Vermont Big Band @ Cullercoats Crescent Club - October 13

(Review by Russell)   

Six and two, 62, all the threes, 33, top of the shop, blind 90, legs, 11…house!  There isn’t anything quite like a game of bingo down the club especially if you’re waiting on one number. Oh, well, better luck next time. In between the flyer and the main house, the sounds of a big band broke out in the upstairs concert room of the Crescent Club in Cullercoats.

The Vermont Big Band made a return visit to Cullercoats having played a successful concert during the summer months. The band’s MD, Chris Kaberry, must have been a happy man when he surveyed the scene – Saturday evening, a full house, who said the big band era was of yesteryear? No fewer than six saxophones, a regulation four strong trumpet section, a mere three trombones, piano, bass and drums, and a band vocalist. Two swinging sets of forties’ big band tunes, the popular hits of the day with one or two 24 carat selections from the jazz canon.

MD Kaberry will be known to some from his tenure in the Customs House Big Band, although on this occasion he restricted himself to waving his metaphorical baton. In the Mood got the show underway (think positively it got the tune out of the way nice and early), Sweet Georgia Brown (that’s more like it), ah! say hello to Vermont’s singer, Ms Beth Tippins, joining the orchestra to belt out At Last. Tippins, shoe-less, stayed on for another - You Do Something to Me - before vacating the stage for the first of several big-hitting instrumentals featuring drummer Calum Montgomery on a spirited take on Caravan.

Pennsylvania 6-5000 (hey, it’s a good ‘un, admit it!), followed up by a chart the Ray Chester Big Band must have played thousands of times - Little Brown Jug. Youthful Peter Elliott, playing tenor, grabbed the lion’s share of the solos, although others in the sections did chip in from time to time. Vocalist Tippins returned to the stage and by now was finding her range singing I Get a Kick Out of You and Time After Time. The first set drew to a close with Montgomery drumming up the proverbial on Sing, Sing, Sing.

Band members made a dash…to the bar, the gents, the ladies (six in the sections), some venturing outside to take the (balmy) air. Meanwhile, a hush descended on a still crowded concert room as the main house bingo got underway. Six and two, 62 etc. No luck, what’s new?

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy rallied the troops as the second half got underway. The dancers (lindy, ballroom, other) took to the floor – Night and Day (not quite Fred & Ginger out there on the floor but full marks for effort), Tuxedo Junction (and Dutch courage fuelled by a Cullercoats’ cocktail or two) tempted a few more couples, the evening continued to swing along. A Night in Tunisia challenged the trumpets, and, all things considered, they acquitted themselves well. Cheek to Cheek sang shoe-less Beth, later to give way to the boys and girls of the orchestra on Jumpin’ at the Woodside. The band won an encore - The Lady is a Tramp - and MD Kaberry was well prepared for a further encore with a second ‘spare’ in the pad in the shape of String of Pearls. Cullercoats Crescent Club on a Saturday evening, a full house, a canny night out, they’re sure to do it again.          

Russell.

Chris Kaberry (MD); Mike Graham, Steve Crockett, Wendy Innes, Kate Brown (trumpets); Jamie Smith, John Flood, Colin Winship (trombones); Felicity Ripley, Katharine Loughney, Ben Gibbon (alto sax), Peter Elliott), Alan Marshall (tenor sax), Russell Rogers (baritone sax); Caitlin Pang (keyboards); James Thompson (bass guitar); Calum Montgomery (drums); Beth Tippins (vocals).