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| (© Roly Veitch) |
Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Dean Stockdale (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums)
The Finntet is Abbie Finn's hard bop-inspired quintet. Comprising first call musicians - Graham Hardy, Harry Keeble, Dean Stockdale and Paul Grainger - the Finntet hit the ground running with Hank Mobley's This I Dig of You. Blaydon Jazz Club's regulars - and newcomers - certainly dug the band, you dig? Gershwin's They Can't Take That Away from Me, as arranged, rather masterfully, by pianist Dean Stockdale, worked well, as did Finn's original composition Big Old Spice Cabinet. Paul Grainger's Umlazi Morning, first heard as an Abbie Finn Trio number, adapted for the Finntet quintet, followed by Victor Young's Delilah (think Clifford Brown - Max Roach), the set list offered contrast within a hard bop framework.
The second set...Dear Johnny B, Tubby Hayes' classic number remembering drummer Johnny Butts, upped the ante with terrific playing all round (bandleader Finn in her element). Straight on with Nica's Dream, the Finntet in the fast lane, Graham Hardy firing on all cylinders, likewise Harry Keeble. Some Bobby Timmons (bassist Paul Grainger walking them through it) and onto Chick Corea's Armando's Rhumba, it had been a cracking night of hard bop jazz.
December's session at the Black Bull will come round all too quickly. The date for your diary is Monday 4 December. As usual it'll be an eight o'clock start, do get along to hear long time friend of Blaydon Jazz Club, guitar maestro James Birkett's first rate trio. Russell
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