Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle - May 6

(Review by Russell)

A bank holiday Monday at the Jazz Co-op's HQ on Railway Street brought out a good number of folk to listen to the Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra (NUJO). A truly 'big' big band - four trumpets, three 'bones, six saxes, two alternating pianists, an award-winning guitarist, bass player, drummer and four vocalists (one of them doubling on alto sax, another from the trumpet section) - out for a good time with, for some of them, examinations on the horizon.

NUJO's bulging pad is nothing if not varied - Watermelon Man, Wonderwall, ensemble whistling to accompany alto saxophonist Matt Green's vocal on Mr Bojangles, Chameleon, Mack the Knife, female vocals on Sir Duke. 

 The university orchestra has so much material that we got not the usual two sets but a bonus third set. The trumpets worked hard and partied hard in equal measure with Tom Alcorn's lung-busting efforts the icing on the NUJO cake. 

Equally lung-busting work from 'bone man Tom McDonald won applause from within the band and from the Jazz Co-op audience. A cut from The Atomic Mr Basie album, Jaco's The Chicken, Earth Wind and Fire's September, yes, it was party time alright! Get the beers in, there's a third set to come!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Aretha, the Toms - Alcorn and McDonald - blazin' on Daft Punk's Get Lucky, just go with it, the Bright Young Things were having a party! Three hours in NUJO eventually called time but not before an encore - John Fogerty's Proud Mary - sent the Jazz Co-op crowd on its way. 

Russell