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| (© Malcolm Sinclair) |
Michael Lamb
(MD), Pete Tanton, Dick Stacey, Gordon Marshall (trumpets); Jamie Toms, Matt
Forster, Keith Robinson, Dave Kerridge, Sue Ferris (reeds); Mark Ferris, Kieran
Parnaby, Ben Haslam, John Flood (trombones); Pawel Jedrzejewski (guitar); James
Peacock (keyboards); Michael Whent (bass guitar); Guy Swinton (drums); Alice
Grace (vocals)
One of the established traditions of the Newcastle Jazz Festival is that Thursday night's action takes place at the Bridge where the Strictly Smokin' Big Band pull in the punters and not just because it's free. If it were ten times the price (joke) they'd still show.
They had a few deps in but such is the depth of talent that they have to draw from it didn't show.
The solos were spread around the saxes with Toms and Robinson picking up the lion's share and only Sue Ferris missing out. However, Sue's festival moment will come on Saturday at Tyne Bank Brewery when, along with SSBB colleague (missing from last night's concert) Steve Summers, they will recreate the Gerry Mulligan/Paul Desmond session Two of a Mind which they debuted at the Globe last year, following up at Blaydon. Matt Forster too will be featured on Saturday leading his quartet.
Pete Tanton handled most of the trumpet solos, although leader Lamb, in between directing from front and rear, had some blasts of his own. His kicker on Dizzy's Things to Come was the biz.
Parnaby took care of the trombone solos with bass 'bone Flood playing a burping intro to Alice's irreverent version of It Was a Very Good Year and the sound you heard wasn't Frank turning in his grave, even though the previous number was Maynard Ferguson's Knarf which is actually Frank spelt backwards, but the 19:20 Newcastle to King's Cross crossing the High Level Bridge. I'm sure Sinatra would have been clapping his hands as did Alice on her final number, the encore, called, appropriately enough, Clap Your Hands which we duly did.
I could go on and on about each and every number but that would take too long. So I'll just mention the piano/guitar exchanges on a number which I didn't catch the title of, the three part Film Noir Suite that had everything apart from Bogart and Bacall although there were a few hardboiled characters and a couple of femme fatales in the audience and, of course, all of Alice's vocals.
The festival continues tonight at the Black Swan with the Alex Clarke Quartet. Lance
TNT; You Turned the Tables on me (v); Things to Come; Knarf; It Was a Very Good Year (v); Film Noir Suite; Love me or Leave me (v); Tickletoe; Late Late Show (v); ?; You Can Feel it All Over (v); ? ? (two numbers from Kenton's Cuban Fire album); Lullaby of Bigfoot; Midnight Prayer (v); Avalon (v); Clap Your Hands (v)
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