The performance that follows — incredibly passionate music in honor of Mister Strong — was created at an after-hours jam session in the Victory Pub in the Village Hotel, Newcastle (after the formal proceedings of the Whitley Bay International Jazz Festival had concluded for the day, November 5, 2016) featuring Torstein Kubban, trumpet; Menno Daams, cornet; Thomas Winteler, clarinet / soprano saxophone; Lars Frank, tenor saxophone; Jon Penn, keyboard; unidentified, string bass.
P.S. Comments noting — what a surprise! — that the audience isn’t silent will be deleted. It’s a pub, for goodness’ sake. They were enjoying themselves: savor the music:
No disrespect to the other musicians, but my focus is on the name at top left: ENRICO TOMASSO: majestic, determined, hilarious, tender, indefatigable, joyous.
And here’s The Man Himself, in two performances from the November 2016 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, one hot, the other sweet and hot.
EVERYBODY LOVES MY BABY:
From November 4, 2016, a tribute to Mike Durham, the much-missed founder of what is now the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, the venerable EVERYBODY LOVES MY BABY, performed by Rico with Keith Nichols, piano / vocal; Spats Langham, banjo / vocal; Phil Rutherford, sousaphone; Richard Pite, drums; Thomas Winteler, soprano saxophone; Alistair Allan, trombone. And here is Rico’s SWEET GEORGIA BROWN from the same set.
And a day later, Enrico honoring Louis, singing and playing IF I COULD BE WITH YOU ONE HOUR TONIGHT:
Here, Rico is accompanied by Keith Nichols, Andy Schumm, Alistair Allan, Claus Jacobi, Jean-Francois Bonnel, Richard Exall, Emma Fisk, Martin Wheatley, Phil Rutherford, Nick Ball. And for those hoboes who missed the train, here is Rico’s SHINE from the same set.
Mr. Tomasso is our hero.
This post would not have been possible without Eric Devine’s generous technical expertise. (Eric is “Cine Devine” on Facebook and a world-class videographer.)
Sometimes the old songs still have surprising life in them, no matter how many decades of playing and singing they have gathered on themselves. This performance is in honor of Mike Durham, the much-missed founder of what is now the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party: it’s the venerable SWEET GEORGIA BROWN, performed by Keith Nichols, piano / vocal; Spats Langham, banjo / vocal; Phil Rutherford, sousaphone; Richard Pite, drums; Thomas Winteler, soprano Saxophone; Alistair Allan, trombone; Enrico Tomasso, trumpet.
Mike Durham (left) and Rene Hagmann, pensive, at Whitley Bay, probably 2010. Photo by Michael Steinman
Jazz and fun are intertwined here — from the conversational scat duet by Keith and Spats to the hot ensemble playing and the tidy soaring solos. Nothing but lively creative music, which has always been a hallmark of the Classic Jazz Party:
The 2017 Party will take place in the last weekend of October at the Village Hotel Newcastle. You really should check it out here. It’s never too early to plan for such things.
Some of the faces will be different, but that scene is where I will be in less than a month — at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Partyin Newcastle, England. More details here.
Rather than launch some well-deserved paragraphs about how wonderful it is and how you should go if you can, I thought I’d let some videos from last year do the talking, and singing, and playing.
Spats Langham at the imaginary cinema of romance:
Richard Pite’s Gramercy Five:
Menno loves Spike, and Gabriel returns the compliment:
Thomas Winteler and Matthias Seuffert play the Fatha’s blues — but wait! — has young Master Ball made off with the spoons?
Keith’s heartbreaking entreaty:
The Sentimental Miss Day:
Rico’s Bar-B-Que:
Torstein Kubban and Frans Sjostrom in the Victory Pub:
Now you see why I am going? I hope to see some JAZZ LIVES friends there as well.
SWING indeed. It gets very hot in Newcastle during the long weekend when the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Partygently but firmly occupies the Village Hotel in Newcastle, England.
Nick Ball and Graham Hughes at the 2015 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party. Photograph by Emrah Erken.
This year, the Party begins with a jam session on Thursday, November 3 . . . and runs almost without a letup until late Sunday (really, early Monday morning) — either November 6 or 7, depending on what your watch or smartphone tells you.
