Fiona Littlewood (vocals/tenor sax); Stuart Findon
(tenor sax); Mike Papapavlou(guitar);
John Pope (bass); Eric Stutt (drums)
(Review by Ann Alex.)
The band made a good start with a long instrumental
(The Message?) with everyone getting
a chance to show their metal, tenors doing lovely harmonies together, bell-like
guitar, 4’s from the drums, bass doing what basses do, then came Fiona with
her second instrument, singing an expressive Straight No Chaser, not the easiest of songs, plenty room for band solos, and a strong ending when she repeated ‘now is the time, now is the
time.
All The Things You Are had the Charlie Parker introduction, I'm told, but unfortunately, during this number Stuart’s tenor became ill and went
out of commission, probably a loose spring, so someone suggested to me. Stuart had to use the other tenor, which must
have disrupted the set list, but they still managed well, although the total
sound was obviously less full than it would have been. I suppose this happens to all bands at some
time.
You Don't Know What Love
Is opened gently with
just voice, bass and cymbals, a lovely slow ballad, effective solos, then back to the
cymbals at the end.
Fiona stepped aside for the next number, or so it seemed,
but popped back in for some scat singing and then a musical conversation with
the sax. A Stuart Findon
original, Stu’s Blues, (about the
poorly sax?) pleasantly tricky, with a cracking drum solo. The final number was
Dexter Gordon’s Cheesecake, complete
with wolf whistles from guitar, sax solo and more from drums, and a final
chorus from Fiona. Well done, and a gig
not without its challenges.
I think I'm finally starting to understand more
about bebop and the differences between that and the earlier swing styles. Bebop is more fragmented, choppy, stop
and start but also with long angular themes and solos and I love the endings with drum rolls, tenor squawks, you’re not
quite sure when it has ended, quite humorous.
I imagine everyone reading this knew this already, but it’s still
relatively new to me, so please bear with me!
The Jam
Heather Jane (vocals); Jeff Smith (tenor sax); Paul
Gowland (tenor sax) plus John, Eric, Mike as above.
Heather treated us to an atmospheric Round Midnight, sung well, with lots of
space for band solos. Heather hails from
the Lindsay Hannon jazz singing class and she can also be heard at the
Chillingham session on Wednesdays, definitely a woman to watch. Heather followed this with a fast version of Autumn Leaves, with Mike providing
falling leaf sort of sounds at the end.
An instrumental rounded off an enjoyable evening, Au Privave, played by guitar, tenor, bass and drums.
Ann Alex
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