Hommage to Ronnie

[elmo]

Just come back tonight from a good concert at the Jazz Corner of the world (Queens hall Narberth) by the Ronnie Scott package that has been touring the country recently.
Very entertaining incorporating the use of video's and anecdotes plus a very together band Alex Garnett, James Pearson and 3 young musicians I am unfamiliar with - Freddie Gavita Trumpet, Sam Burgess Bass, Chris Higginbotham drums. Some of the jokes and anecdotes would be familiar to the bored members but the packed house in Jazz starved Pembrokeshire loved it particularly recounting Ronnie's meetings with the Krays and the Richardsons.

The band played some nice stuff particularly liked their renditions of Mingus "Boogie stop shuffle" and Rollins "Alfie's theme"

Definitely worth checking out if they turn up in your area

elmo

[Ian Thumwood]

Elmo

I am not familiar with the names of any of the musicians in this band but it is very strange to see Scott's legacy transformed in to a kind of heritage gig. Scott is someone who I have always had an aversion to. The "Jazz Couriers" with Tubby Hayes never appealed and I never felt that Scott was anything more than ordinary. His "legendary" sense of humour is also something that makes me cringe. I have never been to his club but it seems to have traded too long over it's earlier reputation in the 1960's with a brief respite in the 1980's when his club encouraged band such as Loose Tubes who probably did more than any other UK band to smash the kind of "old man's music" reputation that the club had cultivated.

It is bizarre that the band associated with the club should be touring the provinces performing other people's repertoire. I don't think the club can seriously claim to have any real credibility as a jazz venue and the impression I got was that it seemed to be broadening beyond jazz rather like the jazz club that is local to me, "The Concorde" in Eastleigh. This was voted Britain's best jazz club a couple of years back but the recent publicity on the radio for up-coming gigs only referred to old, has-been pop acts and tribute bands. Nothing was mentioned regarding jazz even of there are a number of jazz musicians playing albeit they are either Trad / Mainstream acts with the odd local big band performing Basie numbers.

The jazz scene in the provinces is often a matter of accepting crumbs. I am lucky that there are venues close by in Southampton, Poole and Basingstoke that will put on more "A" list bands but Winchester is another place where jazz is almost absent. Contemporary jazz usually means Claire Teale. It is odd that jazz clubs seem less inclined to put on real jazz gigs than other venues. The Concorde would never put on someone like Joe McPhee for example and probably could not justify the financial risk of putting on anything other than jazz that will also tap in to a nostalgia market. It hardly seems worthwhile these clubs billing themselves as jazz venues and there doesn't seem to be the kind of scene that I have encountered in France where small clubs see, willing and capable of booking genuine jazz artists in out of the way places and still getting bums in seats.