I’ve posted links to the Party site below, but before you venture into the land of Clicks, how about some hot music? This rousing performance (from November 8, 2015) was part of a set led by Thomas Winteler paying tribute to the 1938-41 recordings Bechet made for Victor Records.
The heroes onstage are Thomas Winteler, soprano saxophone; Bent Persson, trumpet; Graham Hughes, trombone; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano; Jacob Ullberger, guitar; Henry Lemaire, string bass; Nicholas Ball, drums.
To see who’s playing, click here. And to book your seat, click here.
The Party’s webpage has a number of delightful videos, so prepare to spend some happy (hot) minutes. I’ve posted a substantial number myself from 2009 on, on this site, too. Maybe we’ll see each other there this November.
Several audience members and a musician-friend wrote in after yesterday’s postfeaturing Keith Nichols and the Seagoon Serenaders, asking if I would post more. Happy to oblige!
Here you can find out more about Keith’s inspiration, THE GOON SHOW, a radio series from 1951-60.
The Serenaders are Keith, piano; Emma Fisk, violin; Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone; Spats Langham, guitar; Nick Ball, drums; Malcolm Sked, bass; Lars Frank, Thomas Winteler, Michael McQuaid, reeds (Michael doubling cornet). Dance music of the highest order.
The first song of the set is the old Chicago standard, SOMEDAY SWEETHEART, with an explanation of the group’s inspiration by Keith as well as a vocal:
IF I GIVE UP THE SAXOPHONE (WILL YOU COME BACK TO ME?) was a hit for Eddie Cantor in the 1929 film WHOOPEE — written by Irving Kahal, Sammy Fain, and Willie Raskin. I suspect that the song is an outgrowth of the instrument’s popularity early in the decade and the large number of amateur players:
I don’t know how much Goonery there will be at the 2016 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party(November 3-6) but there will be some. Musicians are often great comic improvisers, and they honor the guiding spirit of the party: Mike was both witty, sometimes dangerously so, and he had a stockpile of jokes that was astonishing.
What happens when vestiges of THE GOON SHOW meet early jazz, under the benignly unsettling leadership of Keith Nichols? I present a brilliant example below. Keith’s presentation, mixing satire and Hot, was called THE SEAGOON SERENADERS, and it came alive at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Partyon November 8, 2015:
Once when we get past the hilarity, the Serenaders launch into a very delightful performance of Ellington’s THE MOOCHE (named, I am told, for a contemporary dance), complete with clarinet trio and hot cornet chorus. That’s Keith, piano; Emma Fisk, violin; Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone; Spats Langham, guitar; Nick Ball, drums; Malcolm Sked, bass; Lars Frank, Thomas Winteler, Michael McQuaid, reeds (Michael doubling cornet on this performance). Dance music of the highest order.
A nice mixture of hot jazz, occasionally leavened with comedy, can be found this November 3-6. Details here.
Jonathan Schwartz told the story of walking with his father (Arthur Schwartz, of Dietz and Schwartz fame) on a shady city street, and his father saying, “Come on, let’s cross over to Dorothy’s side of the street,” the reference being to the lyricist Dorothy Fields and the classic 1930 song ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET (music by Jimmy McHugh).
Even though the rendition that follows was hours away from the sunshine, it glows and radiates in the best way: evoking Bechet, Louis, and Hines if you like, or dramatizing that such mastery is still entirely possible in this century: the players are Thomas Winteler, soprano saxophone; Torstein Kubban, cornet; David Boeddinghaus, keyboard; Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone; Jacob Ullberger, banjo. All of this goodness took place on November 5, 2015, at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party. And I know for a certainty that more like it will take place at the November 2016 Party.
Living sunshine, even in the darkness. Thanks to Messrs. Sjostrom, Winteler, Kubban, Boeddinghaus, and Ullberger:
The Union Rhythm Kings at the 2013 Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party
The debut CD of this wonderful hot band,A HOT REUNION, on Herman Records, came out in 2009. So the second one is long overdue, and I am happy to report that it is here, and as delightful as its predecessor. (I am grateful to Trygve Hernaes, the band’s enthusiastic guide and supporter, for enabling me to hear them on disc before I’d met them all in person.)
