Steve Waterman and Pete Hurt at The Red Lion, Isleworth.

Monday night and we were back at The Red Lion, Isleworth, enjoying modern jazz - this time with Steve Waterman on trumpet and Pete Hurt on Sax;

While Trevor Tomkins was on drums and Steve watts on bass;

Missing from the pictures was the excellent John Donaldson on Keyboards.

I really enjoyed 'Alice in Wonderland' as well as an own composition by Steve Waterman.

The Red Lion is clearly still in danger with the ever present threat from developers who want to convert the old pub to flats; the number of live music venues continues to shrink month by month.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
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A night of Jazz.

Today I've got a rather unpleasant appointment at Hospital so last night we went to the Red Lion for an evening of Jazz at our favourite club.

Here's Theo Travis on sax, Steve Watts on bass and Henry Armburg-Jennings on Trumpet and Flugelhorn;

It was a nice evening - just enough top take our minds on the next couple of weeks.

Trevor Tomkins was on drums and Mike Gorman on keyboards.

                                                 

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
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Under fire.

Monday night was Jazz night....this is the great Stan Sulzman;

                  

His playing seems so effortless (of course, that's what's so hard to do).

While this is Henry Lowther on trumpet;

with Steve Watts on double bass just behind him.

It was a funny night, we took our lives in our hands; the worlds worst pool players were in town again.

Through the night we could hear them in the other room, the white ball crashing regularly to the floor.

At the interval we sat out in the garden, and suddenly there it was; the white ball flying off the table, bouncing along the floor, through the open door and out into the garden.

Normally the main danger is an over excited Jazzer.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Day three of Robyn's campaign to cheer me up; down at The Red Lion

It's day three and I'm even getting Robyn down. Monday was wet and cold and miserable; the evening wasn't any better.

This time she made me go to The Red Lion - I told her the Jazz wouldn't be any good but she wouldn't listen. I was wrong, I'd forgotten how good they were.

On the left is Kate Williams on keyboards while in the centre on bass is Steve Watts - making a very good duet with Trevor Tomkins on drums when the others shut up;

 

 I didn't manage to get a shot of Steve Fishwick whose trumpet was good but his mute work was brilliant (love a mute, I do).

 

This is Chris Boscoe on saxophone; 

 

 

 

 

There was a lot of Miles Davis ('4' and 'Half Nelson') and my old friend Thelonious was there too ('Mysterioso') and there was an excellent version of 'Skylark' by Hoagy Carmichael.

 

A good night.

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 

 

The Doctors prescription pad.

Monday night not so well, not so happy.

I needed to book myself an appointment at the Jazz Doctors.

Mmmmh this could be serious – what started off as a complaint has turned into a condition. Doctor, what can I do?

I went to my jazz club. I was even early – but so was everyone else. It was packed.

 

Not in shot was Ross ’12 gigs a week’ Stanley on keyboards – star of Ronnie Scotts, many bands and countless session jobs around London. He was on great form.

On guitar – Nigel Price

 

The only Jazz guitarist I can stand – the only one who actually understands how the instrument works in jazz.

Vasilis Xenopoulos on Sax was great, all night long.

 

Trevor Tomkins drums and Steve Watts bass combined perfectly with Ross or Nigel in the quiet, cool sections.

‘Gentle Rain’ was one of those and was as smooth as the title suggests while ‘The Groove Merchant’ just grooved.

It got better and better.

The Nigel Price composition ‘Straight, No bounce’ was a mixture of Thelonious Monk’s ‘Straight No Chaser’ and Charlie Parker’s ‘Billy’s Bounce’ ending up with what was really just a boppy mash-up.

Moanin’ by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (Mmmmmh) and Dizzy Gillespie’s Groovin’ High were great. There were a number of standards in between – it all added up to a really great night – just what the Doctor ordered.

I wrote these notes down on a Cancer Research notepad I had with me. It had ‘Every Moment Counts’ at the top of each page. Gedddit? I did.

Click on a picture for a slideshow and better quality pictures.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home:    helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

I was dreading April in New York.

There are some good Doctors, I thanked a good one on Monday morning.

Monday evening and I was watching another one – Art Themen, retired orthopaedic surgeon. There was nothing retired about his Saxophone work.

 

Monday night was always going to be quiet, we clashed with a tribute to Stan Tracey at The 100 club. All the greats of British modern jazz were there including Peter King and Cleo Laine. We also lost our bass player and were lucky to have Steve Watts take over.

This really was Thelonious Monk night with loads of his numbers starting with a bright and sparky ‘I mean you’.

A couple of tunes later and we had a treat from Henry Lowther on trumpet, playing his own composition ‘Mataya Sleeps’, dedicated to a neice who was asleep while he wrote it. More Monk closed off the first set – ‘4 in 1’.

The second set brought us a Henry Lowther solo on a beautifully played ballad; ‘It never entered my mind’, and then Art Themen took over but with a segué into ‘April in New York’. I’d caught sight of the music and was dreading this sad and sentimental song. I didn’t need that on Monday, not after hearing bad news, but I was lucky to hear it torn apart and then reassembled without any fake sentimentality.

