| gig reviews 2008 |
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| The Heart of England - October |
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The Heart's attire belied the  weather outside, and over 80 people who had braved the cold snap, to give us one of our best attended nights for a while, were not disappointed as the band gave us a marvellous evening's entertainment.
With various witches, ghouls and skeletons grinning inanely from the Hallowe’en decorations the band raised the temperature a couple of degrees with ‘Stevedore Stomp’ and on came the dancers for ‘Just a Little While to Stay Here’
Nick treated us to some snazzy scat vocal in ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ before Pete’s muted trumpet led us into a ‘Persian Market’ and more Cootie Williams style muted trumpet in the ‘Black and Tan Fantasy.’ Two dancing stalwarts were on the floor again for Pete’s ‘Everywhere You Go’, but didn’t attempt the knee cracking steps of the cakewalk, danced in times gone by to the sound of ‘Whistling Rufus’.
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| Nov Review The Famous Five |
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‘When You and I Were Young, Maggie’ was given a lighthearted treatment with Selwyn leading the vocal but with a little of the original wistfulness still showing through and then a wonderfully fresh treatment of an old number ‘Chimes Blues’ with a solo from Roger whose bass again really drove the band along as Kevin sang ‘Please Don’t Talk About Me’. Muted trombone over a Caribbean sounding rhythm provided a new look at the old hymn ‘Precious Lord Lead Me On’.
‘Weary Blues’ seemed to be taken at breakneck speed to an exiting climax with a series of drum breaks to the coda. A gentler ‘Dippermouth Blues’ came without clarinet, in fact without the rhythm section at first until the bass, banjo and drums came in one by one - a very novel approach.
Our dancers took to their feet again for ‘Cushionfoot Stomp’ which could well be adopted by the local Vale Walkers group and then a charmingly out of tune ‘Happy Birthday’ to Hilda, ninety six years old and still jazzin’ - congratulations!
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by Peter Farrall |
photos by Val Wood |
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‘Sleepy Time Down South’, vocal by Nick, with beautifully dreamy clarinet and Louis style trumpet ending lulled us into a reverie before ‘Fidgety Feet’, complete with quick fire banjo solo, set the pulses racing again. .
Three part vocal harmony by the front line paid due credit to the alternative title to ‘Heart of My Heart’ being ‘The Gang That Sang’, two of this gang also playing us a trumpet/trombone duet.
Kevin’s trombone work in ‘Creole Love Call’ demonstrated all the instrument’s moods from silky smooth to real low down growl and a nice solo from Roger on this one as well.
After a few choruses of ‘Royal Garden Blues’ five of the band melted into the shadows leaving Nick to start a marathon drum solo which grew in intensity until he stopped to appreciative applause but - still no band. So off went Nick  again in a blur of flying hands and twirling drumsticks until eventually the rest slipped back onto the stage to break into ‘Bourbon Street Parade’.
What a superb finale to a splendid evening of jazz from a band with a definitely traditional repertoire and style but who bring a refreshingly individual approach to the music. hofejazz.co.uk |
