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| "Sky's the limit as winter jazz festival hits new high" |
By Robert Doyle, Jazz Critic, Champion Newspaper Group
THE third Jazz on a Winter’s Weekend festival surpassed all expectations with a collection of gigs that places Southport’s flag firmly on the UK’s jazz map.
Sell-out crowds gave standing ovations at one world-class performance after another, the finest of which was Stan Tracey and Bobby Wellins’ recreation of their seminal 1965 recording Under Milk Wood.
With a bigger venue planned for next year — and exciting plans in the pipeline to extend even further — the sky is the limit.
The three-day festival, organised by the Southport Melodic Jazz Club and taking place at the Royal Clifton Hotel, grows bigger, better and bolder each year.
It is also starting to attract a younger audience, not necessarily jazz fans but music lovers bored by the pop slop served up to them and looking for something new.
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The real cool cats found what they were looking for with Pete Oxley’s Curious Paradise on Saturday afternoon.
Paradise were everything you would expect from the SMJC’s policy of throwing a joker into every festival pack.
Inventive, original and too way out for the meat and two veg crowd, they thrilled their small audience with a sparkling collection of tunes, best of which was an epic, pulsating tribute to children’s storybook character The Gruffulo.
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On Friday night, singer Elaine Delmar offered a sassy masterclass in the songs of Porter and Gershwin. Her version of Love for Sale was so hot, a few gentlemen in the audience were reaching for their cheque books at the end.
Late Friday night saw sax king Bobby Wellins with a quartet he rightly described as the creme de la creme joyously stamp their mark on a host of classics like Green Dolphin Street.
On Favela, Wellins quartet turned their hands to a Brazilian classic that morphed into an impressive duel between bass and piano before catching a bossa nova bus back to Rio.
Mark Edwards on piano was simply magnificent, despite having to put up with some geezer from the crowd who thought the price of a ticket entitled him to wander up the stage and breathe down the great man’s neck.
A Michael Brecker tune Cabin in the Sky saw Wellins at his most expressive and emotional. He is in his 70th year, free of drink, drugs, and now cigarettes, and playing like a man in the prime of life.
Saturday morning saw local heroes the Swingshift big band take to the stage with special guest stars Alan Barnes, Barnaby Dickinson, Mark Edwards again and ace trumpet player Steve Waterman. Swingshift manage to combine a warm feeling of nostalgia with just enough 21st century bite. They are crowd pleasers and great professionals, but at their best when they throw something spikey into the mix such as on MacArthur Park — a track which could well become their signature tune.
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There was lashings of praise for Simon Spillet’s quartet, the Alan Barnes Octet’s Seven Ages of Jazz Suite with Liz Fletcher and playwright Alan Plater, John Donaldson and Mark Edwards on two pianos, Andy Panayi’s septet, Lucas Dodd’s Quartet and everything else — including a host of workshops and exhibitions — that went to make this an unforgettable weekend.
But the stand out of this festival without a doubt was the reunion of Stan Tracey and Bobby Wellins.
Following a first half of impressive performances of standards and new tracks, including a specially composed new tune called Midnight in Southport, the quartet were joined by Welsh actor Philip Madoc, who read passages from Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood between Tracey’s sublime musical takes on the celebrated play for voices.
As the last note faded away, this reviewer leapt to his feet to applaud what was one of the most memorable performances he had ever seen. Top this next year? That’s one hell of a tall order.
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