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| (© Jeff Pritchard) |
The drummer for this gig should have been Eryl Roberts but, unfortunately, he had been struck down with flu so Dave Walsh stepped in as a last-minute replacement. For the rest of the line-up, this was most likely their second gig of the day and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this may have had something to do with the larger than normal Sunday night jazz audience.
Mike has built up quite a large group of followers over the years and many were out tonight to hear him with one of the UK's best brassmen - Steve Waterman - who I recall first hearing with the Berkshire Youth Jazz Orchestra during a visit to Bracknell Jazz Festival. He had a good grasp of how to play exciting modern jazz on the trumpet then and time and experience has made him the powerful sounding musician he his today.
There were lots of great tunes that they had chosen for this important gig and as a fellow Dexter Gordon enthusiast I was pleased to hear the quintet's versions of Fried Bananas and Hanky Panky, two of Dexter's catchiest numbers. I also liked Chitlins Con Carne which is one of the tunes from that iconic Blue Note album Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrrell. Richard Weatherall got into some heavy chordal playing in his solo and quoted from the James Williams tune The Soulful Mr Timmons. The closing number was a number that Bob Brookmeyer and Clark Terry used to feature entitled Haig to Haig which is a 32 bar rhythm-changes theme that sounded very Monkish, All considered, an outstanding gig and everyone seemed well pleased with what they heard.
The next jazz gig at the Railway is on Oct 22 with Suzanne Fonseca. Mike Farmer
It’s You or no One; I Hear a Rhapsody; Recado Bossa Nova; Chitlins Con Carne; I Thought About You; Fried Bananas; On the Brink; Hanky Panky; Oblivion; Haig and Haig
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