The band, the Union Rhythm Kings, is a wonderful hot hybrid of Norwegian and Swedish musicians — Kristoffer Kompen, trombone; Bent Persson, trumpet; Lars Frank, reeds; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano, Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone; Jacob Ullberger, banjo / guitar. For the geographers keeping score, Kris, Lars, and Morten are from Norway; Bent, Frans, and Jacob from Sweden. The band even has its own Wikipedia page.
What sets the URK apart (and above) many other “traditional” jazz bands is the excellence of their solo and ensemble work, expert and impassioned, and free from cliche. They are inspired by the original recordings and arrangements, but they bring their own energy to the repertoire. They’ve broken free of the Jazz Museum.
On this disc, much of that repertoire is comfortable Morton, Ellington, Armstrong, Luis Russell, and Beiderbecke — but the URK takes pleasure in Jack Purvis and obscure Morton. Thus, CLARINET MARMALADE, CROCODILE CRADLE, DAVENPORT BLUES, SARATOGA SHOUT, HUMPTY DUMPTY, WHEN YOU’RE FEELING BLUE, I DIDN’T KNOW, I AIN’T GOT NOBODY, MILENBERG JOYS, RIVERBOAT SHUFFLE, WHAT’S THE USE OF CRYIN’, BABY, SANTA CLAUS BLUES, BLUES OF THE VAGABOND, SOMEBODY STOLE MY GAL, DUSKY STEVEDORE.
I’ve listened to them with great pleasure at their recent annual appearances at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, and I have some performance video from November 5-8 to share with you — which will embody the band’s virtues better than paragraphs of enthusiastic prose. The great young drummer Nick Ball helps out on all these performances.
Here are four from their Sunday-evening concert:
DAVENPORT BLUES:
BLUES OF THE VAGABOND:
HUMPTY DUMPTY:
CLARINET MARMALADE:
and four from the Thursday-night pub session:
In honor of the Luis Russell band, SARATOGA SHOUT:
For solitaries everywhere, I AIN’T GOT NOBODY:
and these last two (with Bix in mind), with Thomas Winteler sitting in for Lars:
SORRY:
JAZZ ME BLUES:
The URK discs (beautifully recorded), can be obtained from Sonor Records AS,
Postboks 4275, NO 7436 Trondheim, Norway. Information at email: sonoras@online.no. Price: NOK 200 or USD 25, packing and postage included. Payment via Paypal, to the email address above.
This isn’t a recipe post, but who could resist this? (Erin, who dislikes cake, can skip right to the music.)
What follows is absolutely glorious — evoking Louis and Sidney ninety years later, in the Victory Pub, a place I am sure neither of them ever visited. This after-hours session took place on November 5, 2015, as part of the revelry of the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party.
The people lighting up the darkness are Torstein Kubban, cornet; Thomas Winteler, soprano saxophone; David Boeddinghaus, keyboard; Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone.
CAKE WALKIN’ BABIES FROM HOME:
I know that the original recordings — and the tradition that follows — are somewhat pugnacious, with Bechet and Armstrong each trying to show dominance . . . but this 2015 version evokes the Hot Peaceable Kingdom, with the two lions treating the lambs to Newcastle brown ale after the set. Mixing metaphors wildly, I know, but these wonderful virtuosic players seem more brotherly than combative, united in the great desire to bring light into the darkness.
Two other performances of equal splendor from this evening can be found here and here.
See you at this year’s Party. Even more details to be savored here.
Michael McQuaid, alto saxophone, clarinet; Mauro Porro, trumpet, clarinet, tenor saxophone, piano; Spats Langham, banjo, vocal; Nick Ward, drums, Joep Lumey, string bass. Recorded on October 31, 2015 at the Classic Jazz Concert Club in Sassenheim, Holland.
