[Dixielandjazz] The Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party 2019

[Marek Boym]

Sorry about last night - I sent my message around 2AM.  Now it is WITH the
text!

THE WHITLEY BAY JAZZ FESTIVAL  - MIKE DURHAM'S C ASSIC JAZZ PARTY

I have attended quite  a few jazz festivals over the years, but none like
the Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party in Whitley Bay.  If I am not saying
unique it's only because I have not attended all jazz festivals the world
round.

The Whitley Bay festival does not feature bands, but rather is a repertory
one .  The only regular band featured at this year's festival was The
Vitality 5, but that band itself is topic oriented.  Sure, other festivals
feature tributes to musicians and bands of the past, but that is in
addition to working or specially organized bands.  The Whitley Bay features
first-class musicians from all over.  This year, in addition to British
players, there were Americans, Germans, Norwegians, Australians and
Frenchmen.  The Aussies and one American have fore the last few years been
UK residents.

Listing all the musicians would take a page, but some were internationally
recognized stars, such as the reed players Matthias Seuffert  and Claus
Jacobi (both German), Enrico Tomasso (British despite the Italian name),
the Norwegian Morten Gunnar Larsen and the American  Duke Heitger,  Josh
Duffee and David Boeddinghaus.   Not that the others were slouches, on the
contrary, just less well known.

They paid tribute to the founder of the late Mike Durham, the founder of
the festival and the excellent trumpeter, louis Armstrong, Bix, Jean
Goldkette, Jelly Roll Morton, the Louisiana Five, King Oliver, Clarence
Williams, various washboard bands, Harry Reser, Joe Venuti and more.
Altogether
there were 36 "topics," some half-hour, the others an hourlong.  And the
standard of playing was astounding!

The bands varied in size – from duos to 13 strong big bands.  And there
were three solo piano shows (The Professor 1, 2 and 3).

Some of the young musicians – the pianist Andrew Oliver (an American who
lives in the UK), the multi-instrumentalist Michael McQuaid (an expat
Aussie), Josh Duffee, the British drummer Nicholas D. Ball - turned out to
be real jazz "archeologists" who dug less well-known musicians as well as
some less well-known sessions and paid tribute thereto in programmes such
as "Clarinet Squawk" (tribute to the Louisiana Five),  "Jelly Roll Morton
is Other Bands," "New Orleans Echoes" (tribute to such largely forgotten
bands as the Halfway House Orchestra, Johnny De Droit and His New Orleans
Orchestra, Johnny Beyersdorfer and His Jazzola Novelty Orchestra, the
Crescent City Jazzers, the Sam Morgan's band, and the early bands of Armand
Piron and Papa Celestin.

"Duke' Big Four" hinted at Duke Ellington but was rather a bow to the
Bechet-Spanier Big Four.  Heitger didn't sound like Spanier, Stephane
Gillot didn't sound like Bechet, but the result was just great!  When I saw
"Emma's Hot Strings" was a tribute to Joe Venuti, with Emma Fisk playing
very hot violin.

On "Bands within the Bands" Joan Viskant proved a better singer than Edythe
Whyte.  In her own show, Ms. Viskant sang some "risqué" songs (she beats
you, Bob, and you cannot even adopt her songs for your "R  Rated", as they
are all feminine in gender).

I have always held that jam sessions  are the soul of a jazz festival, and
here it was even more conspicuous: the free wheeling playing at the jam
sessions was like a breath of fresh air after all the arranged shows,
wonderful as they were.  The jams started almost as soon as the "official"
sessions ended – 11:00PM, and lasted till 2:00-2:30 AM.  On the first night
there were just a few changes in personnel, and the indefatigable David
Boeddinghaus and Josh Duffee played for two and a half hours unbroken.  On
the other two nights it was like a musical kaleidoscope, with too many
changes to remember.  The last night it was madness – towards the end there
were 9 brass, three drummers, two pianists (four hands on one piano), and I
don't recall how many reeds on stage.  It was just great!

Not that there were no snags: "The Days Before Jazz" was hardly appropriate
for a jazz festival, and the "Music of the German Weimar Republic" with its
spoken vocals in German was even worse.  I expected something more "jazzy,"
as there was a lot of jazz in Germany at that time, but no trace of jazz
could be found; rather, they played Weil's songs as played before
adaptation for jazz, and other equally unswinging things.  I was not the
only one to walk out; on lady shouted "Are they preparing us for
occupation?" before walking out.

Nevertheless, the sum total is: An excellent and well-organized festival,
and I am hoping to be able to make the next one!  It merits great praise
not only for the quality if music, but also for the excellent sound and for
having the piano tuned during every longer interval.
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