Another Bank Holiday over, Easter is behind us. I do hope you enjoyed your opportunities of meeting family and friends in the fresh air of your garden (or other, legal, outdoor space). I hadn’t seen my daughter or her family for 8 months, and we enjoyed al fresco dinning on Good Friday. It was so really good, especially as it was not as cold as forecast. SO, a blog now, even later than has become my usual, but at least I have some canned jazz to talk about.

I have been listening to some fine jazz from my earlier years.

If you followed my challenge to find some of the Jazz Today tracks now available on CD, you may have found, not just  Chris Barber, but the excellent 2 LP’s (that’s how they originally they were!) which had a wonderful selection of un-label-able jazz from Kenny Baker, Bruce Turner and other great worthies from the British musicians pool of the  1950’s

 

The LP’s were originally “Midnight at Nixa”, issued in 1956 and a year earlier “After Hours”. In my collection I have them on a CD issued on the Vocalion label CDNJT 5302, artwork above. I noticed “today”! that they were remastered by Michael J Dutton! I wonder....?

 Today I found these same tracks via my smart phone on Prime Music! How different from my days of 10 inch LP listening in a front (often very cold) room in Hammersmith. In those days we still wondered in amazement that a 10 inch LP could play for over 20 minutes. The 78’s I had been buying before could only manage 3 minutes!

Today, Bluetooth and Smart Phones have transformed the ease of listening, and of acquisition, but maybe NOT the joy of ownership!

Things had moved on (a lot!) by 1975 when the next album was recorded. And by 2004 when the CDs were released, durability and sound quality had changed yet again.

I have been playing this double album again this week for the first time in a few years, and one tends to forget what an innovative and accomplished band the Chris Barber Band were. If you search for the above album, you will see it categorised as “Dixieland”. Well, the tunes may be old (though not all) but the treatment is fresh and exciting, the improvisations are pretty good and the musicianship and arrangements superb. Who else would have a band with a banjo and an electric blues guitar, include in a concert such different era tunes as “High Society” (composed in 1901), “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” (composed 1966), and “Take the A Train” (composed in 1941). I know it is unfashionable these days to enjoy such music, but “Hey, Hey” it has lifted my spirits this past week.

Whilst tapping your feet and crossing your fingers, keep in mind that we may be able to bring live jazz, with real musicians and maybe the occasional wrong note, to Hedsor Club on May 20^th. Keep watching this space.