(Review by Lance)
Day Three belonged to the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Tommy Smith and Jacqui Dankworth although I'm sure others will root for Bill Frissell or Polar Bear. It was a day of difficult choices although anything involving SNJO is a pretty safe bet.
Jazz Toons was all about cartoons and the opening medley which included themes from Batman, Superman, Star Wars, Top Cat and others told the audience of children aged from 6 to 76 that the band was firing on all cylinders..
Suggestion a screen backdrop of the relevant characters would have helped some of the younger ones who weren't quite sure what was going on! As it was, the band all wore tee shirts depicting various cartoon icons - Tommy Smith was Darth Vader!
Jacqui Dankworth looks and sounds more and more like her mother each time I hear her, which is no bad thing, this afternoon she came across in a maternal role herself interacting with the kids in between singing Over the Rainbow (including the verse which I think is better than the actual chorus), Cruella De Vil, Everybody Wants to be a Cat and King of the Swingers. This latter number had alto, trumpet and tenor down front for a Dixieland chorus.
The pianist played a chord and the audience was asked to identify the theme. I didn't recognise it but the kids all knew it was the Pink Panther!
Later, prior to singing Circle of Life from The Lion King, Jacqui asked the children to make animal noises which they did enthusiastically. It was emotional enough to draw tears to my eyes!
I left with the feeling that tonight was going to be special (as indeed this afternoon was!)
Lance.
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