Incidentally, my parents met at the Buddies Club, akin to the U.S.O., which was right on the Boston Common. My mother volunteered there with her girlfriends to set up, dance with the servicemen to live music of notable performers (I wish I could remember some names) and clean up. My father was a sailor, his ship in port for repairs. My mother told one of her friends, “see that sailor? I’m going to marry him.” And she did! That had to be early 1950’s when they met.
Thank you for reading my story!
The Jazz laugh became a conversation with Skip Poole that led to another point of view.
“Swingin to Victory” NH Jazz Orchestra: Is it a Growl or The Jazz Laugh
For Lorraine it was The Jazz laugh – that insider’s knowledge of soloists being playful within the structure and without missing a beat. In Jazz music, simple sounding requests can result in a grand scale of emotions from growling to laughing.
The Growl
When I mentioned “the laugh” to band leader Skip Poole, he smiled and informed me of the band leader’s definition of the Jazz Laugh. This, like the Growl, translates to a real effect on what we hear. The growl can be found most clearly on the upcoming performance in the Benny Goodman version of “Sing, Sing, Sing and you can find it working its way to perfection in this clip here. Skip Poole says “Growl at me,” and the final result is “thank you” – perfection.
The Jazz Laugh – according to Band Leader Skip Poole
The Jazz Laugh began with Ross Gorman warming up his clarinet for a rehearsal for the premiere of George Gershwin’s (1924) Rhapsody in Blue, a piece commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman. Gershwin happened to be at that rehearsal and heard Gorman’s “wha, wha, wha, whaaa” coming down the scale on that now famous and widely recognized solo clarinet opening. Gershwin said make sure you have that laugh in there as it characterizes the piece. This combination of classical music with jazz effects can be heard in the original Paul Whiteman recording.
More stories – tell us your story of how you came to jazz and big band music
Every sound tells a story. Every one of us has a story to share about how music impacts or changed something in our lives.
Feel free to share yours with us; send me an email
Keith@KeithSpiroMedia.com subject: NOVEMBER JAZZ