‘Martyn Brothers Jazz Band’, 5 September2014

Martyn Brothers Jazz Band at Farnborough Jazz Club, Kent on 25th August 2014.  Photo by Mike Witt

Martyn Brothers Jazz Band at Farnborough Jazz Club, Kent on 25th August 2014. Photo by Mike Witt

‘MARTYN BROTHERS JAZZ BAND’ once again,were fabulous when they played for us on Friday, 5th September 2014, here at our Farnborough Jazz Club.  As mentioned before, co-leaders, Emile and Ben, are the sons of that wonderfully flamboyant drummer and band leader, Barry Martyn. Barry moved to New Orleans many years ago, so Emile and Ben were brought up there. BEN MARTYN plays double bass and EMILE MARTYN plays drums (both sing). They were joined by JULIAN WEBSTER GREAVES on sax, harmonica & vocals, JEFF WILLIAMS on trombone & vocals, JOHN ‘radio’ RUSCOE on guitar and HENRI HERBERT on piano (I said last week, Henri is an exciting boogie woogie player and is new to our club).  It was a brilliant evening with their unique style of jazz, combining certainly New Orleans, a little bit of 60’s and a little bit of ‘country’, very entertaining. One of our regular visitors, Mike Witt, took these wonderful photos, which shows just how they ‘delivered’ (shame the ‘band’ one misses Emile and Henri and only got Ben’s head, but thanks a mill’ Mike, for taking the photos). Oh again, how I wished we had filmed some of the evening. I have so much going on in my private life and if things were normal, we would have booked someone regularly to film for us. But there you go, disappointingly we haven’t.  So here’s how the evening went, although as usual, I’m finding it so difficult to pick out the numbers to tell you about, as all were good.  I have by-passed some great numbers (as they were played by other bands recently) and move forward to mention they played ‘Statesboro Blues’. Julian was on harmonica and also sang and what a number. Julian is another extremely talented musician. Henri was to feature next with ‘Sweet Lorraine’. I’m not sure how old he is (he seemed very unassuming), but boy, oh boy, can he play the ivories – he certainly has a voice there! ‘Pennies From Heaven’ followed next, with Jeff’s great singing, then Ben joined in singing in a high pitch. I’m sure he has been having lessons from his 10mth-old baby (Lorelai) great fun Ben. The number to come next was a rip roaring number ‘Oh Marie’, to which Emile lent his vocalisation to (yep, he also has a great voice).  The pièce de résistance was Julian playing sax, whilst moving all around the club, up on the table (see photo for evidence) and then sitting on Susan’ lap (sorry Susan, no photo), definitely one of the highlights of the evening.  See photos for evidence!!

Julian Webster Greaves in action at Farnborough Jazz Club, Kent, 5th September 2014, with Martyn Brothers Jazz Band.   Photo by Mike Witt

Julian Webster Greaves in action at Farnborough Jazz Club, Kent, 5th September 2014, with Martyn Brothers Jazz Band.
Photo by Mike Witt

Julian Webster Greaves in action at Farnborough Jazz Club, Kent, 5th September 2014, with Martyn Brothers Jazz Band.   Photo by Mike Witt

Julian Webster Greaves in action at Farnborough Jazz Club, Kent, 5th September 2014, with Martyn Brothers Jazz Band.
Photo by Mike Witt

Another popular song ‘St. Louis Blues’ lured the dancers out on the floor (I recall they mixed a bit of Glen Miller’s ‘Pennsylvania 6500’). Then before the dancers could return to their seats, with Ben singing, they played ‘You Never Can Tell (C’est La Vie)’ and so were lured back to dance some more. Would you believe it, the same happening with ‘Honest I do’. I’m sure you were all exhausted, but exhilarated.  Ben sang again – he has a marvellous voice and it is obvious from my description, the band played (without a break) as a marathon! What followed sounded like a big band when playing ‘Lester Leaps In’. Emile performed a marvellous drum solo (although I called out ‘Keep practising Emile’ – joking of course). Henri gave us a fabulous exhibition of his own composition ‘Henri’s Blues’ (see there’s where we needed to film), thank you Henri. [Since writing these words, I asked Ben what year did he write it and have just learnt Henri wrote it that evening – now that’s talent. We will have to have a copy of the song on our website, when he records it.]  ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ (surely chosen, being eleven years to the day of Johnny Cash’s death) came next. I danced with Gordon and am sure I lost a few pounds of fat. An explosive number. Julian played harmonica and sang next. His American lady friend came to hear the band, so they played this one, ‘Route 66’, to make her feel at home. I don’t think there are many people who dislikes hearing that number either, especially how they perform it. They began the second set with ‘The Sheik of Arabi’ sung by Ben. We chose to do our line dancing. Marie-Ann and Susan were doing something different to the rest of us and Ben asked me ‘aren’t you suppose to do the same thing’. I told him they were already on ‘the advanced course’, ha. Well, I was unable to choose any fewer numbers (sorry boys, to give too much away for your other gigs). What another ‘wow’ session. Cannot lose this club, can we.

Diane and Keith

‘Folsom Prison Blues’ – Johnny Cash (1955)
‘Henri’s Blues’ – Henri Herbert (5thSeptember 2014)
‘Lester Leaps In’ – Lester Young (1939)
‘Oh! Marie’- (m) Eduardo Di Capua, (l) Vincenzo Russo (circa 1890) (l) Louis Prima version (1958)
‘Pennies From Heaven’ – (m) Arthur Johnston, (l) Johnny Burke (1936)
‘Route 66’ – Bobby Troup (1946)
‘Saint Louis Blues’ – W.C. Hanley (1914)   inspired the Foxtrot
‘Statesboro Blues’ – ‘Blind’ Willie McTell (1928)
‘Sweet Lorraine’ – (m) Cliff Burwell, (l) Mitchell Parish (1928)
‘You Never Can Tell (C’est La Vie)’ – Chuck Berry 1964
‘You Send Me’ – Sam Cooke (1959)