(Review by Jerry)
At the end of a dismal day, weather-wise, this rapidly improving big band (even bigger when augmented with a percussionist) gave a packed Gala audience a musical treat to cheer and warm. It was great fun!
The opener was one of the band’s favourites – Flight of the Foo Birds – and was followed by Miller’s Little Brown Jug featuring an excellent tenor sax solo. My apologies for being unable to name individuals – even the MD, Paul Edis, struggled with that in a name-check towards the end of the evening. My excuse (and his) was that it is a VERY big band.
Next up was a vocalist, Johnny Roxburgh (?) who likes Sinatra and who performs his songs with some panache. Here, it was I’ve Got You Under My Skin and in the second set we had Come Fly with Me: excellent stuff from this young Sage student.
Perdido followed, performed by a “small band” consisting of the rhythm section plus about 9 of the horns – a format repeated on two numbers in the second set: All Blues and Blue Monk.
This “small” format got even smaller as George, the pianist, on his last gig with the band (he will be much missed) did a dreamy duet of A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square with Paul Edis on clarinet. Next, to wake us all up again, it was carnival time in Durham with the Edis’ original Mighty Samba – apparently inspired by a Nissan Micra! This is a great tune, made all the more Latino-rhythmic by the additional percussion available tonight
Georgia Brown got good applause, as always and then the first set stormed to a close with Techtonic, a high-octane Edis’ original featuring four baritone saxes and “rock” guitar in the talented hands of Francis Tulip
In the second set, All of Me featured Dave Skipsey on trumpet and Tuxedo Junction was greeted with whoops and cheers.
The MD admitted that his inclusion of Summertime in the set-list was ironic in a week which saw hail stop play at Durham’s Riverside Ground! The irony was then compounded in the second vocal offering of the evening with its repeated line about “weather-wise it’s such a lovely day…” Well, a lovely evening, anyway.
Despite one of them being entitled Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, the last two numbers were undiluted joy. First was The Timothys – familiar to all who have the Mr. Hipster CD, but here played with driving electric bass, an infectious guitar riff, and an absolute blast of sound from the many horns. Edis (wearing his MD hat) praised the band for their progress in such a short time, reminding us that this is a “hard tune”. The band absolutely aced it!
Jerry.
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