(Review by Lance).
What enables Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party to stand apart, and in many cases, above the rest, is the theming of each set. No easy task when programming 3 days of sessions that vary from 25 to 50 minutes. Incredibly, each year they manage it and this delightful disc a typical example of one of those imaginative scenarios.
Did Louis and Bix ever jam together? And if they did was it at the Sunset Café in Chicago or the Savoy Ballroom? All part of jazz folklore...
The above ensemble, drawn from the 2015 Jazz Party performers, got together in a studio across the river in South Shields to create this summit meeting.
Schumm as Bix and Tomasso as Louis are as natural for the roles as Olivier and Gielgud were for Hamlet and King Lear.
Nor are the supporting cast mere extras but star players in their own right. Seuffert, Allan, Larsen, Spats, Sked and Nick had appeared in a variety of guises over the Jazz Party weekend and they do the business here.
Once again Lake Records have come up trumps.
Once again Lake Records have come up trumps.
Ol' Man River; Milenberg Joys; Chloe; Mandy Make Up Your Mind; Who's It; Put 'Em Down Blues; Whispering; Manhattan; Skid-Dat-De-Dat; Bessie Couldn't Help It; Come On And Stomp, Stomp, Stomp; My Melancholy Baby; When She Came to Me; I'm Just Wild About Harry; The Baltimore.
Lance.
Andy "Bix" Schumm (cor); Enrico "Louis" Tomasso (tpt); Matthias Seurffert (clt/alt/ten); Alistair Allan (tmb); Morten Gunnar Larsen (pno); Thomas 'Spats' Langham (bjo/gtr); Malcolm Sked (bs); Nicholas D. Ball (dms).
Andy "Bix" Schumm (cor); Enrico "Louis" Tomasso (tpt); Matthias Seurffert (clt/alt/ten); Alistair Allan (tmb); Morten Gunnar Larsen (pno); Thomas 'Spats' Langham (bjo/gtr); Malcolm Sked (bs); Nicholas D. Ball (dms).
2 comments :
It's a great review, Lance ...... can I just point out that the sets at the Jazz Party are mostly 50 mins, with the shorter ones at 25 mins! See for full details.
Correction made - I must get a new watch!
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