(Review by Lance).
Rawicz and Landauer it wasn't, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons it was - and then some. If you were seeking sounds, I hesitate to use the word music, that were searching for new frontiers you wouldn't find them here and, if you had, the hall wouldn't have been near sold out!
And yet, what we heard tonight was indeed music that broke the mould - in the earlier part of the last century.
Ragtime, stride and boogie woogie by the two guest pianists plus hot dance music and early big band jazz from the finest purveyors of the idiom this side of Slovakia - the New Century Ragtime Orchestra.
The band had been active during the transfer window with several new signings, whether permanent or on loan I'm not sure. Ian Wynne on piano, Neville Hartley bumped over to trombone, Graham Hardy from the Northern Monkey (suit) Brass Band on trumpet, Laurence Dunn, whose beard reduces Steve Andrews' whiskery growth to a mere goatee, on violin and Roly Veitch on (whisper it) banjo. Steve Andrews also took a more active musical role and even sang on Nagasaki!
Keith Nichols is the band's usual guest pianist and it says much for Papa Keith that it required two pianists to replace him! But what replacements!
As they did last year, American Stephanie Trick and Italian Paolo Alderighi stunned the crowd with an amazing performance - four hands are better than two? These four hands were better than twenty-two!
An unforgettable evening.
Outside it was raining - I decided to phone for a taxi. Neither of my two preferred cab company's knew where Gateshead Library was so I bussed it.
This was probably wise - how could you describe such an evening to a cabbie listening to Metro Radio?
Lance.
PS: Nice to bump into my old school chum George Watt. George was at the bar buying a bottle of water for his wife - he certainly knows how to treat a girl!
Stephanie Trick, Paolo Alderighi (pno) + Steve Andrews (ten/clt/vcl/mc); Graham Hardy, Alastair Lord (tpt); Neville Hartley (tmb); Jim McBriarty (clt/alt/vcl); Gavin Lee (clt/ten); Alan Marshall (alt/clt); Laurence Dunn (vln); Ian Wynne (pno); Phil Rutherford (sousa); Roly Veitch (bjo/gtr); Steve Doyle (dms); Caroline Irwin (vcl).
2 comments :
It was indeed another wonderful evening of music - made even better by our chance meeting.
PS. I splashed out on the way home and bought my good lady a bag of chips.
George, this brings me back to our schooldays ~ Chips? Plurals were always your problems during Mrs Young's English lessons! But yes, it was a superb concert and if I'd been with Dorothy I'd have bought her a fish to go with her chip. But you can take the boy out of...
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