Notes on Past Gigs

The Horn Factory was with us on Wednesday. Local they may be but they provided us with great music and fine solos. They choose as a band to play some very difficult and intricate arrangements, I guess because they are fun to work on. The important point is that they do them very well indeed. It was a big rig for us and for them, and it took a little while for them  to go from playing well to having fun.  What might have helped is discovering when I went to do the raffle that they were all in their…

We had been looking forward to this gig since 2020. We just lost it to the beginning of the first lockdown. This was the first opportunity to book them. I was going to make a video with full audio recording of this wonderful band. So many people, myself very much included, rank Bryan Corbett with the masters: Steve ranks him with Freddie Hubbard, and I agree. Then in the morning of the gig, a call from Bryan. There are health problems with two of the band. What to do? Well, with Bryan’s permission, we tried valiantly to find two appropriate…

Steve is on holiday, so it is Dave doing a little review. I was so enjoying the music that I couldn’t note all of  the songs: no definitive set list today. These four fine musicians gave us music of their own, but redolent of the Paris Hot Club, and the 40’s and 50’s.  We had vocalist Sara Oschlag: lovely phrasing, great , substantial voice, and real understanding of the stories  she was telling.  As a vocal instrumentalist, her scatting was superb. Jonny Hepbir  and Jason Henson played beautiful acoustic classical guitars. Their soloing was a delight.  There is a part…

These words are mostly by Steve Jordan, with a few additions from Dave Lyons.  It is a longish read, but I think, a good one. Last night, we were treated to an eclectic selection of numbers from various genres, from classical music to early ‘70s rock through to the jazzed up celtic soul of Van Morrison and the disco funk of Earth, Wind and Fire interspersed with plenty of popular jazz songs and instrumentals from the 1930s through to the 1970s. The arrangements were wondrous and often quite complex, effortlessly held together by John Law’s prodigious skill and invention on…

Now, that was a joy! Given who was in the band, it was going to be good, but it was exceptional. Gaz Hughes led from the drums. Bruce Adams brought both trumpet and flugel. Alan Barnes played tenor and alto saxes. Andrzej Baranek was our pianist, very special.  We had a wonderful dep on bass; Mike Reed. It was one of those sound checks where I learned a lot, as they went through the music. They were celebrating the great Art Blakey, and I am sure he would have been pleased with the gig. We had quite a large (and…