The Ipswich Jazz Festival is an annual event of jazz performances, art, and jazz education. It is run by Neil Bateman. Fleece Jazz hosted the Jacqui Dankworth gig at the festival, but most of the work was done by Neil. We are very grateful to him for the immense amount of work he poured into the festival, and into our wonderful gig. Many thanks, Neil.
And thanks to Jacqui Dankworth (vocals), her husband Charlie Wood (vocals, piano and arrangements) and Chris Allard (guitar) for such a marvelous gig.
Each set started with three tunes with Charlie and Chris. In the first set, three excellent tunes by Charlie, my favourite being “Stay With Me”, which showed his Nashville background. To start the second set, we had the Carmichael/Gorrell “Georgia On My Mind”. Charlie has a great rapport with the audience, and he told a story about how the lyrics came about. He gave the tune a Ray Charles vibe. It was a beautiful arrangement, beautifully played, with lovely solos from both Charlie and Chris.
One of the things I love about Jacqui (other than a great voice, great presence and a love of the words) is that she takes risks. Take for example “Windmills Of Your Mind. Michel Legrand wrote the music, the English lyrics were by Alan and Marylin Bergman, and the French lyrics by Eddy Marnay. Jacqui used them both. The arrangement was of course by Charlie. The windmills were present in the arrangement, Jacqui’s delivery and the incredible vocalization choruses. The latter felt somehow Arabic: beautiful, scary. That one will stay with me. She followed it with Sondheim’s “Send In The Clowns”, which was arranged as an art song. Unusual, and very beautiful.
But the evening was full of fun, too. Gershwin’s “Lady Be Good” was great fun, with Jacqui and Charlie exchanging 4s. Duke Ellington and Irving Mills wrote “It Don’t Mean a Thing”, and the three on the stage had a whale of a time with it. So so did we.
So thanks to Jacqui, Charlie and Chris for the music, Neil and Chris for arranging the gig and to a lovely audience who had a great evening.
Next Friday, 29 June, we are back home, with the wonderful trumpeter Freddie Gavita. You have (and will) see him with Fletch’s Brew, but this is his own band: Tom Cawley on piano,Calum Gourlay on bass and Josh Blackmore on drums. Freddie won the British Jazz Awards Best Trumpeter. His music has a global appeal. Do come along.
Take care,
Dave