| gig reviews 2009 |
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| Frank Brooker - January |
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Tony Sharp (bs), Roy Dutton (dms), Roger Heeley (pno) |
Frank travelled down from Leeds for tonight’s session and planned to travel straight back afterwards for another booking tomorrow. That’s a busy musician’s lifestyle for you!
With the long miles soon forgotten, Frank’s wonderfully warm toned tenor sax opened the session with ‘I Close My Eyes’ backed by the subtly swinging rhythm section to create a sound well suited to a cosy club on a cold night.
‘Sunday’ featured Frank’s light toned vocal and Tony’s first bass solo of the evening plus drum breaks from Roy, and onto Ellington’s ‘Black Butterfly’ where the Frank’s charismatic clarinet paid a fitting tribute to the great Barney Bigard.
No jazzman is without a few jokes to tell and now we had Frank’s anecdote about the composer of ‘Slow Boat to China’, Frank Loesser who’s grumpy wife was known as the ‘evil of two lessers’. Groans from the audience as the band swung into the tune.
More gentle jesting as the next number was dedicated to the club - ‘Old Folks’ - a slow relaxed performance with pensive piano from Roger and whispering Ben Webster style sax cadenza to finish.
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| Feb Review - Richard Leach's Clubhouse Five |
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A dip into the Benny Carter songbook had toes tapping with ‘Only Trust Your Heart’ a bossa nova where Frank introduced a subtle change of tone to suit the mood and accompanied Tony’s bass solo on maraca (I think he only had one).- there could be a joke in there somewhere!
Roger’s piano, now in blues mode, introduced Frank’s vocal on the much recorded ‘See See Rider’ - even Elvis has done this one - and here was a version with beautifully toned low to high register clarinet and a special spot for a bass and drums conversation. A cracking Latin rhythm from Roy’s drums provided the launch pad for an amazing run of ideas from Frank and Roger on ‘Southside Samba’ and the upbeat mood was continued as Frank riffed the quartet up to speed for tenor and piano solos in ‘Christopher Columbus’ to aptly illustrate the art of extensive improvisation on a simple theme.
The evening’s programme continued to the muffled sound of cheers and groans from the pool room where the home side were busy losing 8-1 and, even worse, forfeiting their free pint!
Roger provided a delightfully tinkling piano backing to Frank’s lightly sung ‘Get Your Coat and Get Your Hat’ accompanied by more tinkling as a glass fell off the bar to be quickly cleared up by our efficient bar staff.
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by Peter Farrall |
photos by Terry Thomas |
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On with the show to the gentle, mellow tones of ‘I’ve Never Been in Love Before’ creating an other worldly atmosphere before re-entry to the bluesy ‘Soul Station’ from Hank Mobley. A little R & B style tenor sax and a forceful bass solo from Tony reminded us of Hank’s bands in the sixties.
There was a certain swallowing of lumps in throats during the nostalgic rendering of ‘The Nearness of You’ - we’re a lot of softies really - but another Benny Carter tune, ‘Doozey’ soon broke the reverie with more blues tinged tenor from Frank.
A nod towards jazz roots came by way of ‘Basin Street Blues’ prompting an unobtrusive sing along by certain committee members but Frank’s singing was much better and his breathy toned clarinet did great justice to this traditional favourite. Time was running out as the band took us to the balmy Caribbean on the wings of ‘Island in the Sun’. Super calypso rhythm with solos all round and a vision of sun, sea and palm trees.
‘Take the A-Train’ signalled the end of the evening with a goodnight from each of the quartet to the locomotive tempo of this old favourite.
Four gentlemen who don’t get a lot of opportunity to play together but tonight they fused into a warm, swinging intimate group leaving their audience relaxed and glowing to face the cold night air. |
