(Review by Russell)
The traditional eve of CJP (that's
Mike Durham's International Classic Jazz Party) late night welcome concert
attracted a full house to listen to an all-star cast led by Duke Heitger.
Lights dimmed, the all-star line-up took to the stand for a rip-roaring,
humdinger of a set. Class acts all, the American/Australian/British/European
gathering played a selection of dead-cert crowd pleasers.
Lars Frank blowing late night tenor
sax on a beautifully restrained Out of Nowhere, an impossibly
hot Cake Walking Babies Back Home (Frank's sizzling clarinet),
a Heitger vocal (the American standing well back from the mic) on Sleepy
Time Down South, this year's edition of the CJP was well and truly
underway.
Duke Heitger (trumpet, vocals); Claus
Jacobi (alto sax); Lars Frank (tenor sax, clarinet); Graham Hughes (trombone);
Andrew Oliver (piano); Martin Wheatley (guitar, banjo); Phil Rutherford
(sousaphone); Nick Ball (drums)
And that was it, a one hour set, the
scene set for three non-stop days (from noon 'til late) of 'classic jazz'.
Well, not quite. Following a full day of rehearsals (a prompt 8:30 am start!)
some of the other musicians wanted to have a blow. An impromptu jam session
broke out as, one after another, an international cast joined the party.
Blowing beyond midnight the crowded room was treated to a fun, freewheeling
session from some of the superstar exponents of the music including, from
America, David Boeddinghaus (piano), Andy Schumm (trumpet), Dave Bock
(sousaphone), Josh Duffee (drums) and Young Talent Award winner Colin Hancock
(cornet), from Germany Claus Jacobi and Matthias Seuffert (reeds) and Aussie
Michael McQuaid (reeds). Two of many highlights featured the man from
Buda, Texas - that's the polite young man Mr Hancock - playing, not cornet, but
clarinet, and a piano four-hander courtesy of Andrew Oliver and David
Boeddinghaus. It had been a fine hors d'oeuvres, in a few hours the main course
would follow...
Russell
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