Reporter: Tony Sheldon
Date online: 12/06/2008

The Jazz Gentlemen are a tight knit six piece, that is if any band featuring eccentric trombonist Terry Brunt can be called ‘tight knit’.

Led by bass player Keith Allcock, this band of fine musicians got the show on the road with “China Town” and a long first set brought a selection of melodic and choice arrangements.

Vocals by trumpeter Derek Skepper with “That’s My Home” – more Armstrong than Bilk- and “Everybody Loves My Baby” with Terry Porter’s soprano sax and Maurice Gavan’s boogie piano gave that feel of nostalgia.

“Tin Roof Blues” led by Porter’s clarinet and Skepper’s trumpet made all the right sounds, whilst the trumpet driven “Big House Blues” not one of Ellington’s better numbers – I find it “Bitty” was followed by a muted trumpet and Gavan’s piano with “Sugar” and a Fred Martin birthday request “Opus One”.

A powerful sax driven “Doggin Around” with multi solo contributions was my choice number of the set.

A short second set featured “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and a nice blend in “Riverboat Shuffle”. Brunt’s vocal and trombone gave a smooth version of “Breeze” and his eccentricity shone through with vocal and solo in “St James Infirmary Blues” – quite ‘Brunt-a-saurus’.

Suitably refreshed, the band were ready for a third set ‘par excellence’. I’m not sure what they were imbibing but Billy Cotton’s “Somebody Stole My Girl” sung by Skepper had us all ‘Wakey, Wakey’ and his versatility was obvious, singing “Aint Gonna Give Nobody None of my Jelly Roll” – a classic English title.

The rarely played “Squatting Room” brought nice front line variations, “Willie the Weeper” used plenty of rhythm with piano, bass and the opportunity for Dick Nancarrow to perform his drumming skills.

A dreamy “East of the Sun” with the solo clarinet nuances of Porter with the rhythm sections close attention was so relaxing, before changing to sax with Bechets “Dans les Rues de l’Antibes” another ‘piece de resistance’ – must be the French presidential election getting to me.

“Wabash Blues” were given the front line treatment and the gentlemen played out in a rousing finish – with drum solo – “Royal Garden Blues” and we all went home happy, Au revoir!

The Jazz Gentlemen
The Broadfield Hotel
Sunday 13 May 2007