Jazz in the Afternoon @ Cullercoats Crescent club.

Brian Chester (piano, trombone & straw boater), Iain McAulay (trombone, trumpet & vocals), Derek Fleck (tenor saxophone & clarinet), Brian Sibbald (double bass) & Jim McKeown (drums) + Roy Gibson (piano), Doris Fenn (banjolele), Theresa Armstrong (vocals), Joan Armstrong (vocals) & Barry Soulsby (clarinet)

(Review by Russell).  

Yesterday’s torrential rains flooded the bar and cellar at Cullercoats Crescent Club. The regular Monday afternoon jazz session went ahead thanks to the club’s determined efforts to keep the show on the road. The band relocated to the recently refurbished lounge and started on time.

The beer selection has improved along with the refurbishment. A pint of the Jarrow Brewery’s Rivet Catcher in hand, perched on a high bar stool at the back of the room afforded views of the band and through the windows the panoramic vista of Cullercoats Bay and out over the North Sea.

The first set featured the regular band (Brian Sibbald depping for John Carstairs Hallam) with the usual raft of favourites including Ain’t Misbehavin’, St Louis Blues, Creole Jazz featuring the clarinet of Derek Fleck, Royal Garden Blues and an up tempo Dinah. Joan Armstrong took the chance to sing When You’re Smiling before attending to financial matters…the all important interval raffle. Prizes claimed included a CD of bebop numbers. Mutterings were heard in some quarters: Ah divvin want that (translation: I do not want that).

Pianist Roy Gibson together with Sibbald and McKeown accompanied Theresa Armstrong singing Out of Nowhere. Gibson remained at the keyboard as Brian Chester played trombone alongside fellow ‘bone man Iain McAulay on Sentimental Journey. Chester’s robust style made for a welcome contrast to McAulay’s light touch as Doris Fenn fed the chords on banjolele. Clarinetist Barry Soulsby’s arrival made for a late addition to the line-up. Chester returned to the keyboard to allow Soulsby and Fleck to play their clarinets on High Society (a television in the bar screening the all pervasive Olympics showed, rather aptly, high society types – the hoorah yachting brigade and horsey types - in pursuit of gold). An enjoyable afternoon concluded with eight musicians on stage in a rousing version of Down by the Riverside.    

Russell