(Review by Russell/Photos courtesy (and ©) of DJC de la Haye)
The final session of this year's Classic Jazz Party opened at seven thirty with the third of three
piano 'professors' - Morten Gunnar Larsen - playing to another packed main hall. As the evening's programme unfurled - Richard Pite's small group Gene Krupa Band session with Matthias Seuffert, reeds, Martin Litton, piano and string bassist Graham Hughes; the trumpets of Tomasso and Heitger working with an all European rhythm section on New Orleans hits the Big Apple; and Spats' Band giving Tom Langham free reign to showcase ragtime banjo, Al Bowlly vocals and more - thoughts turned to the set-piece finale, The Nichols-Duffee Chick Webb Orchestra.
The earlier trumpet-led set included a faithful rendition of the ODJB's Dixieland One-Step and Wingy Manone's 1930 recording Tar Paper Stomp. The latter enticed the dancers to the floor once again...they'd been foxtrotting it (and other steps!) all weekend. Spats Langham's half-hour set eased the Village Hotel's audience into the final straight in relaxed fashion. The five-piece outfit - Spats, Dan Levinson, Emma Fisk, Morten Gunnar Larsen and Malcolm Sked - was demob-happy, its work almost done, although there was the little matter of another late night jam session to look forward to. Mr Sked was the exception, his services would be required for the ten o'clock send-off.
Keith Nichols and American percussion virtuoso Josh Duffee collaborate throughout the year emailing parts back and forth across the Atlantic, suggesting numbers, floating ideas, and somehow it all comes together on the night. Suspend belief, imagine the Village Hotel near West Allotment is the Savoy Ballroom on Lenox Avenue, NYC, the year nineteen thirty something. Chick Webb is resident, Edgar Sampson's Don't Be That Way is a big hit (Sampson said he preferred Webb's version, musically speaking, but Benny Goodman's was financially rewarding!), this one hour set encapsulated the 'classic jazz' era.
The Classic Jazz Party was almost done...almost. A dash through to the bar for the eleven o'clock jam session, this one to be led by Dan Levinson. The tall New Yorker had enjoyed his first visit to Tyneside (Levinson's CD sales went off the scale), the odds are he will return. The house band comprised Malo Mazurié, trumpet, Lars Frank on reeds, Spats Langham, guitar and banjo, Phil Rutherford on tuba and drummer Richard Pite. As house bands do, the ensemble played a few numbers prior to the sitters-in joining the fray. Suffice to say all CJP participants, with the exception of one or two who made an early departure to fly out/drive to their next engagement, got up to have a blow. At times the frontline nudged into double figures and from the rousing opening number - Indiana to Ain't Misbehavin' to countless others, the last time anyone glanced at the clock on the pub's stripped-back brick wall it said 2:40am. And still they played on.
Next year's Classic Jazz Party runs from Friday 1 through to Sunday 3 November. Advance booking is recommended.
Russell
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