The Mississippi Coast Stompers

Arts Alive - May/June 2016

A band of seasoned jazz performers continues to make their merry mark on the coast with music from bygone days that somehow never grows old. 
- story by Lisa Monti, photos by Ellis Anderson 

The Mississippi Coast Stompers have been making a lot of great music and collecting fans since the original group got together 10 years ago.
 
Founder and band leader Jim Schnur, who returned to playing music after a 40-year career in academics, said it all got started when he was asked to fill in for some musicians playing at the Silver Slipper.

​“I gathered four others and we started to play two Sundays every month,” Schnur said. “We’ve been going at it ever since. That will be 10 years in December.”

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The Coast Stompers recently released a new CD, "Do You Know What It Means?"

​The repertoire of this talented team is mainly the traditional variety of jazz, but they also showcase the sounds that were popular during the 1930s through the 1950s.
 
Consider their collective resumes: They have played in supper clubs, on Bourbon Street, in elegant hotels in New York and Miami, aboard cruise ships, in the Catskills, London pubs, at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. They’ve played with Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson and the Dukes of Dixieland.

A few of the original members are still playing with the Stompers, including Schnur, a retired professor and dean, who plays the tuba, upright bass and sings.

Ron Simpson plays guitar and banjo. He’s performed in clubs in London, Chicago, Toronto and plays every year at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.

Drummer Hugh Barlow has played jazz, fusion and rock across the country and has earned raves from top drummers for his recordings.

Sadly, the band’s piano player, Ralph Martin, who played in Miami and New York hotels, as well as cruise ships in the Mediterranean, passed away recently.
 
But  band continues to evolve with the addition of top notch musicians.

Chicagoan Chris Krueger, a retired Marine Corps band leader, plays trumpet, cornet, fluegelhorn and sings. John Hester, a retired chief bandmaster who had a career in the Navy, sings and plays trombone.

“It’s a great group,” Schnur said. “I’m really pleased with the musicianship of the group.” 

Schnur, who played trumpet early on and and got back into music playing the tuba, said he and the other band members have so much experience performing that they forego any practice sessions.

“We just get our instruments out and we play,” he said. “It’s all in our heads.”
 
The Stompers songbook is heavy on traditional jazz, big band sounds and old standards with some contemporary music in the mix. Fans can easily find a lot to like when the group performs such favorites as St. James Infirmary, Fly Me to the Moon, the Girl from Ipanema and Stardust. Songs by Miles Davis are in the mix as well. 
 
Schnur recounts an endorsement given to the Stompers by a successful local businessman who said, “I’ve got to go to New Orleans to get some of my friends and bring them here so they can hear some real New Orleans jazz.”

The Stompers recently unveiled their first CD with a celebratory release party. The 11 tunes on “Do You Know What it Means” are all instrumentals, leaving the door open for a followup with vocals. “We’ll save that for the next one,” Schnur said.
 
If you want to buy a CD, that’s easy, Schnur said. “You can come to the Silver Slipper to hear the Coast Stompers and we’ll be happy to sell you one.”
 
The Coast Stompers perform at the Silver Slipper Jubilee Buffet from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the first and second  Sundays of each month (see the Shoofly Magazine Community Calendar for exact monthly dates).
 
The group also is available for special events such as weddings and parties, and you may have heard them play at a Second Saturday artwalk. They prefer to perform with all members, but “sometimes we break into smaller groups, as the occasion presents itself,” Schnur said.

​To book the Mississippi Coast Stompers, contact:
Jim Schnur
[email protected]
(601) 434-0350