- Jazz
Festival
- 2002.
- Article
and photographs by Patrick Trollope.
- Southport
Jazz Festival this year was on of the biggest jazz
festivals this year in the North West.
We hit the streets of Southport to see what was going
on.
The event
Started on Thursday the 13th and the bands started to play
at the Wayfarers Arcade at 11am. The band that
came on was Simon Taylor Quartet, with bebop to cool jazz on
the air all around the Arcade. The line up of that one
was Simon Taylor on his Alto Sax, Gareth Parry on guitar,
holding the beat was Eric Scar on drums and Julio on
bass. The latest event on Thursday was at the
Cafe Bar Flava, well that one was really Friday as it kicked
of at Midnight with Sense of Sounds playing into the darn
light. The group was billed as the most innovative
groups of the UK.
Friday started
off at 11am with the Dan Forshaw Quartet playing jazz funk
and they got Wayfarers Arcade jumping! At the band
Stand at 12.15ish despite the ever changing weather Dave
Saul and his Quartet provided at top act as shoppers
enjoyed the classical jazz reverberating around the
shops. Both the Glasshouse and Bar Flava carried the
jazz well into the following day. Jazz-Co-Tech
Dancers with their intricate footwork dancing the
night away at Flava and a Cuban feel to the Glass house as Sal soul
mixed Soul and Samba as the dance show girls drove the guys
mad with their groovy moves. We got a special on stage
shot for you all of keyboard player Chris Jerome from the
Courtney Pine Concert. They gave a spellbinding
performance to a packed out audience. One of the audience
said "This band we wanted back from last years performance.
They are one of the most talented modern day jazz group
going and no festival would be the same with out them!
A fantastic show of unraveled performance."
Saturday....
The big day! Well on the cards England or .... Now who was
it we played? Any way their was no competition
for the jazz fans as they flocked onto the streets together
with the England Fans. The atmosphere was electric and
it carried on through out the day and well into the
night! Kicking the event off was Modjango,
a father son group playing the hottest sounds of club
jazz. Taking over from them should have been Freddy
Smith's Big Band, but due to events out of their control the
group could not come.... SO... a Polish band stepped in and
the hole of the Wayfarers Arcade with a sound like no
other. This group even though they were amatory
got all ages dancing and entertaining the crowds. Some
people came in and told me "We don't like jazz normally
but these are fantastic." The group I
think, as they could not speak English, and I cant speech
polish was called CarKat, sorry but that don't look
correct.. Any way they were fantastic and really friendly.
Even the shop staff said "they are the best
yet" and on Sunday they still said "Yesterdays
band was the best!" So watch this space
jazz lovers this polish band is set to come back next
year! On the band Stand traditional jazz rang
out from the well known Southport/Formby based West Lancs
Big Band. Playing traditional classics from Glen
Miller to Woody Herman.
In the arts
center a film about the greatest ever jazz musicians with
the rare footage of Django Reinhardt. At the Albert a funky
group played to bar customers with David Wald's Wald Glover
Brickel Trio. Also taking place were the John
Gordon's "Gypsy Jazz" at the Scarisbrick
Hotel, with John Gordon putting his band through their
paces, playing a range of traditional jazz pieces by Django
Reinhardt.
Hot Club lead
by Tom Sykes (A well known local musician and a teacher with
the Sefton Music Support) Lead the bar goers in to a
real treat to round off the football win! With Hot
Club music of Reinhardt and Grappelli cutting though the
highly charged air.
It was a real
smorgasboard of events.... The evening was just as
mad. I had a job keeping up with all the events
that were going on!
We covered
most of the venues I could get to, but soon my legs were
failing, so sorry I missed some off....
Anyway
The night plowed on with the start at 6:30 in New China City
with local musicians taking the lead as Dan Forshaw and
fellow musician entertained the diners as waiters in traditional
Chinese costumes watered on the tables.
At the Cedar
Tree all was cram and mellow as Dave Saul a talented pianist
was accompanied by bass player John Thorn.
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In the Floral
Hall the ball room was taken over by BBC Radio 2's favorite
act "King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys"
With fantastic stage man ship these boys got the audience
dancing with swing jazz and Blues giving a colorful and pleasurable
evenings music. As BBC2 said "The hardest act
to follow since the parting of the red Sea!"
O'Neils was packet out and I could not get in! The music
sounded brilliant though. In Southport's Art
Center the Pete Cater Big Band, playing an interesting mix of
Swing with contemporary and modem to produce an amazing
results. Danys Baptiste Quartet played to the Mayor of
Sefton and also head of Tourism Tom Walsh and his wife.
This group has the UK's foremost... Denys Baptiste, hence the
name of the group!
Pilot was on
at the Victoria, with an 8 piece funk band using 60's music to
entertain the punters.
DBK In Pizza
Express Daren Dutson-Bromley on his guitar and Patricia King
with her soft voice preformed some cramming music.
Skokiaan,
well this group should have been on a stage. From
Liverpool this group blended uplifting jazz with the sad blues
to produce a sound like no other. Click
here
to lesion to a piece from their CD. Warning it takes a
long time to load! This group could not get off
the sage and at the end after much puzzled looks from the
band, they gave in to the demands of the drinkers to play ever
more.
In the Cafe
Bar Albert Langue legendary trumpeter played to diners with
his Dixie Stompers.
The Prince of
Wales Hotel had Laura McDonaled who is one of the most gifted female
jazz artists ever with her Quartet and also backing them up
was the Tommy Smith Quartet. Both fantastic.
The Clifton
Hotel also not to be out done had the John Rotherham
Trio. This group had to battle though the competing
pop music emanating from a wedding party next door.
Sunday....
The traditional band hit the Wayfarers Arcade at 11am on the
dot with a glass raising performance by the Bourbon Street
Roof Raisers. This band kept on going with the
magnificent sounds of New Orleans here in the hart of
Southport. A fantastic show that again got shoppers
tapping their tows and some dancing. In the band
stand Albert Langue who is an honoree citizen of New Orleans
as a result of his exploits through out the world was here in
Sunny, well for most of the day any way,
Southport. He is one of the most talented and renowned
international trumpeter to cap it he is also the winner of the
Louis Armstrong and Boris Vian prizes and he was here!
Interestingly he is now 80+ and still can play as good as
ever.
SYJO was on hand, showing us what Sefton's young people
have to give to the jazz community! (If you missed this
on Sunday take a look at the arts
festival info. They are the warm up cat
before Humphrey Lyttelton, so you have yet another
chance to see them)
The Coronation
was also rocking to the rhythm of jazz again, after the Ireland
Football match. Tom Sykes again came up with the goods
with Sykes/Joseph Latin Combo.
Despite
the ever changing weather people flocked to the band stand at
2.30 to see the Los Mama Rumberos, a local band, playing Afro
Cuban music with dance display by Manchester based Copa Cabaña's
Katie and Andre. Just as I was about to interview them
the heavens opened up again! After the dance display
despite the rain the public soon joined in again and also danced on the
flags. Then their was a quick hop over to
the packed to Cafe Bar Flava as the Jazz-Co-Tech Dancers took
their twists and acrobatic skills back on the dance
floor!
The night was
rounded up with top acts like Stacy Kent, Snake Daves Band
with special guest Jim Diamond and the Jazz Jamaica All Stars.
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