Jazz musician Chris Ingham and folk musician Chris Wilbraham cast their expert eyes over the local music scene
JAZZ with Chris Ingham: cjr.ingham@outlook.com/chrisingham.co.uk
Friday, July 26
DJANGOLIERS (Hunter Club, Bury, 7.30pm, £18, headhunterslive.org, 07799 650009) Delightful, swinging summer sounds in the Gypsy Swing style as the Djangoliers celebrate the music of Belgian guitar legend Django Reinhardt. With Simon Hurley (guitar), Robert Ford (guitar) Zak Barrett (clarinet) and Andy Staples (bass).
Sunday, July 28
ALICE ‘N’ WONDERBAND (Yalm Food Court, Norwich, 7.30pm, £16.50, norwichjazzclub.co.uk) International specialists in Bossa Nova and Musica Populàr Brasilera featuring Alice Bell (vocals), Luca Boscagin (guitar), Davide Mantovani (bass) and Davide Giovannini (drums).
LUIZ MORAIS QUARTET (Colchester Arts Centre, 7.30pm, £16/£14 concessions, colchesterartscentre.com) 7-string jazz guitar virtuoso Morais and his bewitching blend of traditional Brazilian music and contemporary jazz.
FOR THE DIARY
Sunday, August 4
PAUL HIGGS’ PAVANE/TIM GARLAND & JASON REBELLO (Chelmsford Cathdral, 6.30pm, £30-£40, chelmsfordcathedral.org.uk/events) Writtle Jazz present a fundraiser for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and Parkinson’s UK with the unique classical/jazz crossover project Pavane, led by trumpeter/composer Paul Higgs and featuring cellist Natalie Rozario, plus a world-class duo performance with saxophonist Tim Garland and pianist Jason Rebello.
Sunday, August 11
CHRIS INGHAM QUARTET - GETZ: A MUSICAL PORTRAIT (Venue 16, Ipswich, 2.30pm, £15, ipswichjazzandblues.com) Fresh from their sell-out appearance at Ronnie Scott’s, the qaurtet’s show is a career-wide salute to the varied and delightful output of saxophonist Stan Getz featuring master reedsman Mark Crooks plus Chris Ingham (piano), Joe Pettitt (bass) and George Double (drums).
Tuesday, August 13
ALAN BARNES/DAVE NEWTON (Maddermarket Theatre Bar, Norwich, 8pm, £16/£8 u25, norwichjazzclub. co.uk) Long-established saxophone/piano duo, specialising in spontaneous, inspired treatments of favourite standards, replete with musical synergy and wit. Featuring cuts from their latest album ‘Tis Autumn.
Wednesday, August 14
ODDGEIR BERG TRIO (Stoke By Nayland Golf Club, 8pm, £20, fleecejazz.org.uk, 01787 211865) Nordic electro-acoustic jazz in the Esbjorn Svensson/Tord Gustavson direction, ie moody, atmospheric and haunting - featuring Oddgeir Berg (piano), Audun Ramo (bass) and Lars Berntsen (drums).
Friday, August 23
STEELY JAZZ (Hunter Club, Bury, 7.30pm, £20, headhunterslive.org, 07799 650009) A fresh look at the songs of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, aka Steely Dan, lovingly arranged for jazz quintet. With Chris Ingham (piano/vocal), Harry Greene (sax/guitar), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Geoff Gascoyne (bass) and George Double (drums).
Wednesday, August 28
TONY KOFI & THE ORGANISATION (Stoke By Nayland Golf Club, 8pm, £20, 01787 211865, fleecejazz.org.uk) A selection of hard-hitting tunes in the blues, jazz and funk idioms with award-winning saxophonist Kofi plus Liam Dunachie (organ), Simon Fernsby (guitar) and Pete Cater (drums).
Sunday, September 8
BLUE TOWN TRIO (Venue 16, Ipswich, 2.30pm, £15, ipswichjazzandblues.com) Grooving standards with a blues tinge fronted by Zoe Francis (vocals) with the legendary Jim Mullen (guitar) and ever-resourceful Ross Stanley (organ).
