On Monday night we saw Clive Burton's Century Jazz at
the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. The band was back to normal personnel, comprising Clive Burton (trombone), special guest Pete Towndrow (cornet, flugelhorn), Mike Wills, (alto and tenor sax) Zane Cronje (keyboard), John Money (string bass) and Martin Harp (drums). These are great musicians, playing swinging mainstream jazz from the heart. We particularly liked Zane's delicate style and his passing musical references to serious music, e.g. Chopin and Albeniz. Our favourite numbers were:
'This Heart of Mine';
Zane's feature 'The Folks who Live on the Hill';
'Casa de Luz' by Shorty Rogers (who remembers Shorty Rogers and his Giants from the '50s ?);
and, best of all my request, 'The Morning of the Carnaval' from Black Orpheus. Pete Towndrow loves the Brazilian Bossa Nova period (as do we) but denied ever playing 'Carnaval' before. I said that he had played it one night at the Berrylands when Brian White was absent but, on checking my own weblog, I see that he got Alan Dandy and Rex Bennett to play it for me. I apologise.
We sat with a good crowd of women, including Jan Burton, Doreen Towndrow and Margaret, Zane's young lady. This left no room for Brian who, having heard our moans about New Year's Eve, handed us a printed invitation to have dinner at his place and then go on to the Co-op club. What a nice guy !
Labels: Jazz
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