Spats, Michael, Mauro in Holland 2015
EVERY EVENING (with a vocal by Spats and a wonderful alto solo):
A rollicking LET ME CALL YOU SWEETHEART, with the rarely-heard verse and thrilling drumming from Nick Ward, as always:
TRAV’LIN ALL ALONE — sung poignantly by Spats:
A searing CHICAGO RHYTHM, a performance full of surprises:
I write this in January 2016 with temperatures properly wintry and a much-publicized blizzard announced: were I to play this music loudly through my open windows, it would turn bleak cold into balmy April: salutary global warming through expert heartfelt hot jazz.
Subscribe here and you can see wonderful performances by Bent Persson, Thomas Winteler, Les Red Hot Reedwarmers, and more. And hereis Michael’s website and Facebook page.
This song — new to me although almost a century old — made a powerful impression on me when Thomas Winteler, the great soprano saxophonist (and clarinetist) performed it at Mike Durham’s Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party on November 8, 2015. Accompanying him were Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano; Jacob Ullberger, guitar; Henry Lemaire, string bass. It’s a passionate performance:
Here’s the original 1923 recording, with Mamie Smith’s powerful penetrating voice matched by Bechet’s soaring soprano (and Buddy Christian, banjo):
And the first, even more convincing recording, that same year, by Bessie Smith and Fletcher Henderson:
And a 1935 instrumental version with Williams, Cecil Scott, Ed Allen, Jimmy McLin, Cyrus St. Clair, and Willie Williams:
I’ve been back in New York for eleven months now, and it does move at a fast pace now and again. I still don’t walk at a proper Manhattanite tempo, but I’m getting back into tempo. So when I was at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party on November 7 of this year and heard Thomas Winteler announce the next song as EAST COAST TROT, I thought, “They’re playing my song.”
Originally, it was an etude for two clarinets (Johnny Dodds and Junie Cobb), piano (Tiny Parham) and the irreplaceable Eustern Woodfork, banjo. This session offers a splendidly enhanced ensemble: Thomas Winteler and Matthias Seuffert, clarinet; Duke Heitger, trumpet; Keith Nichols, piano; Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Phil Rutherford, brass bass; Nicholas D. Ball, washboard.
Trot along!
And just to show the phenomenal emotional range of this group, I would point readers to the performance that took place just before the TROT — an immensely soulful reading of BLUES IN THIRDS.
Great things happen at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, and will happen again in November 2016 . . . from the 4th to the 6th. Details to come.
Let us begin at the beginning: Earl Hines’ composition, called CAUTION BLUES, offered as a piano solo in 1928:
and the next evocation, a 1940 trio of Hines, Sidney Bechet, and Baby Dodds for Victor. Hines remembered Bechet as being “evil” that day yet repeating, “I want to play Hines’ tune,” which he did, by then titled BLUES IN THIRDS:
Both those performances — one for solo piano, the other for a trio — are full of variations: improvisations on the theme, variations in timbre and dynamics, and an impressive compositional variety. So, in its own way, is this magical performance from our century — November 7, 2015 — at the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party held in Newcastle, England, not a month ago. The inspired participants are Thomas Winteler, clarinet / leader; Matthias Seuffert, clarinet; Keith Nichols, piano; Duke Heitger, trumpet; Jacob Ullberger, guitar; Phil Rutherford, brass bass; Nicholas Ball, spoons. Yes, spoons — and since Nick is a beautifully imaginative percussionist, hear the variety of sounds and effects he obtains from what we take for granted in the silverware drawer. Notice, please, how no one chorus is exactly like the one before or after it, and how this performance — without getting louder or faster — builds and ascends to something like true majesty:
A glorious performance — the sort of thing that has happened regularly at this party and its predecessors. And I guarantee it will happen again in 2016. Details to follow. And, this just in! The next Party will take place at the comfortable Village Hotel Newcastle, Friday, November 4 to Sunday the 6th.
Before Facebook, before Instagram, before online dating apps that said YES or NO with a simple movement of one’s finger, technology and romance were always allied — perhaps uneasily, but connected. Imagine the impact of inexpensive quick mail, or the telephone. And then, the photograph. And the moving image. Hence this imaginative conceit:
Here’s a delightful version from the 2015 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party — with Spats Langham, banjo and vocal; Robert Fowler, clarinet; Martin Litton, piano; Malcolm Sked, brass bass:
The bounce and optimism of the song might make us forget, for a moment, that the singer is sitting alone in his room, adoringly contemplating a photograph of the Love Object, wishing that he could move closer to an actual encounter — but the closest he can get is an imagined sound film of the one he yearns for, speaking from the screen. And bliss? Being able to run the film over and over.
