Sunday, not quite dawn, the final day of this year's Classic Jazz Party. An early breakfast, things to do, it would soon be the twelve noon down beat with King Oliver, Teddy Bunn, Artie Shaw and more, much more to look forward to.
The Bluesician - Harry Dial. Sideman drummer to Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller, and bandleader in his own right, this opening session of the day would feature sides from Dial's 1930 Bluesicians' recordings. Pianist Andrew Oliver recruited a starry line-up for the set, including Lewis Taylor (trumpet), Chicagoan Natalie Scharf and Italy's Lorenzo Baldasso in the reeds, and CJP favourite, drummer Josh Duffee.
In between sets musicians were on and off stage in a trice (a key aspect in ensuring the programme ran to time). With a mere thirty minutes allotted to King Oliver with Vocalists there was no time to waste. New Yorker Mike Davis assembled a heavyweight ensemble featuring cornetist Colin Hancock, David Lukács (reeds), Andrew Oliver (piano) and one of the stars of the weekend, vocalist Ms Nicolle Rochelle. A marvellous set, perhaps next time an hour's worth of King Oliver should be the order of the day.
Tom 'Spats' Langham was the only choice to pay tribute to Nick Lucas: The Crooning Troubadour. A real fan of Lucas, it was down to Spats to guide us through a delightful hour of vocal jazz. A fixture here at the Jazz Party, Spats, singing and playing guitar, entertained a full house in his own, inimitable fashion. Casual yet informative, allied to some great guitar playing, Spats called upon some of the CJP's A-listers to give him a hand: trumpeters Joe Boga (NYC) and Rico Tomasso (London), the reeds of Richard Exall, Lars Frank and Natalie Scharf, pianist Martin Litton and Nick Ward (drums). Tiptoe Through the Tulips had to be in the set and it was.
Spats Langham remained on stage for the next set: Teddy Bunn. Curtis Volp enlisted fellow guitarists Langham and Martin Wheatley to tip their collective hat to Bunn who worked with Red Allen, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and many others. Americans Mike Davis (trumpet) and David Boeddinghaus (piano) were on the session, another winning session here at the Village Hotel.
The Jazz Wizard - Richard M Jones. Jazz Party co-MD Michael McQuaid looked at the work of King Oliver's pianist, assisted by an excellent ensemble including pianist Andrew Oliver, Andy Schumm as King Oliver (cornet) and a purring rhythm section comprising Martin Wheatley (banjo and guitar), Phil Rutherford (tuba) and drummer Nick Ward.
On paper, Sunday afternoon's Artie Shaw set looked like a winner. No one was going anywhere, all seats in the hall occupied, a total of sixteen musicians on stage, Lorenzo Baldasso (clarinet) leading the orchestra. For the next hour, the set, taking us up to the dinner break, would prove to be one of the very best Classic Jazz Party concert performances of this or any year.
We were listening to 1938-39 period Artie Shaw. The musicians on stage, all sixteen of them, were an absolute knockout. Baldasso sensational, the likes of Joe Boga, Rico Tomasso (trumpets), Alistair Allan, TJ Müller (trombones), David Lukács, Natalie Scharf (reeds), David Boeddinghaus (piano), Félix Hunot (guitar), Nick Ball (drums) and Nicolle Rochelle (vocals) nothing short of excellent, this was quite some performance! From Begin the Beguine to, as Baldasso referred to them, 'killer-diller' numbers, Traffic Jam to Softly as in a Morning Sunrise, the ensemble received a standing ovation. Simply magnificent. Russell
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