This evening, as usual, we broke our journey home from Park Farm to eat, drink and enjoy jazz at
The Cricketers in Horsell Birch. The band was the Excel Jazzmen, comprising Tony Karavis (leader, cornet, vocals), Bernie Murtha (clarinet, alto sax, vocals), Colin Kingwell (trombone, jokes), Terry Twiss (banjo, guitar, vocals), Mike Broad (bass) and Ian Parry (drums). This is a straight trad band, its best features being the vocals by Bernie and Terry. Best of these were
Bernie's 'Short Dress Gal', Selina's signature tune, and Terry's 'Out in the Cold Again'.
We danced to two great blues numbers; 'Wabash Blues' and 'Snag It'.
Our other favourites were:
'Mabel's Dream', for which Selina wanted intimate details of the dream so I invented something suitable;
'Papa Dip', one of Louis Armstrong's nicknames;
'Saratoga Swing' with fine guitar from Terry;
Bernie's feature 'The Old Rugged Cross', the number that started me on a Monty Sunshine period when I was 13-16, before I deserted him for Acker Bilk (at age 17-22) and then Sidney Bechet (23 - now).
Colin read an excellent joke that is too long to repeat here concerning sex between people aged 18 and 54. Is this to be encouraged ?
We sat with Axel and Tony, who kept us amused with stories of their ex-wives, children, former businesses and clothing (Tony wants to know if his braces will pass the Concorde Club's dress code). I hope that we entertain them as much as they entertain us.
Labels: Jazz
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