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| (© Pam) |
Graham Hardy (trumpet); Faye MacCalman (tenor sax, clarinet); Jason Holcomb (trombone); Emma Fisk (violin); Jamie McCredie (guitar); Andy Champion (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums)
This Brundíbar Arts Festival presentation was something of a departure, this being the first jazz concert to feature in the festival's programming. In his opening remarks, MC Jason Holcomb acknowledged the heavyweight subject matter at the core of the evening's concert, adding that he hoped the swinging charts would be a fitting commemoration of the extraordinary musicians incarcerated during WWII at Terezin and other concentration camps.
The Globe on Railway Street couldn't have been busier. Row upon row of seats, cabaret style tables, some standing at the back of the room, there was a palpable sense of occasion. Opening with I Got Rhythm, it could be said it was a regulation start. And that's as it should be, the musicians at Terezin (many would lose their lives in the camps) were intent on playing 'entartete musik' (roughly translating to 'degenerate music'), for their own enjoyment, although the music, the jazz, would be exploited by the Nazis for propaganda purposes.
The set list comprised familiar numbers, the horns - Holcomb, Graham Hardy, Faye MacCalman - featuring on the majority of the tunes, the strings - Emma Fisk and Jamie McCredie - on others, notably Nuages. As this is the week of Django Reinhardt's birth (23.1.1013) it couldn't have been more appropriate that the brilliant Emma Fisk (Stéphane Grappelli!) should play such a prominent part.
Fritz Weiss served as arranger to Terezin's Ghetto Swingers. It is likely Holcomb and the all star ensemble worked from stock arrangements, begging the question: Are any of Weiss' original charts in existence today? All of the numbers were known to the many jazz fans on the premises, perhaps some non-jazz aficionados - of which there appeared to be a few - were hearing them for the first time...It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing, Mood Indigo, Stompin' at the Savoy, Blue Skies. The frontline and rhythm section (Andy Champion! Abbie Finn!) more than did justice to the material and the occasion. The full house demanded an encore. This being a remembrance of the Ghetto Swingers and others, MC Holcomb said they would reprise the opening number (the Ghetto Swinger's signature tune), I Got Rhythm. It had been a memorable evening. Russell
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