Music / blues
Bristol Jazz & Blues Fest Day 3 feat Dr John
Colston Hall, Sunday 8
So – New Orleans ‘take down’ day: what was that going to mean to the ever-growing throng packing the Colston Hall? Things warmed up well with Jim Blomfield’s excellently hard-edged Kraut-jazz Foyer set, followed by Victoria Klewins’ beguiling swing on the same stage. Later the Foyer would see Kevin Figes Octet making carefully-judged and layered ambient jazz before every available level became packed for Andy Sheppard’s Pushy Doctors beautiful set including Dan Moore’s impeccable Garth Hudson-style intro to a haunting Only Love Can Break Your Heart. James Morton’s funk-rocking Rawness project had the joint jumping later still.
In the Lantern the Pee Wee Ellis Funk Assembly boasted Jason Rebello on keyboards, with Tony Remy dazzlingly reminding us he was King of Jazz Rock Guitar before Huey Morgan arrived to stake his claim on that score. Happily it was the funk beat and Pee Wee’s indefatigable imagination that won outright.
New Orleans really appeared in both a spectacular words & music show about Louis Armstrong and the appearance of Crescent City legend Dr John. Neither disappointed: despite obvious mobility issues the aged Dr John enraptured a sold out Hall One with a gravel-voiced mix of old hits with the occasional Longhaired piano break sparkling through.
The Louis Armstrong story powerfully and movingly expressed Satchmo’s greatness as both musical genius and wise human being, blistering trumpet solos and showboating songs separated by Clarke Peter’s characterful reading from Armstrong’s own words about life and everything. One dazzling moment brought Lillian Boutté’s live-wire vocals together with Evan Christopher’s clarinet and Don Vappie’s jaw-droppingly multi-layered banjo into a perfect distillation of New Orleans’ life-affirming musical energy. It was an impressive and powerful show that really deserves to be put on big stages around the country and beyond.
Now in its third year the Bristol International Jazz and Blues Festival has grown into something real and big: well-filled gigs, many sold out, with a wide range of styles and some truly memorable musical moments. It reflects the city’s remarkable musical resources and, best of all, it brings the Colston Hall to happy, thronging life in a way that rarely happens (but surely is what that big gold extension was supposed to be about).
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