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| © Russell |
Michael Lamb
(MD/trumpet); Dick Stacey, Billy Bradshaw, Tom Rushton (trumpets); Mark Ferris,
Kieran Parnaby, Chris Kurgi-Smith, John Flood (trombones); Steve Summers, Keith
Robinson, Jamie Toms, Matthew Forster, Sue Ferris (reeds); Graham Don (piano);
Pawel Jedrzejewski (guitar, banjo); Michael Whent (bass guitar); David McKeague
(drums); Alice Grace (vocals); Steve Malcolm (tuba); Mark Edwards (marimba)
I love Mel Tormé, I love SSBB, I love Alice Grace, I love Latin music. The question was: would the combination of all four work? The answer - a qualified yes.
Based around one of Tormé's lesser known albums, Olé Tormé!, which consisted of twelve Billy May arrangements - meticulously and accurately transcribed by Stuart Fowler - of Latin based numbers, some of which were familiar and some less so. The band performed them to perfection the section work a tribute to May's arranging skills and the band's faultless execution. To ensure the authenticity of the project, marimba and tuba were added to the line-up and, in the reed section, at various times, I spotted five saxes, five flutes, a couple of bass clarinets, three piccolos and three or four B♭ clarinets.
Of course the focus of attention was on Alice. There are few singers in this neck of the woods (or indeed in the neck of most woods) who can hold a vocal candle to her. However, I felt the material didn't always do her justice whilst the task of expecting her to deliver male associated songs was perhaps pushing her to the limit. That she delivered the goods is to her credit.
As a matter of interest, in his autobiography It Wasn't All Velvet Mel doesn't mention the album at all.
At the Crossroads (Malaguena); Frenesi (beautiful guitar/vocal intro); Adios; Baia; Six Lessons With Madame La Zonga; Rosita; South of the Border; Nina; Cuban Love Song; Perfidia; Rhumba Jump; Vaya Con Dios
Before we hightailed down Mexico way the band cut loose on a few more conventional big band numbers. The Ted Heath version of Old Man River (punchy solo from leader Lamb); Moanin' (featuring Toms on tenor, Rushton trumpet, Don piano and PJ on guitar); Kenton's Dynaflow (Robinson alto, Don piano) and I Love Paris (Parnaby trombone).
An enjoyable one set Sunday afternoon that didn't quite leave me as high up in the clouds as a concert by this band usually does. Nevertheless the band, and Alice did the 'Velvet Fog' proud on the day when he would have been one hundred years and a day old. Lance
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