Jazz band comes to Rapid City

By Lynn Taylor Rick, Journal staff | Friday, March 09, 2007

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Bert Barr created the Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band 30 years ago, and the band is still going strong.

On March 16, the Seattle-based group brings its classic sound to Rapid City for a concert at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. The show is sponsored by the Rapid City Concert Association.

Barr grew up listening to Turk Murphy and other jazz musicians in the San Francisco area. Early on, he gained a fascination and appreciation of the sound. “I was always a jazz lover,” he said.

After getting a college degree in music, Barr played with the Army band for three years. After leaving the military, he settled in Seattle in 1971 and eventually gathered a group of musicians that became the Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band.

The seven member group plays jazz, ragtime and Dixieland music made famous by such well-known names as Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington.

“We play early jazz from New Orleans,” Barr said.

The Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band prides itself in not only keeping the classic sound alive, but doing so the old-fashioned way. “We present an authentic variety of stuff the way it was played back then,” Barr said.

The group plays 15 to 20 jazz festivals a year, mostly to committed fans. “It’s really an underground following,” he said. “It’s not Top 40 stuff.”

Although most of their fans are older people, Barr said the band plays a lot of weddings as well. And while he isn’t seeing a big revival in his style of music, he’s not surprised that Dixieland and Ragtime keeps a steady and secure fan base no matter what the year.

“It’s because it’s good music,” he says simply.

If you go

What: The Rapid City Concert Association presents The Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 16

Where: Rushmore Plaza Civic Center theater

Admission: $11 for children and $21 for adults. Call 394-4111 or 1-800-GOT-MINE or go to www.gotmine.com.