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Reviewers: Tony Augarde [Editor], Steve Arloff, Nick Barnard, Pierre Giroux, Don Mather, James Poore, Glyn Pursglove, George Stacy, Bert Thompson, Sam Webster, Jonathan Woolf



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BRITISH TRADITIONAL JAZZ

Goes To The Movies

LAKE LACS6

 

 

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

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