Monthly Archives: February 2014

Phoenix Dixieland Jazz Band, 21st February 2014

PHOENIX DIXIELAND JAZZ BAND appeared at our Farnborough Jazz Club on Friday, 21st February 2014.  Due to a misunderstanding, our pre-advertised band ‘LIMEHOUSE JAZZ BAND’ was unable to come to England (Pianist Martin Litton & His Rhythms replaced ‘Limehouse Jazz Band’ at the Spice of Life that afternoon).  However, at short notice, our good friend – band leader ROBIN COOMBS (clarinettist) very quickly booked his band for us.  The musicians were PAUL HIGGS on trumpet, BILL TODD on trombone, TIM HUSKISSON on piano, ROGER CURPHEY on double bass, JOHN STUART on banjo & guitar and ALAN CLARKE on drums.  The boys gave us a wonderful spontaneous evening. I didn’t manage to write their first numbers down. The dancing was slow at getting going.  I think the first number to bring out some dancers was ‘Up a Lazy River’.  Robin was a little concerned not to have seen the dancers on the floor before this, but wherever you go, nobody likes to be first out on the floor and without Gordon and Steve to encourage other dancers (Gordon is out of commission for a while and Steve was at a birthday party elsewhere), it takes a little longer to see our dancers.  By the time the ‘Kid’ Ory number ‘South’ was played, all the dancers were swinging.  I just loved the drum intro to the next number, ‘Hindustan’, a marvellous number.  Then Paul played wonderful trumpet to ‘Chinatown, My Chinatown’.  They changed key halfway through too.  Then came ‘Ja-Da’, a number not played too often here and so makes a change.  Then the next number in contrast is often played here, but we don’t mind that either, being ‘Hello Central, Give Me Doctor Jazz’, a great favorite.  It was sung by Bill, who has a really good voice and should sing more often.  Keith and I listen to him playing (first Monday, monthly) with Mick Collins’ 16piece Modern Jazz Orchestra, held in Bromley South H.G. Wells Center.  Isn’t it wonderful how diverse musicians can be.  What followed next was a fabulous number called ‘Love is just around the Corner’ and I had no-one to dance with!  Then if that wasn’t enough, on comes Paul playing solo with a ‘Louis Armstrong intro’, just brilliant, the number of course was ‘West End Blues’, which was famed by Louis Armstrong. The finale came with ‘Caravan’ and Alan performed his magic on drums.  You might recall from my last comments about him being a drum teacher and if you did follow our Phoenix’s CV page, hopefully you will have looked in on the ‘You Tube’ recording of him playing a drum duo with his son and if not, please do so now!  Phoenix Dixieland’s next date here is to be 18th May 2014.

N.B. I can confirm the LIMEHOUSE JAZZ BAND will be appearing with us on 24th October 2014 as well as at the ‘SPICE OF LIFE’ that afternoon.

Don’t you just love ‘Live music’?

Diane and Keith

‘Caravan’ – (m) Juan Tirol, (l) Irving Mills (1937)
‘Chinatown, My Chinatown’ – (m) Jean Schwartz, (l) William Jerome (1910)
‘Hello Central, Give Me Doctor Jazz’ – Joe ’King’ Oliver & Walter Melrose (1926)
‘Hindustan’ – (m) Harold Weeks, (l) Oliver G Wallace (1917)
‘Ja-Da’ – Bob Carleton (1918)
‘Love is just around the Corner’ – (m) Lewis E. Gensler, (l) Leo Robin (1934)
‘South’ – Thamen Hayes & Bennie Moten (1924) (lyrics added later by Ray Charles)
‘(Up A) Lazy River’ – (m) Sidney Arodin, (m&l) Hoagy Carmichael (1930)
‘West End Blues’ – Joe ’King’ Oliver, (l) Clarence Williams (1928)

