David Hepworth – reeds
Wil Robinson – trumpet
Liz Hepworth – bass
Andy Bramall – guitar
Rob Cotterell – drums

What a night we had! A very organized and professional band from the Barnsley area and we know now why they have been voted Band of the Year by Rochdale Jazz Club.

The band themed their repertoire for the evening on the tunes played by Alex Welsh and started with It’s Right Here For You. Fidgety Feet and Exactly Like You, sung by Liz, were followed by the jolly tune of Montmartre. Love is Just Around the Corner, Up a Lazy River with a vocal from Wil were followed with the energetic tune of Dippermouth Blues a tune written by King Oliver in 1923.
The band benefits from three vocalists and the next tune It Had To Be You was sung by Andy and the first set finished with a tune called Oh Baby written by a New Orleans jazz drummer named Paul Barbarin. He also wrote Bourbon Street Parade and Come Back Sweet Papa.

S’Wonderful started the second set followed by Serenade in Blue from 1975. Surfside Samba was a treat as was their version of Dapper Dan the classic tune from the Dresden Concert in 1971. This had a beautiful vocal duet from Andy & Wil and a great bass solo from Liz. The next tune was a reminder of when Alex played at the Dancing Slipper Club in Nottingham and it was a vocal from Liz – On the Sunny Side of the Street. Wil sang the next tune, which was It Don’t Mean, a Thing and the band played the proper ending to the tune. Another tune from the Dresden concert was 9.20 Special, which David said, was complicated but they smashed it and everyone loved it. Coming to the end of the evening’s performance we listened to Home before their final tune of Royal Garden Blues.

During the evening the band were asked where their name of Washington Whirligig came from and David explained that it came about while he was looking to form a new band and while on a holiday of a lifetime for his and Liz’s 25th wedding anniversary in New York. Charlie Barnet an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader wrote the tune Washington Whirligig but his major recording was Skyliner.

Thanks to the entire band we had another successful evening at Pershore Jazz Club.