New Year's Jazz.

I'm still recovering - last night we went to our Jazz Club at The Red Lion, Isleworth. It was something of a struggle to get there - the weather is extremely cold and frosty and I wasn't too well.

But part of the reason we went was to see old friends, exchange some late Christmas cards and wish everyone a Happy New Year. It was nice.

Trevor Tomkins was on Drums as usual. You can't see much of him here but far right is Ross Stanley and acclaimed keyboards player and in demand accompanist and session player.

Playing Sax is Dave Lewis and doing it quite dreamily too. next to him is Jim Mullen (of Kokomo, Morrisey/Mullen and Average White Band fame) in good form on the guitar. 

I was struggling with the photos - it was a bit too crowded to get close enough.

And it hurt!

But we made it home through the frost, even if I've had to pay for it later.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Christmas Jazz.

This week we went to our Jazz club for the last time before Christmas. Christmas cards were handed out and we gave two special friends some home made ginger beer to sya thank you.

It was a lovely night with a Christmas tree in the corner of the pub and everyone in a happy mood.

We had a tight four piece - this is Mike Coates on Sax;

Jim Mullen was in fine form on Jazz Guitar - he's a big name on a number of scenes - he's a session musician has played with some big Funk bands and has a jazz pedigree too.

My friends make fun of me - he has a habit of inserting little segments of other songs into what he's playing.

Musicians respect the cleverness of it, everyone in the room thinks it's neat; it drives me mad.

Just to pull my leg, Robyn kept a tally; Jim put 30 'quotes' into songs during the evening.

Normally I'd be irritated but tonight I was just mellow.

There was 'The Christmas Song' and 'White Christmas.

Ross Stanley exchanged his normal keyboards for an electric organ - he just hit those notes so well. Trevor Tomkins was just fine on drums.

As I said, it was a good night.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Grumpy Monday.

Monday night, cold and miserable and being generally very grouchy saw me make it to my Jazz Club (another two very fine words) at The Red Lion, Isleworth. I was never really going to enjoy it but I had to be there.

The grumpiness was because Jim Mullen was playing jazz guitar and although he is much liked by everyone else, I’ve never really been able to get to grips with the guitar as a jazz instrument.

Dave Lewis, on the other hand is an American in exile who makes the saxophone exciting and vibrant and through the evening fought hard to play some Bop favourites with an element of discipline and style.

 

Dave Gorman, shoved into the back corner was also trying to keep the quartet on the same page – with help from Trevor Tomkins. His electric organ playing is a delight and I’d like to have heard a lot more of it on Monday. He has his own trio, which I’m guessing gives him a chance to put the keyboards through their paces and I’d quite like a chance to see that. There was plenty of the Hammond sound I can’t resist.

That was pretty grouchy, but I do know how lucky I was to make it again – last week I missed the great Alan Barnes and I’m still regretting that. The week before I had another chance to see Art Themen.

This is still the best jazz venue in London – the best music, the friendliest, most intimate and best sounding way to banish the winter blues in this town.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

More B.logger problems - I'll post the photo another time.

The bends.

I spent Sunday and Monday in something of a trance after the jazz festival on Saturday – how lucky can anyone be? Well, I’m hoping for just a little more luck – this week The SkaSouls are playing on both Friday and Saturday which means I can pick and choose my day, depending on how I feel.

Feet don’t fail me now!

Mind you not everyone had such a great time on Saturday. My friend Theo was very patient but it wasn’t his bag at all (old hippy).

And while I was struggling through Clapham Junction station I picked up a new ‘friend’, a rather old fashioned jazz fan – we chatted, and through the day he kept popping up in unlikely places to tell me “It’s not jazz as I know it, it’s more like Rock and Roll”.

Which is a bit odd really, as he was there the whole day – bugging me to the very end. Perhaps he was supplied to keep my feet on the ground, like with the Roman Emperors.

When they were given a ‘Triumph’ – a ceremonial passage through Rome (usually for a military victory) the entire population would turn out cheering and throwing rose petals. That’s enough to turn anyone’s head. As a result, there would be a slave whose job was to stand behind him whispering in his ear; “You are only mortal”, just to remind him. Mind you, it didn’t work very well – look what they did.

Anyway, I went to my Jazz Club at The Red Lion, Isleworth expecting to wind down with a more staid kind of jazz, the kind my Saturday friend would be more at home with.  I was using my club to bring me down slowly from a real high.

I really like Dave Lewis – a great Saxophonist;

 

www.red-lion.info

 

Trevor Tomkins was as usual excellent on the drums, while Mike Gorman was brilliant on the organ – the only glitch for me was that having enjoyed a real live Hammond organ a couple of days before, the electronic copy was never going to sound the same. It didn’t.  Jim Mullen was, as usual very proficient on guitar.

You can tell my heart wasn’t in it, rather like a diver who comes up to the surface too fast and has to go into the decompression chamber to avoid the bends. I had to come back down to earth.

But when I got home I was getting out of the car and looked up into the night sky. It wasn’t that clear, there was a bright moon, and yet I just happened to see a very fine shooting star.

You can carefully plan to go out when a meteorite shower is due and never see a good one – then again like Monday you can be lucky, anytime.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)