It’s a shame more people weren’t at the mid-afternoon gig by the Richard Pite Hot Five yesterday… maybe it was down to the jazz festival’s blurb which mentioned “classic” jazz, but failed to mention who the rest of the band members were. Whatever the reason, this quintet deserved better.
Richard Pite
Indeed, it would have been good to know in advance that the front line comprised trumpeter Ryan Quigley and clarinettist Peter Long. Quigley’s performance was worth the ticket price alone. On tune after tune, his solos –the epitome of musical swagger and imaginative style – were like electric shocks which jolted the music with their energy. Long must have been thinking along similar lines because no sooner had Quigley had his Frankenstein effect on Honeysuckle Rose than Long announced the next tune as an audience participation exercise, wherein participants had to shout out the title on cue during the number.
Ryan Quigley
It was Puttin’ On the Ritz, clearly inspired by Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein version – and it turned out to be the highlight of the festival thus far… sensational playing by all concerned.
Puttin' On The Ritz
Irving Berlin's world-famous song, sung by Harry Richman
Durham Brass Festival 2015 presented a recreation of the legendary 1939 Carnegie Hall showdown between Benny Goodman – the King of Swing – and the latest challenger to his throne – Glenn Miller. The Gala Theatre near to capacity, the band’s MC Pete Long said it seemed rather odd to be playing a concert at two o’clock on a summer’s afternoon. The orchestra comprised many of the big hitters on the London scene. As the band struck up Don’t Be That Way it was with an unoccupied trombone chair, obvious for all to see. Thanks to the inadequacies of the rail network Callum Au was nowhere to be seen. Long suggested the audience applaud upon his arrival. Two numbers in…huge applause as the casual Au strolled out and took his seat in the section for the first set (a Goodman set).
Goodman & Miller 1939 Carnegie Hall Concert Tribute
The Jazz Repertory Company
The band restored to a full compliment, One O’clock Jump made the joint jump. Trumpet section work of the highest order, led by Nathan Bray, featured the first of several superb solos from George Hogg. To their left stood Ryan Quigley – the betting was he wasn’t on the gig for the ride. A box of fire works was surely at his feet.
Benny Goodman & Glenn Miller's
Battle Of The Big Bands
MC Long is a fine soloist. He featured in a Goodman trio setting on China Boy – clarinet, guitar and drums. Long also possesses a dry, witty line in repartee. He introduced the boy band singer…the ever-youthful Chris Dean. A tremendous trombone player, Dean could sing alright. The Goodman set flew by…Down South Camp Meeting (cue innuendo from the mischievous Long) and a scorching Sing Sing Singbrought the curtain down on a fine first set.
China Boy
Benny Goodman Trio
Interval chatter in the bar – a good set, great players…oh, Miller next! Well, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it. Moonlight Serenade– the first few bars, then Running Wild with big tenor from Dean Masser. A further vocal feature for the boy band singer Chris Dean on a well received Stairway to the Starshighlighted Pete Long’s observation that the musicians on stage at the Gala were the same – first set, then second set, yet the sound was different due to their musicianship and the material they were playing. Long’s comment that Miller delivered a punter-friendly sound, and that he was clever in doing so, registered with your reviewer. Goodman played jazz, but so too Miller in his own way, with, as Long said, ‘the rough edges taken off it’. Certainly this ‘mature’ Gala Theatre audience loved every tune, be it Goodman or Miller. Discerning? Who cares? In the Mood…walking sticks waving, zimmer frames discarded, they were up – slowly – reliving something or other. A finale heard the same tune twice. Clever stuff from Long. Bugle Call RagMiller-style, then by way of comparison, the Goodman take. Hear the difference! Hear Ryan Quigley. Didn’t you know he’d try and blow the roof off?!
In The Mood
Glenn Miller
The main man driving, if not conducting, the whole thing, Richard Pite gave a flawless performance. One remarkable feature of this Durham Brass Festival concert…the entire band played acoustically, including double bassist Calum Gourlay! It just goes to show, volume isn’t everything. A rare treat.
Russell.
Concert Showreel
The Jazz Repertory Company
Pete Long (MC & clarinet), Dean Masser (tenor saxophone & clarinet), Paul Nathaniel (tenor saxophone & clarinet), Colin Skinner (alto & clarinet), Peter Ripper (alto saxophone & clarinet), ? (alto saxophone & clarinet), George Hogg (trumpet), Nathan Bray (trumpet), Ryan Quigley (trumpet), Chris Dean (trombone & vocals), Andy Flaxman (trombone), Callum Au (trombone), ? (guitar), Bunny Thompson (piano), Calum Gourlay (double bass) & Richard Pite (drums)
The American conquest of British popular culture is so widespread that we don’t think about it much anymore. The USA of 1980 really did seem like a foreign country but within a few years of returning to England there was a drive-in McDonalds at the end of my road, there was Budweiser beer in my local pub and American football at my local football club. Even my assistant at The Jazz Repertory Company HQ in Pitey Towers has become a cheerleader.
