Jazz Co-op @ the Globe: Folk and Acoustic Night; January 7

(Review by Ann Alex)

This event had morphed from being ‘Jazz Meets Folk’ even more than I had suspected as the starting time turned out to be 7.30, not 8pm, and the raffle had 4 prizes, thanks to an extra bottle of wine and a donation of a folk CD (Minnie’s folk band ‘Canny Crack’) from Bill.  I take it back about having my finger on the musical pulse, especially since I know very few of the performers surnames, although it’s not the kind of do where surnames crop up much.

I found out about the start time when in they came well before 8pm, and I counted about 20 performers, mostly with guitars, and at least a dozen listeners, by the end of the night.  About 5 of us were the core attendees and it seemed that the rest had known about the do from Minnie, Facebook or both.  I slap my wrist for criticisms I’ve made about social media.

A good time was had by all: Eric of Newcastle Bridge Folk Club started us off with songs and guitar, one about a pirate (how many jazz songs do you get on that subject?).  We had a Dougie Maclean song from David; John and Colin treated us to mining songs; Jeff Smith, of the Blue Jazz Sextet, did St James Infirmary Blues on soprano sax; Dennis went fishing and poaching in his songs and another John sent us off to the Caribbean with A Little Girl In Kingston Town and also the classic Last Thing On My Mind.  At some point Minnie Fraser had sung The Wren, which concerns an ancient New Year custom.   The high standard of guitar playing continued with Peter’s imaginative song about a Lion and John Cram performed a folk tune on viola, then sang to his concertina.

The 2^nd half continued with others (too many to fit in to the 1^st half), namely Sue and James, more great guitar on two tunes, including I Don’t Know How To Love Him; Edwin donned a picturesque hat with sequins and butterfly shapes to do imaginative songs with piano and guitar, and Carrie treated us to 2 of her own songs with guitar, including I Feel Stupid, about a girl who doesn’t want to make a move as she’s not sure if the boy likes her.  We had certainly liked what we’d heard from everyone but there was more to come as a playaround then cropped up spontaneously.  This is a bit like a jazz jam, but folk, and more informal, and everyone stays in their seats.  Playing together is the norm rather than solos. I noticed especially wonderful harmonies from Jeff’s sax, then a skilled fast folk tune from a mandolin, Minnie’s lovely fiddle and goodness knows what else happened after I had to go for the Metro.

I hope everyone comes back for the Folk and Acoustic next month, Thursday February 4, 7.30pm. Ann Alex.