(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
2nd half continued with others (too many to fit in to the 1st
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.
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