Paul Edis (MD); Emily McDermott (vocal); Alex Thompson (clarinet); James Metcalf, Lucien Guest (trumpet); Ben Lawrence (piano); Ryan Da Silva (baritone); Matthew Downey (guitar); Alex Shipsey (bass); Dylan Thompson (drums); ? (trombone); ??? (saxes)
(Review by Jerry)
Kicking off a great evening of jazz at Ushaw we had a “mini-set” from tomorrow’s stars, Jambone, featuring three originals from MD, Paul Edis, plus a new arrangement of a favourite standard – My Funny Valentine.
It Ain’t Broke (Don’t Fix It) was the philosophical opener and featured solos from clarinet, trumpet and piano (Alex Thompson, James Metcalf and Ben Lawrence – all known to me from Early Bird gigs) plus vocals from Emily McDermott (whom I had not seen before).
Next up was the Newcastle Metro inspired The Wrong Way Round, never before heard with lyrics, apparently! Emily Mc Dermott held her nerve commendably through two full verses before the main band came in. The rhythm section laid a good foundation throughout and came into prominence in what seemed like a “rock” middle section to the piece. There were more solos too, including flute.
My Funny Valentine was by way of a request – a favourite of the vocalist who needed all her lung-power here to hold her own against a very brassy arrangement. She did, and, along with more solos (sax and trombone) earned enthusiastic applause from a good-sized audience.
The final Edis’ original whose title refers to something musical (therefore beyond me!) was Bite – a lively piece with much variation which provided a vehicle to showcase more of the band members. A series, not so much of solos as of “conversations”, featured trumpet and sax, trombone and baritone sax, flute and percussion, bass and drums. Great stuff!
Apologies to all those band members whose names I did not catch: reflecting my age and theirs (band members won’t remember Young Mr. Grace) I can only say, “You’ve all done very well!”
Jerry
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