Mart Rodger's Manchester Jazz visit Castleton

Mart Rodgers Manchester Jazz

Now in its thirty-first year of performing Mart Rodger’s Manchester Jazz was an ever welcome visitor to Castleton on Sunday 18 May where before a sizeable Jazz on a Sunday audience leader Mart was joined by regulars Alan Dent, Eric Brierley, Roger Browne, Ken Marley, Louis Lince and Chris Pendlebuty.

They opened with an attention grabbing ‘Copenhagen’ followed by a Brierley vocal the gentle ‘Breeze’ before upping the tempo with the jaunty ‘Irish Black Bottom’.

The set continued up tempo with “forties” dance number ‘Balling The Jack’ which saw Eric at the mike again and Mart’s clarinet prominent in support before Dent’s trumpet, Browne’s piano and Brierley’s “moaning” trombone assayed the evening’s first blues offering in ‘ Black and Blue’.

Everyone reverted to full throttle for ‘At the Jazz Band Ball’ and although leader Rodger calmed things down for a while when soloing to great acclaim on Django Reinhardt’s ‘Manoir de Mes Reves’ the rest of the band were soon back to finish off, brassy, strident and punching their full weight with Alan Dent’s trumpet to the fore in ‘Stevedore Stomp’

Eric Brierley maintained that pace in the second as backed by the boogie woogie-ing Roger he urged ‘Let The Good Times Roll’ and though the tempo slowed for Dent to deliver one of his trademarks solos with a lilting ‘Gypsy Love Song’, the high octane faction reasserted themselves as Dent and Roger championed the cause of the ‘Georgia Bobo’ - reportedly a “dance movement” somewhat overshadowed by its better known cousin the “grind”.

Another blues offering ‘Texas Moaner’ featured Brierley on trombone, Browne then soloed superbly on ‘Lady Be Good’ encompassing a variety of piano styles and changes of pace and the set ended with the foot-tapping ‘Mandy Make Up Your Mind’

The third set began with a bouncy ‘Lousiana’; Roger Browne assumed temporary vocal responsibility with ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love Baby’ but Eric soon reclaimed it for ‘Lover Come Back’.

An Alan Dent arrangement of ‘I’ll Never Smile Again’ followed before Mart took the mike himself with ‘Moments Line This’ then it was back to the band for Count Basie’s ‘Jive At Five’, onto Brierley’s final blues offering ‘Stormy Monday’ which featured an excellent guitar solo from Louis Lince and then their signoff number a Chris Pendlebury led ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing’.