Jazzford Jam @ Bathford - Feb. 27

AA 2023 Road Atlas, Page 18, square C9. That’s where you’ll find Bathford, a small village on the outskirts of Bath, down in ‘almost the West Country.’ Last Friday in the month is Jazzford Jam Night at what was the Royal British Legion Club but, as with a few other things in Bathford, it’s now community run. In Bathford Community comes with a capital ‘C’ writ through as if it were in a stick of rock.

So, tonight it’s an open jam session, all invited to play, all invited to sit and listen. The white board has all the power. If you’re name isn’t on it, you don’t get to play. Wynton Marsalis could turn up here and, if he didn’t put his name on the board he’d have to prop up the bar. All night. Apart from the tunes the house band play at the start of each set everyone else has to put a name next to what they want to sit in on. Apparently there was a shortage last month so people have come along just in case.

A loose swinging, cheerful In a Mellow Tone kicks off proceedings with a line-up of drums, bass, piano, tenor and alto sax, flugelhorn and guitar with lots of short solos with the front line adding punctuation to the drum solo. A seductive Green Dolphin Street follows; alto sax defers to guitar as the tempo rises; turns and arrangements made up on the hoof with pointing fingers and nods of the head. Black Coffee has a noir-ish swagger and the room and the folks on the bandstand and across the floor have warmed up. (Windows sealed so as not to annoy the neighbours). A bit of burnished flugel, some NOLA blues, a guitar flourish and the alto brings more blues. As all join in it’s not just different voices but different characters coming through.

Some of the house band retire and Have You Met Miss Jones? begins the personnel carousel with a breathy vocal and a stately sax followed by a sparkling piano solo and piercing, elegant trumpet; the guitar maintains the romance before the singer rounds it off. Another quick change sees two contrasting tenor styles for Blue Bossa with one more languid and lighter (a la Lester Young) and the other bolder; a clarinet is a bit buried but still buzzing round the edges until she solos more fluidly than the tenors that preceded her. (It’s her first time today!). The second tenor lifts the mood, bringing more swing and good cheer before the other reeds add a comforting wrap around this lead.

A three tenor frontline takes turns to support each other for Killer Joe before Dan takes the mic for Ain’t Misbehavin’ over rolling piano and rattling drums before a lovely, full-toned languid mellow sax solo. Dan croons his way through All Of Me, shadowed the trumpet with a viola adding echoes of gypsy swing. Perhaps, in his mind Dan is singing in a tux to a similarly clad audience in a supper club in Harlem and, maybe, the rain is hammering down there as it is in Bathford. Coming Home Baby is two tenors, trumpet and alto over four in the rhythm section; opening loud and bold, it’s a bouncing soul blues to close the first half.

The house band reassemble for part 2 with a new singer and a bassist playing a Hofner violin bass, the like of which that nice Mr McCartney plays. With Shelley on the mic for a lovely rendition of Satin Doll, full of good cheer with rich, bouncing piano accompaniment, mellow alto and flugelhorn. Fungii Mama is not a song about mushrooms but a Blue Mitchell calypso from 1964, with Nick adding a snatch of strongman circus music. With 8 on the bandstand there’s not mushroom for others (Thank you, I’m here all week). Four tenors provide a big, bold opening wall of sound for Little Sunflower playing in unison with added colouring asides and phrases. A stripped down, but still swaggering, Blues Walk follows with a full fat sounding upright bass behind the soloists. A loose and detached Caravan evolves out of the mysterious East, before a rolling Cantaloupe Island with 3 tenors, clarinet and trumpet out front, piano driving it along, as you might expect. A bit of bellowing, questing sax breaks off for the clarinet, a different voice, to take it for a walk down a different street. With this piece, it’s all about the fonk. Footprints, by comparison, is all about the mood. Tenor and soprano saxes capture the intense focus of the original with the piano acting as a Greek chorus to the sax lines.

It was home time and folks had started to drift out into the rain. There had been around twenty players and singers and the same in the audience and I was impressed with the logistics of the carousel with so little delay. (It’s all about the all-powerful White board). More impressed with the musicianship, the beauty of some of the instruments on show and, above all, that sense of community. Jazz? It’s out there, (on Page 18, square C9) you just have to go looking. Dave Sayer