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REBOP is a jazz repertory aggregation specialising in the arcane art of bebop and related music. Formed originally as a quintet to examine the repertoire of the modern jazz explosion circa 1944-1949, Rebop is now a six-piece and also features a faithful homage to the Miles Davis Sextet of 1958-59.
Rebop specialises in the innovative and exhilarating modern jazz that flowered in the mid-1940s in the hands of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and other great jazzmen. Kevin Flanagan comes from Lowell MA, USA. He has been involved in jazz and blues, both recording and performing. He settled in the UK in 1985, playing with his own group and with musicians such as Dick Morrissey, Alan Barnes, Gerard Precenser, and Dave Cliff. He has made two successful CDs with Chris Ingham as the Flanagan-Ingham Quartet. The sextet are:
Rebop are:
CHRIS INGHAM
Trained as a drama teacher at Warwick University before succumbing to the music, he played guitar in misunderstood art ‘n’ b combo The Locomotives and was pianist/vocalist in the Flanagan Ingham Quartet who released two albums (Zanzibar and Textile Lunch) and were described by The Observer as ‘one of Britain’s most original bands’. He is jazz piano and jazz voice tutor at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and can be heard with the bebop repertory quintet Rebop.
As an erstwhile music journalist he has contributed to Mojo magazine since 1996 and has published three books; Billie Holiday, Rough Guide to the Beatles, and Rough Guide to Frank Sinatra.
As a music producer he records regularly for Union Square Music and recently produced the Latin lounge album "The Day Is Done" for Dutch bossa nova diva Saskia, and provided the solo piano soundtrack for the DVD Under Review: Lennon & McCartney. He lives in Suffolk with his family and a Yamaha G5 grand piano
KEVIN FLANAGAN
comes from Lowell, Mass., USA. He initially studied music and philosophy at the University of New Hampshire, and was part of Antares, a free improvisatory group
that toured the New England through the mid-70s to early 80s. During this period he was also involved in jazz, blues, and popular music, both recording and performing. He settled in the UK in the mid-80s, and worked on the London jazz and pop scene, playing and recording with members of Pink Floyd, Ben E. King, the Sex Pistols, Jools Holland, Led Zeppelin, B.B. King, Portishead, and many others. By the late 1980s he was primarily involved with jazz, playing with his own group or with musicians such as Dick Morrissey, Alan Barnes, Dave Newton, Gerard Precenser, Don Weller, Dave Cliff, Mark Edwards, Adrian Utley, and the Tommy Chase quartet around the festivals of the UK and Europe, such as Brecon, Edinburgh, Soho, and Bath in this country; and festivals in Milan, Paris, the North Sea festival, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and others. He has put out two successful CDs with Chris Ingham as the Flanagan-Ingham Quartet, and is presently collaborating with Dave Gordon in a series of poetry settings of the Pulitzer-prize winning Beat poet Gary Snyder.
As a graduate of Goldsmith’s University, he specialized in analysis and post-1945 music. This was followed by an MA in composition at Anglia Ruskin University with Richard Hoadley, which resulted in the first SPNM commissioned performance of Like Miles by the London Metropolitan Orchestra. The most recent commission was Mode for Joe II, was performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. His PhD in composition was with the composer Martin Butler at Sussex University, and is collaborating with composer/pianist Dave Gordon and poet Maolcolm Guite in the Riprap spoken text series with series of UK poets; Ruth Padel, Grevel Lindop, and Gwnyeth Lewis.
PAUL HIGGS
has an extensive music career in many fields including performing, composing for film and TV, musical directing for companies such as the Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company, and arranging music for film and TV. He is particularly sought after as a brass arranger within all mediums and genres of music.
He is most renowned as one of the UK’s leading trumpet players and works both as a performer and session musician. He has performed for luminaries including Sir Peter Maxwell Davis, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Lulu, Tony Hatch, John Williams, Vic Damone, Nancy Wilson, Brook Benton, Jackie Trent, Al Martino, The Foundations, Danny Williams, Rolf Harris, Johnny Dankworth and Shorty Rodgers. His session credits include Viva Cabaret, Daytime Live, Pebble Mill at One, Live At City Hall, Wood and Walters, The Tube, Scene Today, In Suspicious Circumstances, The Trial of Lord Lucan and Eleven Men Against Eleven
COLIN WATLING
Colin Watling specialises in tenor sax and offers the full gamut of musical styles in
his performances from soft and mellow, through to boppy and brassy….. and always in great humour.
