RED HOT and BENT

I couldn’t resist the title.  Nor could I resist the music. 

Readers who have been following my Whitley Bay videos will gather that I am delighted by Swedish trumpeter / cornetist Bent Persson and by clarinet virtuoso Aurelie Tropez.  What could be better than to find them sharing a bandstand — Bent sitting in with the Red Hot Reedwarmers (including Stephane Gillot, alto, Martin Seck, piano)  on July 11, 2009.  It’s a natural blend: the Reedwarmers are inspired by the misic of Jimmie Noone, particularly of his Apex Club Orchestra, which used a similar blend of instruments.  And Bent’s hero (mine, too) — Louis — recorded with Noone a few times in the early Twenties, although Noone’s trumpet partners were usually lesser-known players, my favorite among them being Guy Kelly. 

First, the Reedwarmers perform the very sweet FOREVERMORE, wistful tremolos all over the place:

Then, after Bent had joined them and they had settled themselves, another late-Twenties hit (I think of it most often in Miff Mole’s and Ethel Waters’s versions), BIRMINGHAM BERTHA:

Bent sat out a request from the audience — the pretty LOVE, YOUR MAGIC SPELL IS EVERYWHERE:

Finally, they joined forces on LOOKIN’ GOOD BUT FEELIN’ BAD, which I associate with an explosively hot 1929 recording by Fats Waller and his Buddies . . . dare I say that this performance equals its noble predecessor:

Until next time . . . !