The Jazz Gentlemen

Maurice Gavan - The Jazz Gentlemen

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With leader Keith Allcock temporarily unavailable our guests at the New Town National Club on Sunday 26 October, The Jazz Gentlemen, were lucky enough to be able to secure the services instead of Boltonian bass playing maestro John Muskett. Joining him were regulars Derek Skepper on trumpet, Barry Aldous on reeds, Terry Brunt on trombone, Maurice Gavan on piano and Peter Eddowes on drums.

Predictably they had feet tapping from start, an explosive ‘China Boy’, to finish, a singalong ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’.

Between times the audience was treated to a slow ballad ‘Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You’ sung by Aldous with backing from the muted trumpet of Skepper, the blues piano of Gavan and the solid yet unintrusive bass playing of Muskett, to the front line at full tilt on ragtime pianist Lew Pollack’s composition ‘That’s A Plenty’ and then with Aldous having switched to tenor alongside Skepper and Brunt a Swing Era number ‘Sultry Serenade’.

An interesting take on ‘Bugle Boy March’ came next. Seemingly written in 1907 un-der the title ‘American Soldier’ but adopted by the US forces during the Second World War it had been jazzed-up and subsequently renamed. A Skepper/Gavan col-laboration evoked the smooth jazz genres of West Coast America with ‘Don’t Blame Me’ and to end the set Brunt took the microphone for ‘Down By The Riverside’.

Set Two began in lively fashion as well with Aldous, Skepper and bassist Muskett up front on ‘Panama’ and then we had Brunt’s piece de resistance with the rhythm section joining him for perennial favourite ‘St James Infirmary Blues’.

The front line reassembled for Fats Waller’s ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ with Aldous on vocals and he soloed on clarinet with ‘Poor Butterfly’. Then came one of the un-doubted highlights of the evening, Gavan’s masterful interpretation of the Van Heusen/Mercer classic ‘I Thought About You’ before the set ended with Brunt stepping forward for a swinging version of ‘The Preacher’.

The third and final set opened with an ensemble rendition of ‘Fidgety Feet’, the band tipped its collective bowler hat to Acker Bilk with a Skepper-led ‘That’s My Home’ and there followed an interesting bossa nova arrangement of George and Ira’s Gershwin’s ‘S Wonderful’ with Gavan employing the vibraphone voicing on his piano especially effectively.

Noticeable recently has been the extent to which visiting bands have seen fit to reference the Big Band Era in their choices of program and The Jazz Gentlemen were to continue the trend witness the Lester Young composition ‘Lester Leaps In’ and Duke Ellington’s ‘Take the A Train’ which found Aldous on top form on tenor and Brunt excelling on a second trombone that he claimed to have been “running in” for a third party.

As things inevitably wound down it was Skepper urging ‘Baby Won’t You Please Come Home’ then it was clear the decks, ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’, Hit The Road, Jack.