Jazznights/Ipswich Jazz Club: Alan Crumpton Memorial Concert Sunday 1st August 2010

Jazznights and Ipswich Jazz Club celebrated the life of the much-loved Alan Crumpton who sadly died at the end of 2009. As Alan was the MC at both clubs so we had a "Jazznights at The Bell" evening at Ipswich (The California Club, Ipswich   featuring Allison Neale with the Jazznights Trio & Larraine Odell. Comparing was jointly shared by Stephen Foster (BBC Radio Suffolk & Ipswich Jazz Club) and Donald Muir (Jazz By The Stour and Jazznights)

Alan was a founder of the hugely successful Jazz By The Stour charity event (now part of the Bures Music Festival) and was a regular compere at the fortnightly Jazznights concerts in Clare and the monthly Ipswich Jazz Club sessions.

Crumpy always used to say at the end of a gig "whatever your taste in music, keep it live" and there’s no doubt Alan played an enormous part in keeping the East Anglia jazz scene alive.

Proceeds of £800 will go to charity, including Diabetes UK and a local charity for young musicians. The evening was recorded by BBC Radio Suffolk and broadcast as a tribute to Alan on August Bank Holiday at 6.00pm

Both Stephen Foster & Donald Muir opened the gig and introduced the Jazznights Trio: Roger Odell (drums), Simon Brown (Keys) and Bernie Hodgkins (double bass) and the opening set with vocals from the resident Jazznights songbird (as Alan used to say): Larraine Odell. Larraine opened with Memories I Own featuring Simon Brown, this led into a Roger Odell arrangement of Close Your Eyes featuring both Simon & Bernie. Rodgers & Hart’s Where Or When led into the I Don’t Stand A Chance With You (Music by Victor Young and Lyrics by Bing Crosby & Ned Washington). Old Devil Moon concluded Larraine’s set which included a number of personal memories of Alan.

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Allison Neale’s first set opened with Brooks Bowman’s 1934 East Of The Sun and West Of The Moon with solos from Simon, Bernie and Roger with 16 bar trades diminishing to 8 bar trades between Allison and Roger. Jimmy Van Heusen’s Nancy With The Laughing Face followed which is featured on Allison;s latest CD – great solo from Bernie.

Before the interval Stephen Foster introduce a tribute to Alan Crumpton with recordings of their memories of Alan from Sheena Davis, Gwyneth Herbert, Alan Barnes and Karen Sharp which preceded a BBC Suffolk DVD of early pictures and recordings of Alan throughout his life.

The second set opened with the traditional Jazznights sitting in spot which is open to all musicians of what ever age. Ten year old Harry Green was first up playing Alto on a well known standard trading 4 bars with Simon and Roger. Geoff Harriman the gave us a very soulful version of Summertime.

Allison opened on flute with Miles Davis’s Tune Up with a Wes Montgomery arrangement featuring both Bernie and Roger. A Paul Desmond Bossa Nova showed Rogers dexterity by playing solely with his hands and fingers including 8 bar trades with Allison on Alto. A lovely waltz on flute followed featuring Simon and Bernie. Allison then played a very sensitive ballad Everglades dedicated to the memory of Alan.  The set ended with Paul Desmond’s Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West with solos by Simon, Bernie and Roger – a fitting ending to a great set.

Nothing could have been more poignant than hearing a recording of Alan Crumpton signing off, as he always did, with “Whatever Your Taste In Music, Keep It Live”

As a result of this concert, there will be no gig at the Bell on Sunday 8th August 2010

For further jazznights gigs go to www.jazz-nights.com

Joanna Eden Trio at Jazznights: The Bell Hotel, Clare, Suffolk Sunday 25th July 2010

Jazznights@The Bell’s July gig features the Joanna Eden Trio – Joanna Eden (vocals and keyboard), Jonny Gee (bass & backing vocals) and Charlie Price (drums). What a great gig with many of Joanna’s own compositions and her inimitable interpretations. Charlie price (whose many influences include Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Max Roach,was a driving power house and Jonny Gee’s superb bass (has played with Ravi Shankar, Antonio Forcione, ZUM, Jacqui Dankworth, as well as English Touring Opera and The Sixteen.

