Ribble Valley Jazz & Blues Update -
Don Weller - 28 Nov 08
Dave Mott' Jazz Classics - Jan 09
Excellent session at last RV Jazz & Blues Club at New Year Party on 2nd Jan - Dave Mott's Septet lived up to their billing, playing a range of trad - swing - big band tunes. Any fans of Ellington would have been pleased to hear Moor Indigo, Caravan, and other top Ellington numbers.
We had a good crowd for our New Year bash - about 45 in all - unfortunately not enough to cover the costs - as at most gigs we have run in last 6 months, we needed another 15/20 punters to cover the costs. RV J & B now down to basic funds, and needs good events over next two or three months to build up reserves.
Christmas? If you are a jazz fan you are probably easy to buy Christmas presents for? If so, let me know what you got. I got a couple of CD's, including Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder. This is a 1957 recording, and includes Johnny Hodges, Sam Woodyard, Harry Carney, Jimmy Hamilton, Russell Procope, Ray Nance, Cat Anderson, Clark Terry, Ray Nance - and Ellington on piano, in the line-up. Very much the line up I used to go to see at Free Trade Hall, Manchester in the late 60's.
I once appeared on stage with Ellington's Orchestra - bleieve it or not! Well, tickets were going so well that they put some around band on the stage - and I was on Stage Right adjacent to Harry Carney on Baritone Sax - so that;s what I heard for much of the concert!!!
A second CD was Beuna Vista Social Club at Carfnegie Hall - not quite jazz, but a remarkably unique piece of music of course.
And finally, my wife, Susan, sourced The Penguin Guide to JAZZ RECORDINGS - Ninth Edition (Richard Cook & Brian Morton) - One thousand, six hundren & forty six pages of critical analysis of jazz recordings right up to 2008.
So I looked up Don Weller seeing he had just played for us. - Born 1940 - 'A much-liked figure on the British jazz scene for 30 years with his groups Major Surgery and the Weller-Spring Quartet.'
Surprisingly, Don has not been prolific in recording. Weller's most notable recordings are 'Live' - 1996, and 'Nine Songs' - 2003, according to Penguin. But he did bring 'Four Tenors' to the club in November - recently recorded at Appleby Jazz Fest.
The next entry in Jazz Recordings features BobbyWellins, a well know tenor sax player who has played with Weller most frequently!
Jazz & Blues Club's next gig is at The Grand in Clitheroe on Friday 30th January - an excellent local venue - having opened early in 2008 following a £3.5 million refit, transforming the venue from an old fashioned cinema to a first class venue to be proud of. It will be interesting to get your reactions to this venue as a venue for more J & B Gigs? Won't be much good for small audiences, (capacity is 240) - and, relatively speaking, it's expensive to hire - but I believe that people will appreciate listening to high quality music in a high quality venue. We are looking to see if we can put Northern Jazz Orchestra on at The Grand on 23 October 2009 - subject to reactions to 30 Jan gig, and negotiations with management at The Grand. We'll see - the Grammar School Swing Band, and Eric Ainsortrh Quartet with Jimmy Thompson should be a good local draw - we are hoping for a full house to give us much needed funds for club accounts.
Let us know what you think.
John Wickham Trio - Members of CRGS Swing Band