Friday, September 13
FLANAGAN (Diss Corn Hall, 7.30pm, £18, thecornhall.co. uk, 01379 652241)Mark Flanagan is a blues guitarist who has played with Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra since 1988. Tonight he fronts his acclaimed blues/folk/roots trio Flanagan spotlighting his own heartfelt original songs, featuring Adam Double (bass) and George Double (drums).
FOLK with Chris Wilbraham: chris.wilbraham@tinyonline.co.uk
The Larks’s love affair with the Ely Folk scene continued last week. After spending the previous Friday evening at Ely Folk Festival, last Wednesday we played a set for Ely Folk Club to a large appreciative audience at The Arkenstall Village Centre, Haddenham, in support of Camus, a five-piece band with a wide array of instruments.
When we arrived at 6.45pm, they were waiting to sound check, while Dee the sound engineer finished setting up the PA. We later learned she’d only had access to the building at 6 o’clock. Bearing in mind the festival had only happened a few days earlier, we weren’t expecting a large audience and were impressed when the building began to fill with people as the sound was sorted.
Not unusually, the club has had many homes. Started in 1990 by the people that founded the festival, it has been in the care of Ruth Bramley since 1993. Over time it has resided in Ely Maltings, The Royal Standard, The Cutter and The Lamb Inn and has attracted people such as Andy and Joan Wall, Sue Burnsall and Dave Boddy to help keep the folk flame burning monthly on the Isle of Ely. The Old Dispensary was home from 2013 until Covid struck. The Arkenstall Centre was adopted as its size allowed for increased social distancing. Happily, since then its space has been filled by larger audiences as the club has thrived.
There was time for Dee to settle us in on stage, before Ruth introduced us and we played five original songs, including Caistermen, about the 1901 Caister lifeboat disaster and Shippea Hill, about the remote fenland railway station.
We quickly made way for Camus. They started with an arrangement for twin Northumbrian smallpipes, fiddle, melodian, piano and guitar. Typically, they join two or three tunes together, some of them original, one combination being a bluegrass tune segueing into an Old Time tune, necessitating a change from Bazouki to guitar for Brian Cleary mid performance. It all sounded fabulous.
During the interval we had various conversations with audience members about goings on at Shippea Hill Station, from wagon loads of carrots leaving the fens, to wartime accounts of deliveries of bombs passing through and the platform crowded with American airmen. Melodian player Andrew Burn from Camus chatted about aresonance Caistermen has with a song he’s written about Orkney fishermen and how they, like the Edwardian lifeboat men, wore distinctive knitwear, gansies in Norfolk dialect, partly to aid identification in case their bodies were found after being lost at sea.
Camus’s second set was well received, with the Orkney fisherman song featuring as well a fine song inspired by Andrew Burn’s memory of fish wives knocking on his family’s door in Galashiels during his childhood.
If you are considering taking a trip to Haddenham after the summer break, Ruth guaranteed a warm welcome and suggested booking tickets in advance to ensure a seat. It also costs a bit less this way. She isn’t publishing next years gigs yet but the autumn list is out, including The London Philharmonic Skiffle Orchestra in December, one of whom she was at university with.
I challenged her to recall the gig that has most excited her over the last 30 years. She mentioned hosting Show of Hands several times, the last occasion a sell-out gig on their farewell tour this year. Seth Lakeman also featured and having Martin Carthy perform in the club pantomime is understandably a treasured memory.
A folk club with that track record has to be worth a trip.
Here are some gigs happening sooner:
Friday, July 26
Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge, Cambridge Folk Festival, through to Sunday, July 28.
Quay Theatre, Sudbury, 7.30pm, Gael Force. £14.
Friday, August 2
Beer Café, Bury St Edmunds, 2pm, An Afternoon of Folk/Acoustic Music.
The Walnut, Stowmarket, 8.30pm, The Larks.
