It was raining - felines and canines were falling from the heavens - I had neither Fedora nor umbrella. I stumbled into the nearest shop which just happened to be an Age Concern Joint. I figured I might lay out on some kind of head covering. No such joy apart from a baseball cap promoting The Mets - as if! Instead I hung out and fingered the merchandise until the rain stopped.
A couple of CD's were sitting forlornly on the shelf. I had a look - Bing Sings, Bregman Swings. I remembered it from way back - one of the old groaner's better outings with Sweets and Rosolino in the band plus some tracks with Rosie Clooney. The other one was named The Language of Jazz. Sounded a drag - I guessed it would be one of those 'In the beginning Buddy Bolden created Jass etc...'
Wrong!
The perp was one G.S Wellard - not the jazziest of names - and I prepared to leave it to gather dust. However, it was still raining and I have an aversion to getting wet so I investigated further.
My eyes popped!
Steve Fishwick on trumpet, Ed Jones, tenor, Jim Mullen, hey wait a minute this could be okay and - what the heck - it's only 99p!
Thank you rain! You just done me one big favour.
Recorded in 1999 it's one of the coolest discs I've heard for a long time!
Tunes by Jay Jay, Hank Mobley, Donald Brown and others provide the perfect launch pad for these young bopsters.
Leader, Gordon Wellard, is on drums and he admirably states that the proceeds will go to a project he is involved in to bring jazz into secondary schools across the UK.
I don't know how far this project got but it sounds like it was maybe a worthy aim.
Full personel is: Steve Fishwick (tpt), Mike Feltham (tmb), Bob Martin (alto), Ed Jones (ten), Steve Ashworth/Nick Tomalin (piano), Mike Edmunds (bs/gtr), Gordon Wellard (drums), Jim Mullen (guitar on final track).
Lance.
PS: And then the rain clouds cleared and I hotfooted it back to HQ - tell you what I need more rainy days like this!
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