The pandemic hit hard. Individuals and institutions were denied every day activities. Schools were unable to pursue music education programmes with participation in extra-curricular events especially hard hit. Now, in supposedly post-Covid times, there is something of a gradual resumption of those sorely missed activities. Given the circumstances, it came as little surprise that many school bands were absent from this year's Great North Big Band Jazz Festival. However, two bands did make it to Chester le Street and they were determined to enjoy themselves. The bands - Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band and St Aidan's Swing Band - had previously enjoyed success at the GNBBJF and it would be good to hear them once again. Of course many young musicians from previous years have moved on, their chairs in the orchestra now occupied by a new crop of talented musicians.
Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band (MD Tom Gledhill) made the journey from Telford, Shropshire (a round trip of something like 250 miles) as defending champions, the school's most recent success at the GNBBJF being in pre-Covid March 2020. As the Telford boys and girls took their seats on stage, a quick head count revealed no fewer than eleven of the twelve - yes, eleven of twelve! - reeds were young female musicians. The band's concert set comprised numbers by Gordon Goodwin, Radiohead, Sondheim and Lennon and McCartney.
Crunchie Frog (comp. G Goodwin) opened the programme, Radiohead's Bodysnatchers (arr. Fred Sturm) featured a fine soprano sax solo, and, in marked contrast, Bob Lowden's arrangement of Stephen Sondheim's anthemic Send in the Clowns was afforded a respectful treatment (trombone and alto sax to the fore). To close an impressive set, the band went uptempo with the Fab Four's Got to Get You into My Life.
St Aidan's Swing Band (MD Vicki Elliott) travelled from Harrogate, a somewhat shorter journey than that undertaken by Abraham Darby! It was way back in 2012 at North Shore in Sunderland that Vicki Elliott first brought a band to the GNBBJF. Indeed, it was a winning debut (charts by Wynton Marsalis and Jordan Smith among others). Since then, student musicians have come and gone and the school's regular participation at a competing/clashing brass band event elsewhere has frequently denied the Swing Band of some of its key members. What would this year's band have to offer? Three numbers - Gordon Goodwin's Backrow Politics, Dave Volpe's arrangement of Body and Soul and Carl Strommen's Give it Up. Goodwin's opener tested the trumpet section, not least trumpeter Euan O'Connell, Strommen's closing chart featured tenor saxophonist Freddie Hagen, but it was Ewan Reid's superb alto sax reading of Body and Soul which deservedly won huge applause.
The adjudicators Mick Donnelly and Marcus Brown reached agreement on the 2022 GNBBJF winners. Festival director Bill Watson read out the results as follows:
Adjudicators' award: Bass trombone/tuba player (Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band)
Adjudicators' award: Peter Abeyawardene, trumpet solo Backrow Politics (St Aidan's Swing Band)
Adjudicators' award: Bass player, Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band
Best Programme: Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band
Best Section: Trumpet Section, St Aidan's Swing Band
Best Soloist: Ewan Reid, alto sax Body and Soul (St Aidan's Swing Band)
Best Band: Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band
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