Rico Tomasso (trumpet, vocals); Ewan Bleach (tenor sax, baritone sax, clarinet, vocals); Malcolm Earle Smith (trombone, vocals); Simon Picton (guitar); Peter Hughes (double bass)
A first, short-notice visit to a Grade II listed pub in Covent Garden. The Lamb and Flag, tucked away on Rose Street, has been host to a jazz session for the best part of fifty years. Last Sunday in the month the Lamb and Flag Band holds court in what has to be one of the smallest jazz rooms anywhere in the country. If the pub has a resident cat, there isn't room to swing it - not that one would, of course.
It's such a tight space, this evening there wasn't room for a drum kit. The house rhythm section - Simon Picton, guitar, Peter Hughes, double bass - propped up the back wall. Directly in front of them sat the horns - Rico Tomasso, Ewan Bleach and Malcolm Earle Smith. If ever an audience could be described as 'select', this was it. A couple of regulars seated near to the musicians, another happy to stand with a pint in hand, a handful of curious types popping in to listen for a few minutes, then moving on, that was it. Charles Dickens and Karl Marx were regulars. It's entirely possible your correspondent was standing on the very spot where they once stood...Cheers!
The frontline arrived from various parts: trumpeter Tomasso not long from stepping off a flight, multi-reeds man Bleach, hotfoot from 1938 (the Benny Goodman concert at Cadogan Hall), and Malcolm Earle Smith, earlier in the day overseeing a student Fletcher Henderson concert up at King's Cross.
Royal Garden Blues for starters. Relaxed, casual, a proper pub gig. A good start. Beale Street Blues, That's a Plenty, followed by a trombone/vocal feature for Earl Smith singing Sweet Lorraine, this was the kind of gig the non-jazz fan could enjoy. Tomasso spied on a ledge a small bowl cradling a candle. Our trumpeter picked up the bowl, discarded the candle, sized up the receptacle, quickly fashioning it into a makeshift cup mute! Tomasso duly played and sang St James Infirmary.
A short interval, then on with the show. Alice Blue Gown, Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (Bleach vocal), Clarinet Marmalade, Singin' the Blues (a salute to Bix), Bleach singing My Honey's Lovin' Arms (first recorded way back in 1922). The set list, much of it off the cuff, couldn't have been bettered. Malcolm Earle Smith sang Someday Sweetheart, Rico T sang Georgia, they could have gone on all night.
If you happen to find yourself in Covent Garden on the last Sunday in the month, it's worth seeking out the Lamb and Flag. Seven thirty-ish, free admission, the line-up drawn from some of London's finest. Russell
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