(From our foreign correspondent...)
On the evening
of Monday 1 June your intrepid reporter ventured in wind and rain, out of the
usual geographic boundaries of the beboposphere, into wild and woolly
Richmondshire.
I chanced to
hear an item on BBC Radio 3's Jazz Line Up about bassist Malcolm Creese
and his label, Audio-B, which celebrates its 25th Anniversary this
year. In the course of this article the
Swaledale Festival (Music, Arts and Walking in the Yorkshire Dales) was
mentioned – Creese has been the Artistic Director of the festival since October
2007. This gig was specifically
mentioned – interesting, I thought, and e-tickets were duly purchased (fully up
to date in Swaledale!).
I and my
companions arrived late in Richmond thanks to the Gateshead Western
Bypass. With little time we headed to
the town centre – every eaterie seems to be closed on a Monday evening! We were, however, able to grab a quick bite in
the Kings Head Hotel and arrived at the venue, the “Influence Church”, a couple
of minutes after the 7.30pm start time.
This is not as strange as it may sound – the Church turns out to be a
sizeable redundant cinema which serves both as a place of worship and a
community facility. We were able to
sneak into the back row under the cover of some applause during the first
number.
Liane Carroll was on vocals with Friends – Gwilym Simcock (piano and “Hammond”); Malcolm Creese (bass) and Dave Ohm (drums). The format was very relaxed with Liane Carrol
delivering jovial patter between numbers.
Sheep jokes seemed to be a feature.
But, to the music (more baabop than bebop – sorry!). Liane Carroll sang and scatted with the band
for most of the numbers. For a couple of
songs the boys took themselves off stage and Liane Carroll played piano and
sang. I was not taking notes but The
Nearness of You (aka a claustrophobic ram – not my joke) featured,
as did a couple of tracks from Carroll's most recent album, Ballads* (she
wanted to call it A Load of Ballads, but this was disallowed!),
including All About the Boy. The
first set lasted over one hour. There
was then a generous interval to allow the throng round the small bar to die
down. Liane herself came out to buy some
wine – no freebies at this festival. It
was all very relaxed.
After about one
half hour we went back in for the second set.
A surprise guest was announced as present in the audience – one
Alexander Bone – although he had not brought his horn with him. An alto sax appeared from nowhere and
Alexander joined the band for a beautiful rendition of Bye-bye Blackbird
as the final number. Bows were duly
taken to generous applause. An encore
ensued - Georgia provided a suitable end to the evening.
If, like me,
you have not previously heard of the Swaledale Festival it is
certainly worth keeping an eye out for next year. All sorts of music is featured in all sorts
of venues in the Swaledale area. This
gig was really well supported with the large auditorium well filled including a
bus-load of Carroll's fans, all the way from Kent.
*Review by Debra of Ballads.
No comments :
Post a Comment