I hope that the imagined lovers get to move from the realm of image into tangible reality, and that this song is “their” song — now that they’ve been able to shut off the projector.
If you were there at this year’s Party, you’ll remember this delightful musical cameo. If not, make plans for 2016 . . . I will share details when I know them. And for those keeping track: in the start of this video, we see and hear Thomas Winteler, preparing for the next set, and the many-talented Joshua Wyborn, who made the live sound come across to us so clearly.
There won’t be much prose in this blogpost: a seventeen-hour travel day has a way of overpowering ordinary cognition (Newcastle to Amsterdam to New York to home, including a taxi, two planes, two airports, a shuttle, and a drive home in rush hour).
But I wanted to let the JAZZ LIVES faithful know that I hadn’t decided to abandon them or the blog. I will have something to say about the glorious cabaret evening that singer Janice Day and pianist Martin Litton put on in Hay-on-Wye. And I assure you I will have much more to say about the Mike Durham Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party, which is still ringing beautifully in my ears.
Nick Ball and Josh Duffee in the Victory Pub, November 2015, at the Party
But music speaks louder than words, as Charlie Parker reminded Earl Wilson. So here’s a sample from the Thursday, November 5, 2015, after-hours jam session at the Victory Pub in the Village Hotel Newcastle . . . on RIVERBOAT SHUFFLE.
The energized participants are Torstein Kubban, cornet; Frans Sjostrom, bass saxophone; Thomas Winteler, clarinet; David Boeddinghaus, piano; Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Nick Ball, drums:
The Party will go on in 2016, but it needs you to survive and flourish. So do make a note of that, in honor of hot jazz, in honor of Hoagy and Bix too.
“How do they do it?” is the question, uttered or thought, that we all ask when we hear our admired jazz musicians sing or play as part of an ensemble. “How do they know where to go? Even when they have music in front of them, how are there no collisions?”
The answers are deep and not easy to put into words. Professionalism is part of it, a common language, experience with hours of practice (solo and with others), the great gift to improvise. It’s deeply intuitive, and the only analogy for non-musicians might be, “How do we know what to say — if, in fact, we do — when among people we don’t know? How do we know how to be part of a conversation, how to follow the general threads of thought and feeling?”
One of the great pleasures of what is now called the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party(colloquially known to its friends as “Whitley Bay”) is that, because the music can be complicated, and the musicians don’t all play with one another regularly, there are hours of open rehearsals. People like myself can sit in the Village Hotel ballroom and watch and listen for hours. I do it with my camera, because once in a great while a band catches fire are plays gloriously, as if the musicians were in a back room in a Chicago nightspot.
Late last year, after the 2014 Party was over, I’d sent one of the rehearsal videos to trumpeter Bent Persson — it was a Bechet tribute with Thomas Winteler on clarinet and soprano saxophone, Graham Hughes, trombone; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano; Henri Lemaire, guitar and banjo; Malcolm Sked, brass and string bass; Nick Ball, drums — and asked him if he thought it could be shared with the public. The song was ACHIN’ HEARTED BLUES, which contains a labyrinth of instrumental breaks. This year, Bent said I could go ahead and post it.
It is, of course, a rehearsal. So there are long pauses. Questions are asked. Some of this will be curious to non-musicians. But it is a wonderful opportunity, I think, to see how — without words, magically — a performance comes together. And the rocking complete version of ACHIN’ HEARTED BLUES is, for me, magical:
Words would not be terribly useful to explain what happens here — part knowledge, part empathy, part wizardry. But I see and hear something new each time I revisit the video.
In case you need more encouragement to get yourself to this year’s Party — which starts November 5 and ends November 8 or perhaps in the early hours of the 9th — hereis a list of the musicians who will be there. Astounding, in short. I’ve left my comfortable New York nest every year since 2009 to be there, and the rewards are huge.
