Roger Beaujolais (vibes) Sunday 29th Apr Jazznights at The Cherry Tree, The Function Suite, The Cherry Tree, 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.
In a change of program the vibes master Roger Beaujolais returns to Jazznights. One of our most popular guest artists is one of the most experienced of the few UK vibes players. He has enjoyed a long career both as a leader of his own various bands and as a sideman, most famously with the band Fairground Attraction. Tonight the trio are the ace drummer Russ Morgan joining Jazznights regulars Simon Brown on piano & Bernie Hodgkins on bass.
The most well established of the UK jazz vibes players, Roger runs several bands including his own jazz quartet and the more acid-jazz styled Vibraphonic. For this Jazznights performance Roger will present his "Tribute to Lionel Hampton" project.
"…he gives the world’s best vibes players a run for their money" The Guardian
…"masterly instrumentalist"…… "highly imaginative leader"…… "His whole approach is fresh & original without straining for effect."….. "could now frighten any vibes virtuoso on either side of the Atlantic"…… "Beaujolais’ glassy-toned vibes-playing is 
agile, fresh & inventive, but the arrangements – as well as the Beaujolais originals – are also very distinctive."…… "Roger Beaujolais writes great melodic, hooky themes"….. "whether stating the melody or playing some delicate fills his vibes bring a touch of distinction to the set"……. "Top drawer contemporary British jazz!"…… "Vibraphone wizard Beaujolais"…… "fluent but powerful vibes player"….. "his ringing sound, harmonic subtlety and elegant phrasing"……
As vibes player Roger Beaujolais notes, European musicians these days are often keener to acknowledge their roots in ‘classical’ music than go back to the blues, perhaps regarding the latter as ‘old-fashioned’, but, as he says, ‘if I’m as old-fashioned as Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Joe Henderson, Wes Montgomery, Clifford Brown and many others, I don’t care too much’.
"The vibraphone is capable of great tonal variety, from the tinkling of icicles to a warm, pulsating cloud of sound, and Roger Beaujolais deploys it all with consummate skill and delicacy"
"Beaujolais is an ebullient performer with a dazzling four-mallet technique and it would no doubt be a hugely enjoyable experience to see and hear this music performed in a live context”. – you have the opportunity on Sunday to hear him
“I should really get those brakes adjusted,” says Beaujolais, commenting on his set of fine Musser vibes. “They have a tendency to move forward very slowly. Once I fell off the front of the stage. Fortunately it wasn’t a high stage.”
"Listening to Beaujolais, you’d think that like one of his heroes, Milt Jackson, he was born to play the vibes. "
Self taught British vibraphone player who was a founder member of jump/jive band The Chevalier Brothers in the eighties before forming The Beaujolais Band. A constantly sort after session musician, he now has his own label (Stay Tuned Records) and teaches jazz vibraphone at Trinity College of Music, London.
Unfortunately the writer is out of the country for this gig – if have any notes or pictures of the event, please email them to dancerd@gmail.com
For further information and future gigs go to www.jazz-nights.com
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