Jazz in the Afternoon @ The Crescent Club, Cullercoats - Nov. 1

Herbie Hudson (trombone, harmonica, vocals); Brian Chester (keyboards); Dave Percy (bass guitar); Gordon ? (drums) + Brian Lynam (harmonica, vocals); John Broddle (vocals); Miles Watson (trumpet, vocals); Harry Stephenson (clarinet); Marilyn Hunter (vocals)

A good crowd in today down at the coast. The Crescent Club's regular Monday session appears to be regaining its large following and today the band's guests offered variety, both jazz and blues. Everything was set fair, wait a minute...the hand pulls on the bar weren't working properly. What's going on?! Hmmm, a bottle of Brown the best of the rest. Front man Herbie Hudson got things going with Some of These Days. From here on in it would be a non-stop parade of familiar, if not hackneyed tunes, mixed in with some lesser played numbers and guest performers. 

John Broddle the first of the guests, singing If I Had You and I Can't Give You Anything but Love. Always good value is John. Question: Back in the day, did John ever sing with a big band behind him? From crooner to bluesman, in the shape of Scotswood Slim, Mr Brian Lynam*. Our blues harp man has become something of a regular of late. This afternoon, singing and blowing harp unaccompanied, Lynam just about stole the show with a marvellous take on Sonny Boy's Bring it on Home. A while later Marilyn Hunter joined the boys to sing a couple, including a spirited All of Me. Miles Watson sat in, blowing good trumpet and singing a couple for good measure. And to cap off a canny afternoon on Cullercoats Bay, the legend that is Mr Harry Stephenson, clarinet in hand, got up to stir memories of the days when he was one of the top guys on the scene.

* On Friday (Nov 5) Brian and the No Time for Jive boys will be playing the final Blind Pig Blues Club gig before the promoters call it a day. It's an eight o'clock start at Prohibition Bar (upstairs, jar on the bar). The place should be packed out, let's hope they go out with a bang. Russell