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| (© Jeff Pritchard) |
As I now can no longer drive, I was very fortunate to obtain a ride to this event from my good friend Alan Stander who plays guitar in the band and who I must also thank for giving me some help in naming the musicians, a few I knew but most I’d not seen before.
A word about the venue. It was very impressive and if I was an architect and had to design the perfect building to hold big band concerts , it would look like this room. There was a long bar with a staff of 3 and the acoustics were first rate, definitely as good as those of my usual jazzspot the Railway Stockport.
This was a charity event in aid of Christies, entry charge £10, and during the interval there was a raffle which raised the impressive amount of £380 from the audience. This is in addition to the many ticket sales.
At 8:00pm bandleader, Phil Shotton, introduced Kaleidoscope to the assembled music fans and the first tune which was a favourite of mine On the Sunny Side of the street. Phil, as well as having a unique announcing style, played soprano on a few tunes but solo space was mainly given to other members of the band and I found they were all of interest. I wasn’t really expecting to have such an enjoyable night, being mainly a fan of small groups, but it certainly brought back memories of the great big band era when I used to hear Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton etc.
Part Two to follow with tunes and line-up. Mike Farmer
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