(Review by Russell)
Saturday evening's opening piano set made something of a departure from the usual format with 'Professor' David Boeddinghaus being joined for the occasion by Dan Levinson playing clarinet and tenor saxophone. Fats Waller's My Very Good Friend the Milkman, Levinson blowing cool tenor on Deep Night, then Wake Up, Chillun, Wake Up found the duo in relaxed form before being joined by their countrymen Andy Schumm on clarinet and Mike Davis, trumpet, to play Every Evening.
Chicago Clarinets did what it said on the tin. A formidable quartet of Windy City clarinetists - Johnny Dodds, Jimmie Noone, Omer Simeon and Pee Wee Russell - challenged the Classic Jazz Party's liquorice stickers to put up or shut up. Andy Schumm, usually heard playing cornet, threw his hat in the ring, Ewan Bleach didn't need any encouragement and Matthias Seuffert oozed class, safe in the knowledge that he was a match for anyone, past or present. A short set - all of thirty minutes - found the trio wailing for all they were worth from Chicago down the Mississippi to N'Awlins and back again. More, please, next year!
The Austin High School Gang surfaced once more in Bud Freeman's Summa Cum Laude. Dan Levinson put together a classy Anglo-American eight-piece band to play a short set centred around Freeman's late thirties period. Walter Donaldson's provocatively titled Oh, Baby (Don't Say No, Say Maybe) was good fun and Levinson must have felt right at home flanked by fellow Americans Mike Davis, trumpet, Jeff Barnhart, piano and Josh Duffee, drums. Affable Graham Hughes played trombone, Jacob Ullberger alternated between banjo and guitar and string bass exponent Henry Lemaire steered a steady course.
New Yorker Levinson told a good story or two, not least the one about the time he lived on the fourth floor of a NYC apartment block and on the floor below lived a Mr. E. Condon. Mr Levinson got to know Mr Condon. At next year's CJP your correspondent hopes to interview Mr. L. Satanic Blues (ODJB, 1919), I Need Some Pettin' and more Wolverines in the form of Copenhagen rounded off a fine set.
Nine o'clock, the first of two sets that no one wanted to miss. The CD stall closed for the night, it was standing room only for Rico's Louis. Enrico Tomasso, later on Monday to be declared the winner in the British Jazz Awards' trumpet category, produced a superb performance playing the music of Louis Armstrong. As a trumpet player, Rico takes some beating and his Satchmo vocals are as convincing as any. You're Driving Me Crazy, I Cover the Waterfront, If I Could be with You One Hour Tonight, it doesn't get much better. As a boy, Rico met Louis, all these years later he thought it high time he visited the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NYC. In 2017 he did just that. Tomasso said that having met the great man he received the red carpet treatment. And, an honour bestowed on very few people, he was permitted to play Louis' trumpets! During his visit, Tomasso met friend of the Classic Jazz Party, Michael Steinman, and here at the Village Hotel he dedicated (Was I to Blame for) Falling in Love with You to the noted jazz historian.
Sitting alongside Tomasso were the Americans Mike Davis and Andy Schumm. One wonders what they were thinking! Struttin' with Some Barbecue, Them There Eyes, When It's Sleepy Time Down South, what a session!
Follow that! The final concert of the evening - Ellington in the 30s - led by Claus Jacobi with maestro Keith Nichols as Duke, was as good a way as any to attempt to maintain the collective high in the Village Hotel's function suite. Mood Indigo (Jamie Brownfield playing the muted trumpet part), Alabamy Home and Sophisticated Lady (Nicolle Rochelle, vocals), this was great stuff. The band, including Heitger, Mazurié, Fry, Exall, Spats (banjo and guitar) and Ward - was in irrepressible form. To borrow from Nichols, a 'tear-arse' Merry Go Round had to be heard to be believed. Black and Tan Fantasy restored a semblance of order but not for long, you rug cutters! Yes, I've got to be a Rug Cutter had 'em at it again, In My Solitude took it down once more, at least for a while until Nichols and the orchestra went out on Rockin' in Rhythm and It Don't Mean a Thing. Tremendous, absolutely tremendous.
Quick, to the bar, it's eleven o'clock, time for another late night jam session!
Party time in the Village Hotel's on-site pub! Jackets off, ties loosened, beers in hand, the roll call of sitters-in became somewhat blurred at half-past silly o'clock. King Oliver's Riverside Blues for starters, an ever-lengthening frontline blowing for fun supported by an ever-changing rhythm section (see photo, Josh Duffee, drums). American Jim Fryer (see photo), classy trombone player that he is, took the mic for a vocal chorus on Viper Mad, then, all bets were off...Analucia Tomasso sat-in. Levels behind her, Analucia accompanied her father Enrico on the trip up north. Well, what do you know? Drop Me Off in Harlem sang Tomasso. Ms Tomasso is a natural! If you had been standing next to your BSH correspondent with a feather...Mean to Me sang Analucia. Amazing! You run a jazz club? Book Ms Analucia Tomasso now before she hits the big time. Midnight came and went, one o'clock came and went, two o'clock came and...zzzz.
Russell.
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