Fabienne Dondard (Acc/vcl), Phillips Gugnier (lead gtr) Bernard Anthérieu (rhythm gtr/clt), Jérome Nicolas (ten/clt), Yves Buffetrille (bs).
Close your eyes and you're in a club on the Left Bank or maybe a waterfront café in Marseilles. Open your eyes and, providing the music's still playing, you're still sipping a cognac and nodding your head appreciatively in time to the music. When the music stops you're back in the Saville Exchange - a converted old church in North Shields.
Nany Swing are one of the better kept secrets of the jazz world - surely they cannot remain a secret for much longer? I'm reminded in many ways of when WASO arrived some 30 years ago - so different to anything else in the contemporary traditional world.
Despite difficulties in getting from Nimes to Marseilles to Paris to England due to fog and disappearing luggage - giving promoter Mike Durham such concern that he had the Rae Brothers on standbye - Le tout ensemble gave it 110%.
Tonight's gig saw a new tenor/clarinet player in Jérome Nicolas as well as a different bass player. Jérome has liberated himself from the Bechet vibrato - something few French reedmen manage - and is clearly in the Artie/Benny bag. His tenor playing sits comfortably in the swing era with a nice clear sound and a lot of drive.
Lead guitar and rhythm guitar push things along nicely whilst the bassman - who reminds me of WASO's former bassman - keeps the ship steady.
La Chanteuse Fabienne sings delightfully in French even though I haven't a clue what the words mean! The effect thus is of another instrument. Fabienne is also an ace button key accordianist.
So it isn't all totally jazz? So what? It's pretty damn close most of the time and when it isn't it's still fine by me.
The whole experience can be repeated at Gosforth's Trinity Centre tomorrow (Saturday).
Lance
Trinity Saturday.
ReplyDeleteWhat more can one say? This band is absolutely brilliant. Please keep us all informed as to when they return. Perhaps we shouldn't let them go!
George