Scarborough Jazz Festival - Saturday evening (Sept. 27)

 Emma Rawicz Jazz Orchestra

Emma Rawicz (MD, tenor sax); Aitzi Cofré Real (voice); Alex Clarke (flute); Mike Chillingworth (alto sax); Kasper Rietkerk (tenor sax); Mark Lockheart (tenor sax); George Millard (tenor sax); Tom Smith (baritone sax, bass clarinet); James Copus, Edouard Monnier, Miguel Gorodi, Nick Smart (trumpets); Joel Knee, James Wade-Sired, Harry Maund (trombones); Yusuf Narcin (bass trombone); David Preston (guitar); Tom Cawley (piano); Freddie Jensen (bass); Jack Thomas (drums)

An eagerly anticipated set from one of the current high profile names on the British jazz scene attracted a Saturday evening full house. Twenty musicians took to the stage to play Emma Rawicz's original compositions.

Familiar faces and/or familiar names peppered the ranks of the Emma Rawicz Jazz Orchestra. Some twenty four hours earlier, Alex Clarke co-headlined her own concert (with Emily Masser) playing tenor sax. This evening, Ms Clarke occupied the flautist's chair. Alto saxophonist Mike Chillingworth, last heard by BSH a week ago as a member of Ant Law's band at the Newcastle Jazz Festival, took his seat in the reeds, Mark Lockheart, looking every bit the elder statesman, blew tenor, and Tom Cawley played piano.

The trumpet section - Messrs. Copus, Monnier, Gorodi and Smart (that's Nick Smart, the Royal Academy's Head of Jazz Programmes) - impressed, Aitzi Cofré Real (voice), surrounded by numerous horns, was all too frequently inaudible, ditto Ms Clarke (flute). Looking at the bigger picture, all of the musicians impressed, immersed in their charts, bringing to life Emma Rawicz's musical vision.   

Jazz Dynamos

 

Lucy Randell (vocals, percussion), Stewart Curtis (sax, flute, piccolo); Mark Adelman (keyboards); Anders Janes (double bass); Dominique Metz (drums, backing vocals)

Suited and booted, Jazz Dynamos were an unknown quantity, to BSH at least. Gold and Everybody Wants to Rule the World spoke volumes. Jazz, it could be said, is a broad church.  

 

James Taylor Quartet

 

James Taylor (keyboards); Mark Cox (guitar); Andrew McKinney (bass); Pat Illingworth (drums)

BSH last heard James Taylor in Newcastle at Hoochie Coochie (now Pilgrim). It had been awhile. The JTQ first emerged on the 'Acid Jazz' scene. Down the years, the quartet has probably played every jazz club and festival in the country. Few, if any, surprises, James Taylor does what he does and he does it well. Green Onions was in the set, of course it was. Decades ago people were on the dance floor at a JTQ gig. Some of those very same people - older of course - were on their feet in the Spa, giving it whatever they were giving. Taylor the focal point, powerhouse drummer Pat Illingworth nothing short of brilliant, as always. Russell