IT’S TRAD DAD
TERRY LIGHTFOOT’S NEW ORLEANS JAZZMEN
Tavern In The Town; Maryland My Maryland
KENNY BALL & HIS JAZZMEN
1919 March; Beale Street Blues
THE TEMPERANCE SEVEN
Dreamaway Romance; Everybody Loves My Baby
BOB WALLIS & HIS STORYVILLE JAZZMEN
Bellisima; Aunt Flo
MR ACKER BILK & HIS PARAMOUNT JAZZ BAND
High Society
Frankie & Johnny
In A Persian Market
CHRIS BARBER’S JAZZ BAND
Yellow Dog Blues
Down By The Riverside
When The Saints Go Marching In
LOOK BACK IN ANGER
CHRIS BARBER’S JAZZ BAND
Don’t Go ‘Way Nobody
THE WILD & THE WILLING
MIKE COTTON’S JAZZMEN
Zulu Warrior
The Tinker
Theme For Harry
Theme For Josie
WEST ELEVEN
KEN COLYER’S JAZZMEN
Creole Bo Bo
Gettysburg March
TAKE ME OVER
THE TEMPERANCE SEVEN
Take Me Over
THE TOMMY STEELE STORY
HUMPHREY LYTTELTON & HIS BAND
Bermondsey Bounce
BAND OF THIEVES
MR ACKER BILK & HIS PARAMOUNT JAZZBAND
Band Of Thieves
Coffee & Acker Cake
All I Wanna Do Is Sing
Lonely
Behind Bars
Smoochy
IN THE DOGHOUSE
DICK CHARLESWORTH & HIS CITY GENTS
In the Doghouse
LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER
PAT HALCOX GROUP
Loneliness Of the Long Distance Runner
IT’S GREAT TO BE YOUNG
HUMPHREY LYTTELTON & HIS BAND
Jam Session.
Recorded 1956-62
LAKE LACS6
[76:11]
I imagine this release might appeal to both Traditionalists and film fans. Those of us whose Venn Diagram is shaded with both Jazz and Film, spurred on as
many of us doubtless were by David Meeker’s astonishingly helpful book about jazz in the movies, will welcome this evocatively produced disc. Furthermore -
and in straitened times one shouldn’t overlook such things - it’s presented in Lake’s budget-priced series.
The booklet’s cover reprints the film posters so lovers of British traditionalism and – largely -60s film will have a ball. The bulk of the music comes
from It’s Trad Dad, which featured much by a sextet of bands riding high in public consciousness, as well as by popular artists who clearly have
no place here (Gene Vincent, Chubby Checker etc). As so often Terry Lightfoot offers good and not very good (Tavern In The Town), Kenny Ball
dispenses fun, and the Temperance Seven evince something of the lugubrious side of their natures via the band-within-a-band Carnation Quartet. Bob Wallis
mines his inner Louis Prima and Acker’s trio of contributions are headed by Stan Greig’s piano on Frankie and Johnny and the lusty updating of
Ketelbey’s In A Persian Market. The three Barber cuts are all confident examples of his band’s playing, and Ottilie sings on two of them.
It was Barber’s band that was selected for the soundtrack of Look Back in Anger and the single song represented here is Don’t Go ‘Way Nobody. For that eyebrow-raising title The Wild and the Willing we hear from the youthful Mike Cotton’s Jazzmen, reputedly
the youngest pros on the scene. Norrie Paramor, Light Music guru, did the arrangements and the band acquits itself well - nice chimes themes on Zulu Warrior. The Guv’nor contributes two songs to the film West Eleven – up to scratch in every way – and The Temps return, with a bit
of studio production, to unveil Take Me Over, the title of a film of the same name. Humph and his band appear twice. He turns up inThe Tommy Steele Story with his own Bermondsey Bounce – nice Bruce Turner solo – and also in It’s Great To Be Young where hisJam Session has just a whiff of corn about it – deliberately raucous to simulate the session concerned. Acker Bilk returns with six cuts fromBand of Thieves which finds him in loosely jump band mode. There is a story behind Pat Halcox’s recording on The Loneliness Of the Long Distance Runner – it’s a composite taken from music heard throughout the film and stitched together here. It reminds one,
though, of the appeal Jazz, specifically the more popular end of things, had for film makers of the time. Two of the films, this last one and Look Back in Anger – have lasted filmically. It’s also, however, interesting to hear them in the context of the other less art-conscious, populist
films of the time. Doubtless this isn’t Lake’s agenda but it is a necessary by-product, and I welcome it.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
LAKE LACS6
