All Jazzed Up

My friend Angela rang me on Tuesday and said "The Ronnie Scott's All Stars* are playing at the Brook on Thursday, I'm going, so are X, Y and Z, you should totally get a ticket". Short notice, but the Brook Theatre is nice and convenient to me, so I popped into Rochester yesterday, and bought myself a ticket - I couldn't get one for the area at the front arranged as tables where my friend had booked (couldn't figure out if it was all sold out, or the people at the Tourist Info couldn't navigate their own booking software), but I took what I could get.

Minor panic before leaving today, I couldn't find my mobile to see if Angela had responded to my text that I had a ticket, with things like suggestions as to where we should meet, but I ran out of time to look for it and figured we could meet at the door if nowhere else.

Getting to the Brook is fairly simple - out of my estate, turn right and brake for the next 20 minutes (it's a fair old hill) and I was there 10 minutes before doors were due to open. Next people to turn up were my friends (there were seven of us all told, four close friends, one I know to speak to and her partner who I'd not met before), so we decided to see if we could get in yet. It's an old Victorian building (once upon a time the town hall), with steps to the entrance. I've been there before, but not as a wheelie. Fortunately there was a wheelchair lift tucked away to the side, which the staff quickly sorted out (the idea that wheelies might feel fully capable of using a lift on their own is still fairly revolutionary). "Good job you're coming up," they said "There's a real clang going down when it gets to the bottom".

So in, and up the lift to the 1st floor, where I'm reunited with everyone else and Angela's husband is taking drinks orders (almost everyone went for Bishop's Finger, which is a really nice local beer), glance around and Angela is talking to someone I'm immediately convinced is probably the vocalist as she's saying "Yeah, so-and-so isn't playing bass tonight, he's got another gig and I didn't know until I got here" (Angela is both a member at Ronnie Scott's Club, and a bass player, plus the most gregarious person I've ever met, so inevitably knows the band).

They open the doors to the auditorium proper and we're first in the queue. It turns out Angela has somehow managed to reserve the table that's centre stage and far enough back to have the optimum position in the house, even though tables were theoretically unreservable (which is why we made sure to be first in the queue - she was as surprised as the rest of us). I roll up behind them and the usher says "Ah, Mr Henderson!" before I even hand my ticket over. 

"No," says I.

"You're sure you don't want to be Mr Henderson?" (?!?!) 

"No, quite happy as Mister Gillon".

So they look at my ticket and start shifting chairs in the first row of seats to create a space for me (staggered seating, but the first row are loose seats)

"Actually I'm with this bunch, but Tourist Info didn't seem to want to sell me a ticket to sit with them" 

"Oh, that's fine, here, let's sort out the seats at the table"

So we all ended up seated together despite my fears we might end up separated (I'd forgotten how small the Brook is). And about 7:40 (vs a 7:30 scheduled kick off time) the band ambled on stage.

The pianist, James Pearson, takes the lead in introducing everyone, and initially it's just him and the bass player (who looks like he has the beard to convince people he's actually over the age of consent -and unfortunately  I can't remember his name) , and the drummer, Chris Higginbotham (who'll be played by Damien Lewis in the film), plus an AV track running on a screen behind them with pictures from the history of Ronny Scott's. (In theory the tour is celebrating the release of the "Soho Songbook" and the history of the club). Next to be added is the saxophonist, Alex Garnett,who looks like he should be an accountant, but apparently has been running the midnight to 5AM jam sessions at Ronnie Scott's for the past decade (including tonight's!), and is a fantastic saxophonist - I was struck by his sax, almost all the shiny gilding had worn off, there were just a few odd shiny areas left inside the horn - clearly a working musician's instrument. And then they introduced the vocalist, and of course it was the woman Angela had been talking to, Natalie Williams, who clearly was meant to be a  jazz vocalist - I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone whose lips and face were quite as expressive as they sang (and needing an old fashioned folding fan because the Brook isn't air conditioned doesn't hurt when you want to look dramatic)

And it was really good. I'm not sure why I've never been a jazz fan, because I really like it every time I hear it, but I've never seriously followed it, and yet I knew about half the tunes. Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Petersen, and so on. A history of Ronny Scott's in the music of the bands who have played there. Two 45 minute sets, giving everyone a chance to show off their talents in solos. Highlights, Chris Higginbotham's drum solo at the end of the first set (I don't think I've ever seen anyone mute a drum with their elbow before), practically anything Alex Garnett did (well, excluding the jokes), and Natalie Williams in general, I think Jazz may be the musical medium that shows off the voice as instrument to best effect. And if Natalie Williams hadn't expected to be dueting with the bass player before she arrived you absolutely couldn't tell. Over all too soon, but as an encore, "Sing, Sing, Sing (If You Ain't Got That Swing)" with the band walking off stage just as they've got the audience doing the "do-wap, do-wap, do-wap" bit. Effective, but a little startling!

And so out into a pleasant equinoctial evening, "There'll be a clang when it gets to the bottom" warned the staff as I used the wheelchair lift.

{Blase} "Yeah, yeah, you said"
"BOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!"

{Chastised glance back at staff} "Er, yeah, you weren't joking were you!"
 

And then I shamelessly blagged a lift home up the hill off my friends.

Good night.
 

* Ronnie Scott's is the most famous jazz club in the UK, this is basically their house band. See http://ronniescottsproductions.com/bands/all-stars/ The pic at the top is pianist, drummer, vocalist, bassist (not the one I saw) and saxophonist.