Friday evening - Nov.1
(Review by Russell)
King Oliver, Roy Eldridge, Charlie
Shavers, Emmett Berry - cornetists/trumpeters who helped lay the foundations of
the music. The iconic figures would figure in a number of the Classic Jazz
Party's Friday evening sets in the guise of present day superstars, variously,
Andy Schumm, Torstein Kubban, Enrico Tomasso, Malo Mazurié and Duke
Heitger.
The evening began in low key fashion.
As CJP-goers filed into the hall the first of this year's three piano Professors went
to work. Morten Gunnar Larsen is a concert grand pianist of
distinction. A classical background, recording sessions focussing on Storyville
rags and stomps, the Norwegian, whose cv includes sharing a stage with Eubie
Blake, entertained royally.
King Oliver - Lincoln Gardens
1923 found Claus Jacobi looking not at Oliver's recordings
of 1923 rather specific sessions for Gennett and OKeh in April and June of that
year. The CJP is a gathering of aficionados au fait with the 'classic jazz'
era, not least Jacobi's subject matter. The German reedsman led a star-studded
ensemble - including Andy Schumm, cornet, Torstein Kubban,
trumpet, Dave Bock, trombone and pianist Dave
Boeddinghaus - from behind his weighty bass saxophone.
Whenever Enrico Tomasso takes
centre stage you can be sure of fireworks and Swing Trumpets lit
up the November night sky. Flanked by fellow trumpeters Malo
Mazurié and Duke Heitger this was a bravura
performance by the Leeds College of Music alumnus. Informative anecdotes about
King Oliver, Armstrong, Eldridge and others framed Tomasso's one hour set
which, for everyone present could have gone on all night.
Martin Wheatley's The Day
Before Jazz required the participation of no fewer than seventeen
musicians! Wheatley's banjo/guitar led the ensemble on a voyage of discovery of
the pre-Jazz Age years. Wheatley's set called for a string quartet
and he looked no further than right here in the north east of England. Emma
Fisk, Dawn Allen, Kay Usher and cellist Penny
Callow answered the call and did an outstanding job interpreting the
popular music of the Edwardian era.
It had been an evening, indeed a full
day, of excellent 'classic jazz' sets. At eleven o'clock some could have
thought about sleeping but not CJP enthusiasts! The Village Hotel's Victory Pub
does good business at the best of times but couldn't have anticipated a
friendly invasion of jazz fans wanting more. Within minutes of the final set in
the ballroom the Victory was packed to the rafters for the first CJP Pub
Jam of 2019. Trumpeter Torstein Kubban, a real enthusiast
if ever there was one, led an ever changing cast including rising star
cornetist Colin Hancock, fellow Americans Dave Bock,
trombone, David Boeddinghaus and drummer Josh Duffee,
French reedsman Stéphane Gillot and local hero Phil
Rutherford dropping anchor on tuba. It started at eleven and before we
knew it three in the morning came and went. It would soon be time for a 'Full
English' at 7:30am Saturday.
Russell
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