Not Without My Swamp
Budweiser Ad
But not all American exports to the UK and the rest of the world worked quite so well. The Baseball World Series? Well, the world outside of the USA seems to consist of, er…Toronto. American cars? Well, as they’re no longer 25 feet long with fins and half a ton of chrome they’ve lost their va-va-voom and the Budweiser disappeared from the pub not long after it arrived - some blame Bud Light.
Classic American Cars
American music though? Arguably, that’s the most successful and most welcome of America’s gifts to the world. And it was that way before Elvis arrived 60 years ago too. Before Elvis, teenagers did rebel and one way of doing this was to be a jazz fan – a form of rebellion so mild pre-1956 that most of their parents wouldn’t even have noticed anything was up ( a duffel coat wasn’t quite the same outrageous statement as a safety pin through the nose).
West End Blues
Louis Armstrong
And if you think jazz wasn’t rebellious, the journalist and broadcaster Alistair Cooke told of listening to Louis Armstrong’s West End Blues in 1929 and hearing the sound of his mother crying next door. When he asked what was the matter she said she found the music “utterly terrifying.”
Louis & The Duke - Cadogan Hall
A Jazz Repertory Company Production
The mystique of American jazz was helped no end by the Musicians Union’s decision to ban visiting American jazzers shortly after Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington’s Orchestra visited here in 1933. For well over 20 years Americans zipped straight over to the welcoming arms of the French and gave us a miss.
Cake Walkin' Baby - Louis Armstrong
Performed by Enrico Tomasso & The 100 Years Of Jazz In 99 Minutes cast
Back in the 1920s and 30s jazz was at its most successful (mainly because people wanted to dance to it). The advantage of the Union’s ban on American jazz was that we Brits had to learn to do it ourselves and we became very good at emulating earlier styles and we still are. It’s ironic that if you wanted to hear early jazz recreated authentically then, for many years, European musicians often had the edge over their American counterparts.
Because My Baby Don't Mean Maybe Now
Keith Nichols' Paul Whiteman Orchestra - 22nd November 2015, Cadogan Hall
Two concerts in London later this year bear this out. On September 19th at Cadogan Hall, Jazz In New York, The 1930s and on Nov 22nd, our EFG London Jazz Festival Concert, Paul Whiteman: King Of Jazz. Some of the finest musicians of our time will pay tribute to some of the finest names of time gone by in a true meeting of the best of American and British music in one.
Jazz In New York: The 1930s
19th September 2015, Cadogan Hall
The Jazz Repertory Company Concert series tours across the UK and Europe, with the finest musicians paying tribute to the best of classic and vintage jazz.
With Alyn Shipton lined up to present our forthcoming concerts at London's Cadogan Hall on Saturday 19th September and Sunday 22nd November, we've been looking at his memories of the Jazz Repertory Company, going all the way back to the Noughties when we presented our tribute concert to Artie Shaw, starring reed virtuoso Mark Crooks.
Scuttlebutt by Artie Shaw
The Martin Litton Sextet
"The ideal repertory band takes a slice of historic repertoire and breathes new life into it by going a step or two beyond mere re-creation of records, while retaining a feel for period. The 26-piece Solid Senders, led by James Langton, former frontman of the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, came close to that ideal in recreating the sound of Artie Shaw’s big band of the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Shaw, a much-married and famously irascible character who walked out on his most successful band at the peak of its fame, was rivalled only by Benny Goodman for the technical perfection of his clarinet playing. In Mark Crooks, Langton has found a player who can evoke much of that instrumental brilliance, particularly in his effortless negotiation of the altissimo register on Shaw’s set pieces Stardust and Concerto for Clarinet.
Stardust
Artie Shaw
Crooks was backed by a band rich in period detail, including a sizeable string section, an innovation to which Shaw clung throughout much of the swing era, and which led to some particularly challenging arrangements, balancing the power of brass and reeds against the delicacy of the violins. Playing entirely acoustically, in the manner of the 1930s, the orchestra excelled on the piece that launched Shaw’s career, Interlude in B Flat. Crooks handled the changes in metre, tempo and mood with aplomb, and, like Shaw himself, made the quicksilver runs and leaps between registers sound nonchalantly easy.
