‘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)