Highlights of the first set included A Taste Of Honey, Mr Bojangles and Where Do You Turn To Now, Joanna’s own composition from her first album My Open Eye. A wonderful sensitive version of Arthur Herzog and Billie Holiday’s Don’t Explain  followed great interpretation. Joanne then sang Yesterday (Beatles) in another of her unique styles. I Don’t Smoke from the album A Little Bird Told Me, which ended the first set, featured a great drum solo from Charlie Price and scat singing from Jonny Gee

The second set began with the Jazznights sitting In Spot featuring Steve Laws on  Alto with the Trio while Joanna sang Autumn Leaves in French, 8 bar trades between bass and drums. This concluded with a duet between Steve on Alto and Joanna’s vocals. Another composition by Joanna followed as an up-tempo So Many People. A superb version of Summer Breeze was followed by another Arthur Herzog Billie Holiday  – the classic God Bless The Child played and sung in a very sensitive manner.Two waltzes followed with a piano solo from Joanna from an Erik Sarie number and Joanna’s own Singing Out from her My Open Eye album.. Not known as a jazz standard but the  You Make Me Feel Brand New

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(which was a 1974 hit by the Philadelphia soul group The Stylistics) written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed seemed as though it ought to be.

A wonderful evening – do not miss any of Janna Eden’s gigs

For further Jazznights gigs go to www.jazz-nights.com

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Dan Stern, Geoff Eales & Monica Vasconcelos at Jazz By The Stour Sun 11th July, 2010

Jazznighters had a day off as they all wanted to be at the 14th Jazz By The Stour which kept up its excellent tradition as part of the 10th Bures Music Festival on the 11th July 2010

The event was introduced by the Music Director Donald Muir and compared by the honey voiced Liz Mullen from Radio Essex

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The Dan Stern Quartet opened the afternoon  in the distinctive Dan Stern Style. The following quotes say it all:

"Dan has done an incredible job in absorbing a lot of the chromatic language of the 20th century classical world and transforming it into a jazz setting. A Really high class composer and player." – DAVID LIEBMAN

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“Dan can express the most complicated musical ideas in the most natural ways. He represents the true direction of the music: upholding the tradition, advancing the language, and having a unique voice. You can’t ask for more than that….” – GIL GOLDSTEIN

With Dan on Tenor, soprano and clarinet we had Asif Sirkis on drums, Tom Mason on bass and Andrew McCormick deputising for Robert Mitchell

The Geoff Eales International Quintet followed with two great sets and IMHO stole the show – brilliant!.Geoff is regarded by many as one of the UK’s most  inspirational jazz pianists and composers. The genesis of today’s appearance by The Geoff Eales International Quintet lies in a conversation last summer between the pianist and Alan Crumpton, the much missed founder of Jazz By The Stour all those years ago in 1997

The Quintet was truly international with:
Geoff Eales from Wales on piano
Paul Morgan from Wales on bass
Carl Orr from Australia on Guitar
Michael Coates from Canada on tenor

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Asif Sirkis from Israel on drums as Mark Mark Fletcher was not well.

Monica Vasconcelos & her 7 piece group Vintage Brazil played the final two sets of the day. Vintage Brazil – an ensemble formed by Monica to combine the classic Brazilian tunes of the 60s and 70s with the band’s own infectious compositions.

Vintage Brazil comprised:

Steve Lodder on piano and keyboards
Paul Jayasinha on trumpet
Adriano Adewale on Percussion
Ernesto Simpson on drums
Matheus Nova and Guille Hill on guitars

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For those who love this style of Brazilian music it was no doubt a wonderful finale to the day. However our own feelings echo a shout from the audience following Monica Vasconcellas’s comment after 4 or  5 numbers ‘how about some bossa nova’ – the shout  was ‘how about some jazz’. That summed it up. A pity because we are told that when she played at the Fleece jazz club it was a predominantly jazz oriented session. The final set may have been different but we left after the first set – well, it was the World Cup Final – no comment on that!

Jazznights resumes on Sunday 25th July with the JOANNA EDEN TRIO

See www.jazz-nights.com for future gigs