ROGER MARKS & CHRIS WALKER’s ‘Tribute to Trad Jazz’ with THE PEDIGREE JAZZBAND played for us in Farnborough Jazz Club (Kent) as part of their 2015 tour to the South East on Friday, 8^th May 2015. Leader, ROGER (trombonist) travels from Devon and co-leader, CHRIS (clarinettist) travels from Dorset.  The rest of the gang were GRAHAM TREVARTON on trumpet, KEN AMES on banjo, TONY MANN on double bass and COLIN LARN on drums.

They were here last year (19^th September), with this special show, which gives little tit-bits of information about the music being played. It happened to be my son-in-law’s birthday, so my family all turned up. They loved the information given on intros to numbers, giving them so much insight into everything. I loved the first number, a Rossini one, but played based on the Dutch Swing College version of ‘William Tell’, a great start. There were some wonderful numbers in between, but will mention next their special tribute to much-loved Acker Bilk, who passed away 2^nd November 2014 (and must surely be with that very special band in the sky).  The number was ‘Blaze Away’. [I remember singing a version of this number at our Saturday morning pictures at the ABC Plaza at Catford back in late 40’s!  What fun that was. I felt sorry for the man who had to open the doors to let us kids in – he had to quickly stand back against the wall behind the door – or be trampled upon – flattened – ha!]. Back to our jazz, Graham sang the next one, ‘Lord, Lord, Lord, You Sure Been Good to Me’.  Oh yes another great jazz voice and a number for the dancers, being a great tempo. Blow me, another great jazz voice, in the shape of Ken. He sung Tommy Dorsey’s ‘Tight Like That’ (another Louis Armstrong hit).   I wrote no comments about ‘Sukiyaki’, although it wasn’t necessary as I put three ticks against it – says it all, doesn’t it (except to mention Kenny Ball had a hit with it).  Next came ‘The Drunken Song (There’s a Tavern in the Town)’ traditional, but copyrighted by William H. Hill in 1883. It was sung by Rudy Valée in 1934. He couldn’t stop laughing during the first recording, so had to record it again. However, the laughing version became the hit. You can find both on YouTube. I think we performed our line-dance to the next one, a Judy Garland hit, ‘Easter Parade’.  Roger then featured with ‘Mack, the Knife’ (both Louis and Bobby Darin had hits with this one).  He was brilliant and of course backed by their sturdy ‘engine’. Another tribute to Acker came by way of Chris playing superbly to ‘Summer Set’. Then what a brilliant drum solo from Colin with ‘I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream’ – whew, super and saw the evening completed in a fantastic way from all the lads (and audience of course).  Thanks you so much for a very entertaining evening.

Keep it up guys.

Diane and Keith

’Blaze Away’ – Abraham ‘Abe’ Holzmann (1901) (possible tribute to President Theodore Roosavelt?)

‘Easter Parade’ – Irving Berlin (1933)

‘I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream’ – Howard Johnson, Billy Moll & Robert King (1927)

Lord, Lord, Lord, You Sure Been Good to Me’ – Traditional Gospel song

‘Mack, the Knife’ – (m) Kurt Weill, (l) Burtolt Brecht (1928)

‘Sukiyaki’ – (M) Hachidai Nakamura, (l) Rokusuke Ei (1961)

‘Summer Set’ – Acker Bilk and David Collet (1959)

‘The Drunken Song (There’s a Tavern in the Town)’ – traditional

‘Tight Like That’ – (Tommy Dorsey/Hudson Whittaker)

‘William Tell’ – Gioacchino Rossini (1829)

ROGER MARKS & CHRIS WALKER’s ‘Tribute to Trad Jazz’ with THE PEDIGREE JAZZBAND made Farnborough Jazz Club (Kent) part of their tour to our part of the world on Friday, 19^th September 2014. The musicians were, of course, (co-leader) ROGER MARKS on trombone and (co-leader) CHRIS WALKER on clarinet. Graham Trevarton, their usual trumpeter was unable to make it to us. However, ANDY DICKINS was a guest on trumpet & vocals. The rest of the band were ok and was KEN AMES on banjo, TONY MANN on double bass and COLIN LARN on drums.