‘Barry Palser’s Super Six’, 14/02/2014

‘BARRY PALSER’S SUPER SIX’ gave us such a lovely evening on Friday, 14th February 2014 (celebrating ♥Happy St. Valentine’s Day♥’) here at Farnborough Jazz Club.  The weather was atrocious and many of you couldn’t make it (once again I welcomed those who came with ‘Good evening my little ducklings).  Anyhow, the band travelled from far and wide through it all.  Not only that, we had a chap (called Alan) who had travelled from Devon to Weymouth (both places which have been hit badly by the storms and floods).  He then came from Weymouth to visit us (for the first time), danced brilliantly, staying till the end and then returned to Weymouth that night!  Another (new) couple travelled from Milton Keynes too.   However, those who refrained from coming, I must tell you a tree was blown over in the High Street, so don’t feel so bad.  But sorry, now to make you drool at what you missed?  Band leader BARRY (trombonist/vocals) booked by ALLAN (Lord Arsenal) BRADLEY (trumpet/vocals), JOHN CROCKER (reeds/vocals), TONY PITT (banjo), HARVEY WESTON (double bass) and JOHN TYSON (drums).  The evening was wonderful, with the tunes and great jokes all based most aptly for the day.  They began the evening’s overtones of romance with ‘All of Me’ (hmmm).  Then some lovely solos by all were played with ‘Sugar, That Sugar Baby o’ Mine’.  Barry sang the next number called ‘Gee, Baby, Aint I Been Good to You’.  Then Barry announced “We were asked for a rap number, so here it is!” and began playing (with Allan singing) ‘Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams’.  Our audience were in absolute rapturous fits of laughter.  ‘Sweet Sue’ was next and brought a few more dancers on to the floor.   Now the next number wasn’t really for Valentine’s night, but it was requested (I wonder why – hmm).  It was called ‘Love, Careless Love’!  Tony began the number with a bass solo that was brilliant and Barry also sang.  Then I feel ‘Move Your Body Over’ needs a mention, with Allan infiltrating the song with a bit of ‘Wakey, Wakey’ theme song for Colin Dobson.  Colin was trumpeter for many years in ‘The Billie Cotton Band Show’.  He was in the audience with his family (his grandson [Luke] and partner are both doctors, so Colin said he will have no worries now).  Barry then sang to ‘Girl of My Dreams’.  He was wearing a pair of Y-fronts on his head.  The band had awarded them to Peter Marr, one of our regulars.  Pete is a wonderful supporter of many clubs and is known by so many bands and has incredible jazz knowledge.  Pete donated his ‘award’ to our raffle, but I awarded it back to him at the end of the ‘draw’ for being such a great ‘supporter’ (I don’t know why it wasn’t chosen a’head’ of the other prizes!).  Behave yourself Diane and back to the repertoire.  The next number was to feature the great John Crocker on clarinet.  He chose to play that song reminiscent of Rudolph Valentino called ‘The Sheik of Araby’.  John was superb.  Barry then announced the next number as ‘There will Never Be Another Ewe’ by Shepherd Neame!!! (I wrote “great trumpet, great muted trombone”).  The last thing I jotted down was John playing tenor sax, backed by Barry and Allan with the song ‘S’ Wonderful’ and it was wonderful.  What an incredibly enjoyable evening.  Their next date with us 23rd May 2014, put it in your diaries.

Keep jazz ‘live’.

Diane and Keith

‘All of Me’ – Gerald Marks & Seymour Simons (1931)
‘Gee, Baby, Aint I Good to You’ – (m) Don Redman, (l) Andy Razaf (1929)
‘Girl of My Dreams’ – Sunny Clapp (1927)
‘Love, Careless Love’ – traditional (recorded in 1925 by Louis Armstrong & Bessie Smith)
‘Move your Body Over’ – (possible ‘Fats’ Waller or George Lewis?)
‘Sugar, That Sugar Baby o’ Mine’ – Maceo Pinkard, his wife Edna Alexander & Sidney D. Mitchell
‘Sweet Sue, Just You’ – (m) Victor Young, (l) Will J. Harris (1928)
’S Wonderful’ – (m) George Gershwin, (l) Ira Gershwin (1927)
‘There Will Never Be Another You’ – (m) Harry Warren, (l) Mack Gordon (1942)
‘The Sheik of Araby’ – (m) Ted Snyder, (l) Harry B. Smith & Francis Wheeler (1921)
‘Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams’ – (m) Harry Barris, (l) Ted L. Koehler & Billy Moll (1931)

Mike Barry’s XXL Jazz Band, 7/01/2014

The Farnborough Jazz Club proudly presented MIKE BARRY’S XXL JAZZ BAND on Friday, 7th February 2014.  The band’s leader and trumpeter Mike, had with him reeds player JOHNNY ROGERS, trombonist REX O’DELL, pianist GRAHAM BARTON, double bassist ROGER CURPHEY and drummer PAUL BUDD.   Our audience certainly jazzed it up on the dance floor!  Everyone said what a fantastic band and consequent evening it was, whether dancers, or not.  Now let’s tell you how the evening’s fun occurred.  My first jotting was of ‘Basin Street Blues’.  Mike sung this one and Roger played double bass with a bow, gorgeous (the playing – not Roger – although he is too, ha).  Rex sang ‘Everybody Loves My Baby’.  Then that great song ‘Saint Louis Blues’ came next (which was said to have inspired the Foxtrot dance).  It was sung by Rex, with Johnny playing sax.  Then Johnny sang ‘Keeping out Of Mischief Now’.  He has been suffering with tonsillitis, but he did a marvellous job.  Now the next song was called ‘My Bucket’s got a Hole in it’, famed by Hank Williams and later in 1970 by Louis Armstrong.  Mike and Rex sung in harmony, managing to interject a bit of ‘You Keep a-knocking, But You Can’t Come In – fantastic.  Mike then sang ‘Marching through Georgia’.  After that, Graham featured on piano, with his brilliant composition of boogie woogie and we named it ‘Graham’s Boogie’.  Everyone got up to dance and all of us completely let our hair down too.  Fancy following that, but Rex did, by singing, in the inimitable style of Louis Armstrong, to ‘Aint Misbehaving’ and then to put the icing on the cake came ‘Dr Jazz’ sung by Lil Hardin (Louis Armstrong’s second wife) nah, I’m sure they announced it wrong, surely it WAS Johnny, sounded like Lil though!  What a lovely lot of fun. Next date for Mike’s XXL Band is 26th September 2014.

