Maine Street Jazzmen @ Ashington Jazz Club.

John Cowan (cor); Jim McBriarty (clt/alt/vcl); Herbie Hudson (tmb/vcl/hca); Colin Haikney (pno); Alan Rudd (bs); Ian Hetherington (dms); Olive Rudd (vcl). Maine Street Jazz returned to The Elephant for our monthly meeting and we were pleased to welcome Herbie back after his extended holiday in Turkey and Jim now back to good health. Unfortunately, Ray Harley was unwell and he was replaced by guest trumpeter from Dumfries, John Cowan on his first visit to Ashington, and what an impact he made!

Sitting throughout the evening he was transplanted into the band without any obvious rejection symptoms and the musical unit was complete. The opening Streets of the City got the evening off to a flying start and everything that followed was delivered with style.

This group can call upon three vocalists in Herbie, Jim and the effervescent Olive who chooses her selected songs with care. We'd like to hear more from Mrs. Rudd but her policy seems to be to give the fans a taste of her talent at regular intervals and the audience will be back for more. Or maybe she prefers to rest in between numbers. Whatever, we really enjoy her contributions to the evening.

Herbie on harmonica is always a delight as his abililty with this instument is unique in Jazz Circles. Jim's clarinet and sax were swingingly sweet and blended so well with Herbie's full trombone and John's muted trumpet solos. The back room trio drove the front line onward with superb displays of their professional technique. Alan's bass solo on Buddy Bolden Blues was superb and Colin's keyboard presentation on Melancholy Baby a delight. Lets not forget our drummer who drove everyone forward witha smile and tonight we actually got to see his face behind that cymbal.

What more can you say when each member of this great swinging group give us an exciting performance on each visit, playing their part inproviding a variety of tunes in many styles and arrangements?

Herbie surprised all with his version of Isle of Capri as a calypso tho' I must say the accent was suspect' maybe Spanish or Mexican or whatever you wanted it to be.

C C Rider came as a rockin' in rythmn style and had us jumping in our seats.

Without naming all the programme it is fair to say that 19 different melodies over the evening was good value. May I remind you that our next meeting with MSJ will be on Wednesday, August 3rd at 8.30 p.m. at the Elephant.

See you there.

Photos.

Peter S.