BARRY PALSER’S SUPER SIX on 8th NOVEMBER 2013 certainly was (as I predicted last week) an exciting evening’s entertainment here at Farnborough Jazz Club. BARRY (trombonist) had booked ALAN GRESTY (trumpet), JOHN CROCKER (reeds), TONY PITT (banjo), HARVEY WESTON (double bass) and JOHN TYSON (drums). What a plethora of stars aye? Certainly not too much for me! I was so enjoying it, I forgot to do some filming. I suppose I’m not so perfect as I think I am, ha! Anyway, here’s how the evening went. They started their programme with Barry singing ‘When You’re Smiling’. This used to be a signature tune when Harvey played in the band years ago. Nice sentiment in the lyrics to kick off with. Next came a Bix Beiderbecke number called ‘Jass Me Blues’, which again brought on the dancers straight away and we certainly didn’t go away with the next number, ‘Nagasaki’ either, I think it was our line-dance number. John (C) was featured on tenor sax with ‘Honeysuckle Rose’, brilliant. Then Alan sang ‘Everybody Loves My Baby’ and I read somewhere that John (C) can, on occasions, be tempted to sing and he did just that, singing ‘All of Me’. John, you have a lovely jazz voice, so please be tempted to sing more often. They also played ‘Riverboat Shuffle’, a number written by Hoagy for Bix Beiderbecke. A slow happy little number called ‘Mama’s Gone, Goodbye’ came next, enticing dancers on to the floor. Now Barry often plays the last number, dedicating it to our Len, who started the song being called ‘Please Don’t Talk About Me, One Eye’s Gone’, a nice bit of humour against himself. There you go, we enjoyed the evening with friends and so sets us up for the rest of the week (good or bad). Thanks guys.
Diane and Keith
P.S. I had another weird thing happen to me as I was writing this! The film ‘The Alamo’ was on TV and whilst looking up ‘Jass Me Blues’ song (on Wikipedia), I found it was recorded by The Original Dixieland Band. Jimmy Durante heard them playing and asked them if they would play with him at The Alamo Club in Harlem (coincidence aye!)