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THE NEW FOXTROT SERENADERS Buttonhole and Tails |
EM RECORDS EMR CD072 [43:56]
All works arranged by John Ashworth
Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Dance, Little Lady
Poor Little Rich Girl
Love is the Sweetest Thing
We’ll Gather Lilacs
Smile When You Say ‘Goodbye’
First World War Medley
Could You Please Oblige Us with a Bren Gun?
Keep The Home Fires Burning
Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye)
Flanagan and Allen Medley
Leaning on a Lamp-post
Goodnight, Sweetheart
We’ll Meet Again
Recorded December 2019, The King’s School, Canterbury
The New Foxtrot Serenaders are regular and highly popular visitors to the English Music Festival. The band’s founder, pianist and the man who wrote all the arrangements on this disc was John Ashworth, who died in 2019, shortly before this disc was made, and so it stands as a worthy memorial to this versatile and valued musician.
The Serenaders is a seven-piece dance band and some doubling ensures that there is much instrumental variety to be heard. Additionally, violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck joins the band for three numbers. Trumpeter Graham Wright co-founded the Serenaders with Ashworth and leads from the front, taking the affable vocals as well, with unpretentious brio. The arrangements are tightly conceived and allow both strong ensemble and opportunities for brief solos, all the while motored by the drums of Kevin Miles in fine period style. Wright sings both chorus and verse of Ray Noble’s evergreen Love is the Sweetest Thing – and, no, he’s not trying to copy Al Bowlly, which is a forlorn task in any case – where the saxes are tightly voiced and Nicolas Charles takes a tenor solo to which Wright responds with a trumpet counter-melody, followed by a straighter solo and Marshall-Luck’s eloquent violin; neat touches. Little details like this keep things fresh in what is, clearly, a very popular-oriented programme. We’ll Gather Lilacs, for example, is very gently swung
There are two medleys; the First World War one sports Pack Up Your Troubles and It’s A Long Way to Tipperary, neither with vocal here, but very charmingly done. The other takes things forward to Flanagan and Allen, who largely cover the Second World War. Again, this is a band effort and I think I can detect a Red Nichols cum Sylvester Ahola approach to Wright’s work in this medley which includes some of their most popular work, such as Run, Rabbit, Run as well as that poignant last recording that Flanagan made, of the theme tune forDad’s Army, namely Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler?
There are many nostalgic favourites to enjoy by the likes of Noël Coward and Ivor Novello but whilst the name of Harry Parr-Davies may not mean quite so much, he wrote Smile When You Say ‘Goodbye’ and Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye), and both are included here. In the latter there’s a rare example of a saxophone duet (Nicolas Charles and Paul Williams) in these arrangements, almost all of which, by the way, are heard in premiere recordings.
This is a nice sounding dance band. It’s not what used to be called ‘hot’ because that’s not the repertoire and it’s not the milieu. Instead, there are dancing shoes to be worn and partners to be twirled in this 44-minute, excellently recorded set.
Jonathan Woolf
See also review by Bruce McCollum