Hope to see as many as possible next Friday.

Diane and Keith

‘Aint Misbehaving’ – (m) Fats Waller & Harry Brooks, (l) Andy Razaf (1929)
‘Basin Street Blues’ – Spencer Williams (1926)
‘Dr Jazz’ – Joe ‘King’ Oliver & Walter Melrose (1926)
‘Everybody Loves My Baby’ – (m) Spencer Williams, (l) Jack Palmer (1924)
‘Graham’s Boogie’ – Graham Barton (2014)
‘Keeping out Of Mischief Now’ – Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller (circa 1920’s, r.1937)
 ‘My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It’ – Clarence Williams (1949)
‘Marching Through Georgia’ – Henry Cray Work (1865)
‘Saint Louis Blues’ – W.C. Hanley (1914)

Les Hanscombe’s Tailgate Jazz Band, 31/01/2014

LES HANSCOMBE’S TAILGATE JAZZ BAND made their second appearance on 31st January 2014 at Farnborough Jazz Club (Kent).  Unfortunately, my computer was ‘down’ when they first visited us on 28th June 2013, but Keith and I can recall they were a wonderful traditional jazz band.  The musicians who played this time with leader and trombonist LES, were BRIAN GILES on trumpet, BRIAN HART on reeds, BRIAN STAPELY on drums (yep, three Brian’s!), GERRY HOSKINS on double bass, plus OLLIE BENSON on banjo & guitar. After the previous week, with a lot of you missing for one reason, or another, last week I asked you to please return to the fold, so we could show Les and band a warm welcome back.  I am so sorry I asked you, because (although still lean on the ground), many of you did push yourselves to come.  The reason for having to push yourselves, was no reflection on the band, it was due to more dreadful weather conditions endured to get here.  Yes, tons more rain.  The band made it through the flooding, but a lot of you were once again missing.  Perfectly understandable, but to everyone who made an effort, we thank you so much for giving the band a warm welcome back.   Gordon, one of our main dancers, turned up, although still out of commission for dancing, so some of our ladies did asked nicely for a dance from some of you shy guys, which did make a change aye?  No seriously, we have plenty of fun, with or without dancing.   ‘Back Home Again in Indiana’ was the first number noted down , then  Les sang the next number called ‘Look Down that Lonesome Road’, with Brian H playing tenor sax.  I wrote ‘really lovely number’ to next one, called ‘Mama’s Gone, Goodbye’.  It has a lovely 1920ish happy beat, so plenty of dancing. Ollie brought out the guitar and Brian S played a lovely drum solo to ‘On Treasure Island’.  This number was a ‘No.1 hit’ for Tommy Dorsey, definitely one for dancing too. The band was in a happy mood with their choice of numbers.  They were all very melodic.  The next one was ‘You Came out of Nowhere’, with Brian G on trumpet, using a mute on and off throughout the number and Brian H playing tenor sax, wonderful.  Next number Les sang to and Brian H chose to play clarinet with ‘All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm’, another good dancing number.  Then a lovely start with ‘engine’ only to ‘The World is Waiting for Sunrise’ (being Brian S giving great drum solo, plus Gerry and Ollie) and then ‘Bei Mir Bist Du Shon’ followed.  I wrote ‘great drums, great guitar, great trombone, oh what the heck, great all!’  My last number written down was ‘Creole Love Call’ I wrote ‘yeah’.  What a simply lovely feeling the band left us with.  Les’s Band will return on 10th October 2014.

Please keep us ‘Live’.

Diane and Keith

‘All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm’ – Walter Jurmann, Gus Kahn & Bronislau Kaper (1937)
‘Back Home Again in Indiana’ – Ballard MacDonald & James F. Hanley (1917)
‘Bei Mir Bist Du Shon’ – (m) Sholom Secunda, (l) Jacob Jacobs (1932)
                                                                             Re-written by Sammy Cahn & Saul Chaplin (1937)
‘Creole Love Call’ – © Duke Ellington (1928) (lost court case by Joe ‘King’ Oliver (1923)
‘Look Down That Lonesome Road’ – (m) Nathaniel Shilkret, (l) Gene Austin (1927)
‘Mama’s Gone, Goodbye’ – A J Piron & Peter Bocage (1924)
‘On Treasure Island’ – Joseph Burke & Edgar Leslie (1935)
‘The World is Waiting For Sunrise’ – (m) Ernest Seitz (l) Gene Lockhart (1919) Seitz conceived @ 12yrs-1904
‘You Came Out of Nowhere’ – (m) John Green, (l) Edward Heyman (1931)