There were a few familiar Art Themen setpieces; Dexter Gordon’s ‘For regulars only’ and a Clifford Brown blues to finish giving John Donaldson a chance to shine on piano. It was still a great night of modern jazz from the greats, played on a quiet Monday night.

I should add that Stan Tracey was for many years the house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s and in that role he accompanied the greats of the jazz world. I remember seeing him several times in the early 1980’s, entertaining another local club, with some fairly experimental jazz.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

The second Pterodactyl.

A second pterodactyl has appeared in The Red Lion, Isleworth. Now one pterodactyl could be an unfortunate accident but two?  I feel that’s more than just a coincidence.

If you remember, last week (Blame it on the…) a pterodactyl turned up in a corner of the pub – today I spotted another one, hiding by the coat stand.

I took a picture of it:

 

 There must be a factory somewhere, churning them out. And no, it isn’t the same one being moved about, the other one is still perched in its spot. If there’s a third one next week I’m going to have to make enquiries.

The Jazz? Quiet pub for quiet, very reflective music. There was a lot of Charles Mingus –three numbers all really thoughtful. Two numbers by Cedar Walton, who died recently; ‘Cedar’s Blues’, Woody Shaw and Thelonious Monk.

 

 Kate Williams on keyboards was on very good form, Chris Biscoe had three different Saxes but spent most time on the soprano – it was that kind of music. Steve Fishwick on Trumpet. Steve Watts on Bass and Trevor Tomkins on drums made up the back row.

I was told three of the group are a big part of ‘Way Out West’, a jazz collective playing in Richmond.

 

 

sCLUE No 6

Here’s the question;

7000 what? By whom?

K

Clue Number 6;

He was also a sculptor.

It’s a work of art by one of my favourite 20th century artists.

He was very European and an early pioneer of performance art.

When you’ve got the answer, e-mail it in to me at;

neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

The first right answer wins a combat bracelet, made by me.

 Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

 

Day two of the 'tour'

I spent Monday night with the ‘Trane,  Thelonious, and Dexter – ending up ‘Round Midnight’.

Day two of my ‘fill your pockets and run like f@#k’ tour, before playtime ends next Monday when I have to go to my clinic.

I went to my Jazz Club at the Red Lion, Isleworth to see the great Art Themen, giant of British modern jazz, who is kind enough to come and see us freeloaders roughly every three months. It’s his social work.

 

Apart from the jazz it’s also a chance for me to put two fingers up to my illness and celebrate the sheer joy of being alive. Just over a year ago I was still trying to get my act together and struggled in to see him – the Olympics had just finished and a week later I broke my ankle – did I ever mentioned that?

November last year, I struggled in again pretty triumphant, this time wearing an air cast boot and crutches although I wasn’t doing a lot of toe tapping. Then in February it all went wrong on me, my ‘fighting February’, then even worse news in May. So, it means a lot to me, it’s an achievement every time I see him.

The set started with ‘For regulars only’, Art crouched squinting over the music until someone got his glasses from his car – it didn’t seem to do the music any harm though, fast and furious. ‘Forest Fire’ was a quieter contrast and then it was back in top gear again for John Coltrane’s ‘Lollies lament’, with Trevor Tomkins getting pretty fired up on the drums, triggering a first round of whistles while Steve Watts was on bass.

John Donaldson was let free on piano for Michel Legrand’s ‘You must believe in spring’, but then as this was only a quartet tonight (always much better than five) everyone had the chance to play, and they did.

‘Trinkle Dinkle’ ended the set – Thelonious Monk’s part pretty much stolen by Art Themen on the sax.

At half time I snuck out into the garden to check out shooting stars, but it was too cloudy and light.

More Monk (‘Played Twice’) –really tight, really sharp, after the break there was more Monk again a couple of numbers later (4 in 1) – no prisoners taken there or anywhere.

‘I’ve grown accustomed to your face’ was an Art Themen Tour de Force, followed by a brisk old blues.

Then, this brisk old bluesman stumbled out into the night, hoping for a helping of stardust (previous Blog) later on.

The ‘tour’ continues!

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Tak, Tak, Tak.

 

                                         

I took the motorway up to town instead of the normal route – looking for route one, maybe. What I got was a long traffic jam and no exit. Gulp.

When I got to my Jazz club at The Red Lion, Isleworth, I found that the grapevine had told everyone it was going to be a quiet night – the last few weeks were packed. They were right.

Trevor Tomkins took the chance to push his drums out to the front for a change. There was a lot of Wayne Shorter and a couple of Dick Pearce (Trumpet) compositions;‘Fast track’ and ‘Airships in a cloud’.

For me the highlight was ‘my one and only love’ and Pearce was left at the bar for this one. There were some long solo’s from Pete Hurt on Sax but the stars were the trio of John Donaldson on keyboards, Steve Watts Bass and TT on the brushes and split sticks. Very sparse, very precise. Tak, Tak, Tak.

Otherwise, there was an encore ‘a short blues’, which sounded like Monk to me, and that was pretty good.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home:        helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact:      neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com