TWO DEUCES! Bent Persson and Enrico Tomasso at the 2014 Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party
“Fine! Wonderful! Perfect!” to quote Fats. I’m referring to the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party— coming soon to the Village Hotel Newcastle in the UK.
I mean no offense or slight to my friends and heroes who organize Parties, Stomps, Fests, and other weekend galas, but the MDCJP (the Party formerly known as the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party) is special. Many musicians simply want to get up on the stand and sing or play among their friends and peers, and this is standard — often exhilarating — fare at most jazz weekends. And the MDCJP encourages such frolic with a nightly jam session in the Victory Pub. But many musicians devoted to the sounds of the Twenties and Thirties and beyond want to pay reverent homage to their forbears while having their own say — so this Party is organized into small concerts, each celebrating a band, a sound, a leader: it becomes a wondrous living evocation of where we’ve all come from.
First, a list of who’s going to be there on the bandstand — an illustrious lot for sure:
Janice Day, Mellow Baku (vocal); Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Schumm, Menno Daams, Duke Heitger, Bent Persson, Enrico Tomasso (trumpet); Kris Kompen, Graham Hughes, Alistair Allan (trombone); Matthias Seuffert, Michael McQuaid, Robert Fowler, Lars Frank, Thomas Winteler, Claus Jacobi (reeds); Martin Litton, David Boeddinghaus, Morten Gunnar Larsen, Keith Nichols (piano); Spats Langham, Jacob Ullberger, Martin Wheatley (banjo, guitar); Phil Rutherford, John Hallam, Malcolm Sked (bass, brass bass); Frans Sjostrom (bass saxophone); Henry Lemaire (bass, guitar, banjo); Richard Pite (drums, bass); Josh Duffee (drums, vibraphone); Nicholas Ball (drums, washboard)
(If I have left anyone out, I apologize.)
And a brief listing of the concert themes: the Union Rhythm Kings; a tribute to Mike Durham; the Original Memphis Five; the Quintette of the Hot Club of France; Jelly Roll Morton; Bunny Berigan; the “avant-garde” of Red Nichols and Miff Mole; Spats Langham’s Hot Combination; Lu Watters; solo piano recitals; Teddy Brown; the Dixie Stompers; Dance Band Divas; Thirties small-group sessions; Louis (featuring Bent and Enrico); the 1938 Morton Library of Congress recordings; Black New Orleans; chamber jazz; Western Swing; Spike Hughes; Chicago South Side; the Cotton Club; Casa Loma Orchestra; more unrecorded Bix; Bechet; Duke Heitger; California Ramblers; Eddie Condon; the Nichols-Duffee Orchestra . . . and more.
And two highlights of the 2104 Festival — moments to remember!
HOT.
SWEET.
It’s a musical feast. Don’t miss out on this Party.
This is the final portion of an ecstatic set of music devoted to the clarinet master Johnny Dodds — as created on November 8, 2014, at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party. The participants: Thomas Winteler, Matthias Seuffert, Claus Jacobi, reeds; Rico Tomasso, cornet; Emma Fisk, violin; Martin Litton, piano; Malcolm Sked, string bass; Martin Wheatley, Spats Langham, Jacob Ullberger, banjo; Nick Ball, washboard. The other postings from this set can be found hereand here.
MELANCHOLY (featuring Martin Litton, piano; Claus Jacobi, reeds, Matthias Seuffert, clarinet; Malcolm Sked, bass; Thomas Winteler, clarinet; Rico Tomasso, cornet; Martin Wheatley, banjo):
MY BABY (add Nick Ball*, washboard; Spats Langham, banjo, replaces Martin Wheatley):
HEN PARTY BLUES (add Emma Fisk, violin):
MEMPHIS SHAKE (as HEN PARTY):
Frank Melrose’s FORTY AND TIGHT (tout ensemble, posted once, but it should be posted evermore):
These hot ecstasies have been a hallmark of the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party for decades; now renamed theMike Durham Classic Jazz Party in honor of its beloved founder. This year it will be held from November 6-8, and it will be delightful. (*If you want to know my feelings about being there, you have only to watch Nick’s face — joy and surprise tumbling on one another constantly.)