Colin is rated by many as one of the most exciting tenor saxophonists on the circuit with his melodic, swinging sound. He is a Hertfordshire-based tenor saxophonist playing be-bop material including numbers by Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley. Colin is rated by many as one of the most exciting tenor saxophonists on the circuit with his melodic, big fat sound
ROGER ODELL
As one of the founder members and drummer with the jazz-funk group Shakatak,
Roger has toured internationally and recorded numerous CDs, which he continues to do on a regular basis to this day. Musically, his first love was always straight-ahead contemporary jazz, and in the past he has played with many of the great names on the UK scene including Don Rendell, Barbara Thompson, Dick Morrissey, Terry Smith, Joe Harriott and countless others. He produced his own CD "The Blue Window" by Beatifik, which featured top UK saxophonist Mornington Locket, and was released to great critical acclaim. Roger is the author of three technical articles which appeared in the international magazine Modern Drummer, and is an Endorsee Artist for Sabian Cymbals, Remo Drums, Vic Firth Sticks and Hardcases.
ANDREW JAMES BROWN
Andrew James Brown is a minister of religion working in Cambridge UK inspired by the thinking of Epicurus, Lucretius, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Bloch, Wittgenstein and
Heidegger and is a University Chaplain to Cambridge University, Anglia Ruskin University and a Police Chaplain for the Cambridgeshire Constabulary as well as being a highly respected professional jazz double-bass player.
Another full house at Jazznights was enthralled by the exhilarating and powerful mind blowing rendition of this bebop eras finest compositions. Many of which were imaginatively arranged by Kevin Flanagan. The playlist included the following numbers:
1. Bolivia – jazz pianist Cedar Walton’s jazz standard which is probably his best known composition.. A great powerful up-tempo start to the first set of the evening.
2. Junior Mance.s Jubilation which was arranged by Mike Harris of Norwich. This
was played at a medium tempo and again highlighted the individual artistry of the members of the band with extended 4 bar trades between Roger Odell on drums and all the members of the front line.
3. Ghana written in 1960 by by the jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter Donald Byrd. This was A cross between a medium and up-tempo number again allowing all members to excel with a superb solo from Roger on drums who laid down a nice heavy base line for the band.
4. Milestones which came to fame on the album of the same name recorded in February and March 1958 with the famous line up of Miles Davis, Cannonball
Adderley, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. A perfect foil for the Rebop sextet who of course specialise in music of that period. This interpretation was arranged by Kevin Flanagan and was played at a much slower rate than normal in a fantastic almost West Coast Cool Jazz style.
5. Parisian Thoroughfare – Bud Powell’s composition from 1958. The up and down scales which are quite dominant in this number gave us an exciting and very different rendition which seemed to echo the horns tooting from the Paris traffic jams.
6. Mamacita the 1963 composition by the tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson which evoked the feeling of the American clubs of that era where they encouraged dancing to the jazz performances. There was no room in the Cherry Tree for that with a full house although all were just enthralled by the music to want to do
anything else. A great finale to the first set.
Following the Jazznights raffle with four jazz CD’s and a bottle of wine Rebop opened there second set of the evening with:
7. Jeannine by Duke Pearson (who was nicknamed by an uncle who admired Duke Ellington’s music). Personal memories of this tune come from the 1960 Riverside album of The Cannonball Adderley Quintet – Them Dirty Blues. A medium tempo number which again was imaginatively played by Rebop.
8. Speak No Evil which is also is an album by Wayne Shorter, recorded on 24 December 1964 and released on Blue Note in 1965. The music combines elements of both hard bop and and modal jazz.
9. Barbados the 1948 Charlie Parker 12 bar blues which was first recorded with
Miles Davis in 1948. This was played in the traditional mambo style for which it was written which gave Roger the opportunity to keep up that Latin driving beat. The whole number was vigorously supported by all members of the band in this up tempo rendition.
10. On Green Dolphin Street – Another favourite which gave Paul Higgs on the muted trumpet to echo Miles Davis’s memorable version. Paul’s playing excelled on this beautiful tune
11. Blue In Green – the 1959 Bill Evans composition for the Kind Of Blue album (Miles Davis got the credit and royalties at the time although latterly it was accepted that it was a Bill Evans composition). Kevin, Colin and Paul on his green coloured muted trumpet all featured.
12 Charlie Parker’s Crazeology was unfortunately the final number of the evening. (Charlie Parker had a genius for writing songs based on the chord progressions of “I Got Rhythm” and Crazeology was one of them. A superb up-tempo and
exhilarating number featuring all the band and rapid trades between Kevin and Roger.
This evening gig was a complete tour-de-force – an exceptional evening by probably the finest jazz sextet this side of the UK. We await their return. Thank you Roger and Larraine for a great evening
Our venue is at The Cherry Tree Function Suite, Knowl Green, Belchamp St Paul, Suffolk, CO10 7BY. Tel: 01787 237263 Admission £8. Doors 7.30pm. Music 8.00-10.30pm. Reserve your table seating on 01787 237653 or email. Pay on the night.
Food available and can be served before or during the performance
For more info and future gigs go to http://www.jazz-nights.com
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