On Friday, 27th November 2015, we had ‘BOB DWYER’S BIX & PIECES’ at Farnborough Jazz Club, Kent. Unfortunately our lovely trumpeter, MAX EMMONS was taken ill and had to pull out at the last minute (that afternoon). However, BOB (trombonist & vocalist) managed to find a replacement and wowie, what a replacement. We had such a treat, it was the highly popular trumpeter, ENRICO TOMASSO. The rest of the line-up were BERNIE HOLDEN on clarinet & alto sax, JOHN BAYNE on double bass & bass sax, HUGH CROZIER on piano & vocals, DAVE PRICE on banjo & guitar and GRAHAM COLLICOTT on drums. Here are my notes about tunes played.
Enrico Tomasso (7years old) seen here playing for Louis Armstrong.
I start off with Louis Armstrong’s ‘Apex Blues’. Louis is Enrico’s idol and when aged just seven, he played for Louis himself. So as you can imagine, Enrico played some great trumpet. Their next number was ‘Dinah’ and was sung by Enrico in a good jazz style. Then Bob gave his usual singing performance, showing such feeling, to ‘No Regrets’. Next came Hugh, who was, as usual, great playing piano and sang ‘Little Coquette’ – another great voice. He comes up with fabulous tunes to surprises us and I don’t think he has sung this one here before. It took a bit of searching for the writers cos I got the name of the song wrong! (However, I ferreted it out, Hugh – ha). The next one was a favourite of Keith’s, namely ‘Cornet Chop Suey’. Yes, written by Louis – fab-u-lous. Then came ‘West End Blues’ and as you can imagine, Enrico played that super intro’ and with everyone joining it, it almost brought tears to your eyes. Enrico also sang scat vocals – to Bernie, whilst he played his clarinet solo – another bit of fun. They completed the evening with ‘Dippermouth Blues’ and is the number you get to hear solos from everyone, so let me tell you about the ‘engine’. First of all, Dave, playing guitar, well it was his first appearance at the club too. He was wonderful (he teaches guitar), who fitted in superbly and helped drive it all along, also with Graham (his first time with this band), such a great solid swinging drummer and what about lovely John, who played double bass fantastically – so powerful. This is the number where the audience get to shout out ‘Oh Play That Thing’. Bless him, Bob tried to lead us all in with shouting it, which actually put us off – we do always know when and where to yell it, Bob. No prompting is needed, trust me, a great audience participation we all pride ourselves with -ha. Well done Bob, what another super evening. Just one pointer, yes, we performed our ‘Charleston’ style line-dance – twice, but with two songs not mentioned. I haven’t given too many tunes out this time, as they are back in a couple of weeks on 18th December 2015, for our Christmas party. Please try to pre-book, thank you.
Diane and Keith
P.S. I emailed to Bob to ask if he had mentioned Enrico appearing on TV with PRO and he responded: Yes! A few weeks ago, browsing through numerous TV channels I discovered a documentary entitled “The Pasadena Roof Orchestra 40th year celebration” and good it was too.
Rico was one of the featured guest musicians. (He had been member at one time) He played “Sleepy time down south” Louis would have been proud of him.
P.P.S. I have published 7th August 2015 Newsletter about ‘Harry Strutter’s Hot Seven’ evening, (complete with photos – including one of Graham Collicott) of Keith’s birthday bash. Sorry to be so behind with newsletters, due to personal (family) reasons, plus computer (Windows 10) aggravations. I shall work on bringing all up-to-date in due course. Don’t forget, to view photos in an enlarged and clearer state, just ‘double click’ on them.