(Preview by Mike Durham)
Hello everyone, and welcome to a New Year of traditional jazz! This coming weekend offers a chance to hear trumpeter Digby Fairweather in two different musical settings. Digby is of course well-known as a bandleader, broadcaster, author and seven-times winner of the prestigious UK Jazz Awards trumpet poll.
Initially influenced by Louis Armstrong, he switched from trumpet to cornet and gradually evolved his own distinctive style incorporating Louis' fire with the melodic sophistication of giants such as Bix Beiderbecke, Wild Bill Davidson, Bobby Hackett and the late Ruby Braff, playing with a mellow tone and supreme technical facility. He also supplies wryly humourous commentary between tunes.
Hello everyone, and welcome to a New Year of traditional jazz! This coming weekend offers a chance to hear trumpeter Digby Fairweather in two different musical settings. Digby is of course well-known as a bandleader, broadcaster, author and seven-times winner of the prestigious UK Jazz Awards trumpet poll.
Initially influenced by Louis Armstrong, he switched from trumpet to cornet and gradually evolved his own distinctive style incorporating Louis' fire with the melodic sophistication of giants such as Bix Beiderbecke, Wild Bill Davidson, Bobby Hackett and the late Ruby Braff, playing with a mellow tone and supreme technical facility. He also supplies wryly humourous commentary between tunes.
On Friday (January 18) at the Customs House, Digby will be presenting a programme of tunes associated with one of his musical heroes, the legendary cornettist Bix Beiderbecke, featuring such Dixieland classics as Riverboat Shuffle, Fidgety Feet, and At The Jazz Band Ball. On this date, Digby will be backed by the Customs House All Star Sextet, featuring trombone, clarinet/sax, piano, banjo/guitar, bass and drums.
On Saturday night (January 19) Digby will be at the Trinity Centre, Gosforth, and featuring tunes associated with another of his idols, the late Ruby Braff. Backed by the Swing City Trio, featuring the sophisticated clarinet and sax work of Steve Andrews, Digby will play a programme of jazz classics and timeless tunes from the "Great American Songbook", transporting us from the 1920s world of Bix to the nineteen-thirties and the era of great songwriters like the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Bix's close friend Hoagy Carmichael, and other giants of the genre.
I look forward to seeing you at one or other (maybe both?!) of these special events.
Mike.
Mike.
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