A day to remember
Bill Hall on day 2 of Marlborough Jazz Festival
The organisers of the 26th Marlborough Jazz Festival had every reason to be hugging themselves with sheer delight at the end of its second day in this year of Jubilee. For here was a triumphant renaissance for a music that has been too long in a melodic backwater.
The crowds came in knowledgeable numbers, packing venue after venue, and two wonderful concerts, one by the Sticky Wicket Orchestra,. the other by one of Jazz's favourite sons in the Darious Brubeck Quartet, made it a day to remember, while bands and singers galore shone from every pub courtyard or office garden.
It's a year or three since Sticky, the trilby hatted drum wizard from the Midlands,. graced the Marlborough Stage and in the process what was once his "little big band" has grown into a jazz show complete with jazz dancers, a sort of Andrews Sisters trio of swing singers led by Linda Morris, and a second super drummer in Garry Allcock, plus the bizarre presence of Antique Road Show man John Bligh being elegantly percussive.
This super swing event packed out the main show marquee and sort of set it on fire with rampantly raunchy stuff, much of it a homage to Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and the like, all played with loud but musicianly brilliance and sheer delight.
Back at the Town Hall, Mr Brubeck, after reassuring his audience that Dad Dave was still very much alive at 92, produced thrilling and sophisticated quartet jazz, much of it his own writing,. backed superbly by tenorist Mike Rossi,. drummer Wesley Gibbons and a superb young English bassist in Matt Ridley.
Earlier, the Castle and Ball had jumped to the Richie Bryant All Stars,.
with Enrico Tomasso, Julian Marc Stringle and Dave Green in fine fettle, and, late in the evening, relished the vintage qualities of George Haslam's New Tricks outfit, with Bobby Wellins, Dick Pearce, Esmond Selwyn and Robin Jones.
Newbury chalked its name on the programme in the shape of the St.
Bartholomews Senior Jazz Combo, promising to deliver its own small big band sound.
