Hexham Jazz Festival: Day 1 (Friday 13)

(© Malcolm Sinclair)

On the approach to Hexham Abbey the streets were eerily quiet. Could there really be a major festival event about to begin in the Northumberland market town? There was and it's pleasing to report the first Hexham Jazz Festival in something like twenty years got off to a flying start as a capacity audience took its seats - in some cases pews! - to hear Hot Club du Nord and the improvisational duo of Paul Edis and Graeme Wilson.  

Hot Club du Nord: Emma Fisk (violin); James Birkett (guitar); Dave Harris (guitar); Bruce Rollo (double bass)

(© Malcolm Sinclair)

Emma Fisk's Hot Club du Nord is a 'banker bet'. Book the band and you're guaranteed  a full house. The festival organisers did just that and were duly rewarded. The acoustics in Hexham Abbey favoured Emma Fisk's virtuosic violin playing, the guitarists - James Birkett and Dave Harris - less so, although the master craftsmen overcame any potential difficulties playing the set with little or no amplification, likewise string bassist Bruce Rollo. This Can't Be Love opened the 2022 Hexham Jazz Festival and if it's possible to hear a pin drop in such a vast space we would have heard it, such was the attentive listening of the capacity crowd. 

Django and Stéphane were to the fore, both pre-war and post-war recordings. Swing 42 is a favourite of Hot Club du Nord, it went down well here in Hexham. Fats Waller's Honeysuckle Rose is a winner every time: the aficionado approves, to the the non-aficionado, it's a foot-tapper. Fisk's playing of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square is never less than perfect - you don't need to be a GASbook jazz fan, anyone with ears can't fail to be impressed. Magical. To close an all-to-brief set, Hot Club du Nord went out on Stompin' at Decca.

         

Set list: This Can't Be Love; Body and Soul; Swing 42; Undecided; Besame Mucho; Ultrafox; Honeysuckle Rose; A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square; Stompin' at Decca.   

 

Paul Edis (pipe organ); Graeme Wilson (tenor sax)

     

(© Malcolm Sinclair)

Following a short interval we were to hear a set of improvised music performed by Paul Edis and Graeme Wilson. The phrase 'And now for something completely different' sprang to mind. As Edis made his way up into the organ loft, tenor saxophonist Graeme Wilson patrolled the aisles. Our duo gave a first performance of pipe organ and tenor sax at Durham Cathedral and this Hexham reunion would similarly make full use of the ancient building's (challenging) acoustics. London-based Edis cranked-up the organ, its immense power held in check, for now...

(© Malcolm Sinclair)

Edinburgh-based Wilson took a similar approach, first probing, tentatively, hearing the echo, playing with the acoustics. A pipe organ doesn't have to be all about thunderous sounds, it can emit whispered notes, Edis sketching on a broad canvas, not yet puling out all of the stops. Wilson responded, full-throttle tenor held in reserve. This first of two improvisations ebbed and flowed, fire and brimstone passages emerged only to be calmed once more. Some forty five minutes later Edis emerged from on high, taking a bow, the more visible Wilson acknowledging the applause. Here endeth day one of the 2022 Hexham Jazz Festival. Russell