I said last week, this promises to be a highly entertaining evening and it certainly was. Roger has played for us before, with his Armada Jazz Band and was very popular with you all, as too with Andy Dickins (remember he, Julian Marc Stringle and Dave Hewitt knelt down and played to my little 4½yr old granddaughter, who was dancing to ‘Fidgety Feet’ (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIZGXLVs7fM) whilst with Dave’s Condonians back in 2010 (although has played for us many times since). However, it was the first time for Chris and the Marston’s Pedigree Jazzband from the West Country. If you click on the ‘band page’ at top of this website, you will find more information (from their own website http://pedigreejazzband.co.uk ), showing how they arrived at their idea for this show, plus see the band’s C.V’s too. Also, you can see them in action on a video taken at Risley Park Jazz Club, Risley, Derbyshire (curtesy of Apple County) on www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTMNu8aQOKs.

They chose some pretty famous songs, so once again I have found it very difficult to decide what numbers to include in my write-up, not wanting to leave great numbers out, but here goes. I shall start with ‘Chimes Blues’, which was performed perfectly (the bells I mean) and thoroughly enjoyable. It is a number performed by many bands, but not always quite right (although I’m not complaining to those bands – that’s what’s lovely about ‘live’ jazz, with warts and all). Chris mentioned being a friend and fan of Monty Sunshine and so featured one of his hit numbers, ‘The Old Rugged Cross’. A wonderful old ‘trad’ number and certainly they did it ‘justice’. For the next number Ken changed from banjo to guitar and joined the front line for ‘That’s My Home’, also showing he has a good jazz voice too. Before everyone arrived, I enjoyed the ‘boys’ warming up, with a little practice of that classical number ‘Santa Lucia’ and even more pleasing to see them add it to their repertoire. We all know classical and jazz music is very much affiliated. Next Chris was featured playing ‘Summer Set’ and brilliantly too. It was a big hit for Acker Bilk. ‘Margie’ was sung by Roger and I recall he did a bit of scat vocals (I would describe as ‘Danny Kaye style’, terrific) and we (well, just four of us) did our little of line-dancing -Charleston style. Then Andy was featured. His intro to the number was so beautiful and then he gave such a lovely performance with ‘Georgia On My Mind’. I cannot leave out the next number made famous by Kenny Ball. They played it so well, just like Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen – and the number? Of course, ‘Midnight In Moscow’ Yeah! They completed their show with ‘Ice Cream’. A stupendous performance by all, but especially the ‘mind blowing’ drum solo from Colin – wow. I do hope you enjoyed playing for us as we in the audience enjoyed you. We wish you a great success in future tours. Before closing Chris and Roger, please could you send a big ‘thankyou’ from us, to the Marston’s Brewery, for donating some of their (must be wonderful) beer towards our raffle. It was very much appreciated. Keith & Diane xx

‘Chimes Blues’ – Joe ‘King’ Oliver (1923) (Chris Barber hit)

‘Georgia on My Mind’ – (m) Hoagy Carmichael, (l) Stuart Gorrell (1930)

‘I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream’ – Howard Johnson, Billy Moll & Robert A. K. King (1927)

‘Margie’ (m) Con Conrad & J. Russel Robinson, (l) Benny Davis (1920)

‘Midnight In Moscow’ – Василий Соловьев-Седой, Михаил(m) Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi,

                                                                        (l) Mikhail Matusovsky (1955)

‘Santa Lucia’ – Teodoro Cottrau (1850)

‘Summer Set’ – Acker Bilk & Dave Collett (1960)

‘That’s My Home’- Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack

‘The Old Rugged Cross’ – George Bennard (1912)