This was a truly delightful set, balancing neatly between uproarious riot and precise tribute, where the participants paid tribute to New Orleans / Chicago clarinetist Johnny Dodds by evoking some of his less famous recordings. Those expert participants were Claus Jacobi, reeds; Matthias Seuffert and Thomas Winteler, clarinet; Rico Tomasso, cornet; Martin Litton, piano; Spats Langham, Jacob Ullberger, Martin Wheatley, banjo; Malcolm Sked, bass; Nicholas Ball, washboard. (That’s the collective personnel: you’ll see / hear who is playing on each number.)
Here’s the first part, as captured at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party on November 8, 2014.
I note with pleasure how happy the musicians look — and that’s no stage joke. The most accurate emotional barometer on this little stage is the visage of one Nick Ball, percussionist supreme: he looks as if he’s going to explode with rhythmic joy. You can imagine how happy I was from behind my camera.
IDLE HOUR SPECIAL (with an unexpected cameo by a t-shirted jazz fan at 4:00, who momentarily blocked the view but thankfully not the sound — I knew he was a “jazz fan” because it was written on his shirt, thus saving me the need to speculate):
ORIENTAL MAN:
39TH AND DEARBORN:
CARPET ALLEY BREAKDOWN:
More to come. And you might want to investigate this year’s Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party. It’s a place where such things happen — beautifully — throughout a long weekend.
Cornetist / trumpeter / scholar Bent Persson loves Jelly Roll Morton. Here, he assembled a cohesive little band for a set at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party (on November 7, 2014) that took as its text Morton’s last recordings, from 1940 and 1941. Bent’s colleagues are Nick Ball, drums; Henri Lemaire, string bass; Jacob Ullberger, guitar; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano; Thomas Winteler, Jean-Francois Bonnel, reeds; Graham Hughes.
In the full-band titles, most of which featured Henry “Red” Allen, one of Bent’s (and my) heroes, one hears an approach different from the Victor Red Hot Peppers — sometimes as if Morton was adapting conventions of Swing Era arranging for his own purposes, with great effectiveness.
Here are five selections, each rewarding and full of small surprises.
MY HOME IS IN A SOUTHERN TOWN, which rollicks along:
WININ’ BOY BLUES, without a vocal but with double-time passages:
KING PORTER STOMP in its original form as a piano solo, which — after decades of hearing it scored for brass and reeds — sounds novel, almost startling. Talk about “orchestral piano”!
FROG-I-MORE RAG, as imagined for the trio of Thomas, Morten, and a very happy Nick:
SWEET SUBSTITUTE, for full band, echoing the powerful General recording:
I’ll be at the 2015 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party. These videos, and others I’ve posted, should answer the question “Why?” neatly. At least they do for me.
The very great Sidney Bechet was an assertive soloist early in the history of jazz, a swaggering melodic improviser who pointed the way for many players. Sometimes his legacy gets compressed into SUMMERTIME (which is an offering in the presentation below) but his legacy was much more expansive than one operatic performance.
Here, at the 2014 Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party, reed virtuoso Thomas Winteler and friends Bent Persson, trumpet and vocal; Graham Hughes, trombone; Morten Gunnar Larsen, piano; Henri Lemaire, banjo / guitar; Malcolm Sked, bass; Nick Ball, drums, offer a wide-ranging portrait of Monsieur Bechet from the very early Twenties to the mid-Forties, with familiar songs taking a back seat to less-played ones, including a pair of unrecorded Bechet originals.
OH, DADDY:
SHREVEPORT BLUES:
Forward more than fifteen years, to his version of Victor Herbert’s lovely INDIAN SUMMER:
From the Decca date with Louis (here Bent sings the blues), 2:19 BLUES:
OLD FASHIONED LOVE:
SUMMERTIME:
Two Bechet originals, never recorded — SWEET LOUISIANA / I’LL BE PROUD OF YOU:
GEORGIA CABIN:
A memory of the 1945 Blue Note date with Bunk Johnson, PORTO RICO:
This happens only at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party, now called the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party in honor of its beloved founder, and it will happen again on November 5-8, 2015.
JAZZ LIVES 