The summer solstice encouraged a large online congregation (140+ parishioners) to join Adrian Cox's one o'clock Sunday Service as our man set about playing clarinet and singing a few numbers with the emphasis this week on Sidney Bechet.
The Sheik of Araby for openers, a good, solid start. The Charismatic Blues with a brilliant double time section generated by Cox's internal rhythm section with a convincing vocal to boot - excellent! Another vocal number with a long title - If I Let You Get
Away With This Once You'll Do It All The Time - followed by an instrumental with a short title - Black Stick, the latter a request by Pete Lay with Cox saying: This one's for you, Pete which met with an instant online response from Ley: Thanks Adie!! As distant as we are in these strange times, this sort of banter is as close as we can get to the immediacy of a live gig.
Throughout today's Sunday Service Cox frequently acknowledged the help of friends who supplied useful snippets of information - Pete Lay, Alyn Shipton and others - and it's likely that the nugget detailing a 1938 BBC New York session came his way from one of these sources. The tune? China Boy. A parishioner suggested www.sidneybechet.org as a useful resource...
A Bechet duet with Albert Nicholas - Blame it on the Blues - reminded Cox of Graham Collier's version and his own take on the number when he worked with Richard Bennett. Cox remarked that the Bechet-Nicholas recording featured Art Hodes and Pops Foster. From one blues to another, Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me (at least by way of the title), heard Cox singing once again, this time with an off-screen, metronomic finger snap.
Cox recounted a marvellous story about the time he met Bob Wilbur. Our man spoke of having a nice lunch with Wilbur, asking numerous questions and listening to Wilbur's many 'I was there' stories including first meeting Bechet in NYC as a teenager, taking lessons from the legendary musician and being invited to sit in on Bechet's fifth - yes, fifth! - set of the evening at Jimmy Ryan's.
Clarinet, vocals and anecdotes, Cox really does put on a show. A Bechet-Wilbur number - Broken Windmill - prompted a memory...Cox used to play it with Dom Pipkin which, in turn, led to a plug for others' live stream gigs. Watch out for TJ Johnson and Brandon Allen in the coming week. Today's final number - Buddy Bolden Stomp - closed an instructive, not to mention, highly entertaining sermon. Cox hopes to be in the pulpit again next Sunday (June 28), it all depends on the outcome of his liquorice stick's scheduled appointment with the clarinet doctor.
Russell
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