On Saturday evening we went to
Cranleigh Village Hall to see
John Maddocks Jazzmen for the first time. The strength of this traditional jazz band lies in the front line of John Maddocks (clarinet, vocals), Peter Wilkinson (trumpet, vocals) and Tony Farr (trombone), all fine jazz musicians. The rhythm section, comprising Peter Tamplin (keyboard), John Arthy (bass), Keith Dorey, (banjo, guitar) and Brian Barker (drums) left us feeling they are capable of more than they were giving. The exception was Keith's beautiful guitar solo during 'Mood Indigo'. Our favourite number was 'Mama's Gone Goodbye'; played as well as, or better than, any band we know.
This was our first visit to Cranleigh Village Hall and we were quite impressed. Cranleigh is certainly no village (population 16000) and it follows that its hall is very much larger than the norm. It swallowed the large audience with ease, leaving plenty of room for dancing and brolly parade as can be seen in the picture. We booked late so had to sit in the gallery with stairs down to the dance area but the view and sound were arguably better. We made our own little space up there to dance and we sat with band wives and driver plus Peter Wilkinson for two brief periods when he was not playing. In the second session we were joined by George Eatwell, who preferred to sit with us rather than his allocated seat downstairs.
Labels: Jazz
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