Concerto For Clarinet
Artie Shaw
The solo spotlight was shared with Louise Cookman, singing sultry vocals that sat perfectly amid the rich settings of the band.
Louise Cookman
These were being heard for the first time in London, since, after recently moving to New York, Langton has been painstakingly collecting Shaw’s original arrangements. This was the first in a season of swing events at the Cadogan Hall, masterminded by the band’s drummer Richard Pite and on this showing the rest of the season should be well worth seeking out." 26/09/2008
The Jazz Repertory Concert series travels extensively around the UK and Europe with four concerts a year at London's Cadogan Hall including Jazz In New York, the 1930s on 19th September and Paul Whiteman: King Of Jazz, a double bill presented this November 22nd as the only Vintage and classic jazz concert at the EFG London Jazz Festival. Check out our showreel here:
Inspired by Paul Whiteman’s ability never to miss out on the chance of making a buck from American music we thought that for this year’s Independence Day we’d celebrate his album America the Beautiful (currently ranked 1,348,772nd on Amazon (I’m not taking the mickey as he’s 14,484,263 rankings ahead of my album). Below we list a half a dozen tracks from the album – an utterly non-jazz jazz blog for a change.
We thought it might be a subtle way to remind you of our upcoming concert at Cadogan Hall on November 22nd. The programme won’t include any of the patriotic songs listed below but it will feature delights such as Guy Barker in the role of jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke, Nick Dawson playing Rhapsody in Blue, Keith Nichols, veteran Whiteman expert waving the big stick and a huge assortment of some of the finest vintage jazz specialists to be found anywhere..
Rhapsody In Blue - Paul Whiteman & George Gershwin
1. God Bless America:
Now, for sophisticated and somewhat cynical British tastes the sentiments expressed here by Irving Berlin might be just on the wrong side of mawkish but don’t forget that as a kid (then called Israel Baline) his family were caught up in a pogrom when Cossacks were quite keen on finishing off the whole lot of them. They failed but the Balines didn’t stick around for long after that and shortly after the 5 year old Irving had his first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and was smitten for life.
2. America The Beautiful:
Thirty years ago I bought an album of the cornetist Ruby Braff duetting with Dick Hyman on an antique Wurlitzer cinema organ. The title track “America The Beautiful” still, for me, is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.
America The Beautiful
3. There’s A Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere:
You’re probably aware that there’s a large army of
conspiracy theorists who believe the moon landings didn’t take place.The flag waving in the breeze on the moon is
one fact they cite to prove their case.However….. no, there isn't any wind on the Moon - but there is momentum
and intertia. The fabric of the flag was moved around while being set in
position, and naturally waved as it was being set up. It also has a pole along
the top to keep it in position - otherwise it would hang straight down.
There's A Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere
4. Hail To The Chief:
Every time the President gets out of his helicopter or AirForce One the band strikes up with this jolly ditty.What a great gig – grab the tuba get down to
the White House lawn -2 minutes of
“Hail To The Chief”then you’re
done.That’s got to be worth getting
dressed up for, surely.I wonder what
gig fee Barak pays?
President Obama - Sweet Home Chicago
By the way, he’s
got a great voice hasn’t he? – he sings one line of Sweet Home Chicago at a
White House gig and he’s fab - I want to book him at Boisdale when he quits
next year.
Hail To The Chief
5. Battle Hymn Of The Republic:
Well the version we sang at school went something like this
(this is the American version – we adapted it for English tastes but I can’t
remember all the words – I think our version was a lot filthier).
Glory Glory Hallelujah
Teacher hit me with a ruler
The ruler broke in half
And the whole class laughed
And she never done it again.
Battle Hymn Of The Republic
6. Battle Cry Of Freedom:
7. For The Love Of America:
8. Yankee Doodle:
Yankee Doodle went
to town
Riding on a pony;
He stuck a feather
in his hat,
And called it
macaroni
What the hell is that all about?Well……..
The Macaroni wig was an extreme fashion in the 1770s and
became contemporary slang for foppishness. The Macaronis were young English men who
adopted feminine mannerisms and highly extravagant attire, and were deemed effeminate.
They were members of the Macaroni Club in London at the height of the fashion
for dandyism, so called because they wore striped silks upon their return from
the Grand Tour - and a feather in their hats. They also wore two fob watches:
"one to tell what time it was and the other to tell what time it was
not" ran their joking explanation.
