Our Creative Arts Festival launched this week, swathed in style, when our Quarry Theatre was transformed into a jazz club for the evening, complete with cabaret seating and low lighting.
It was, of course, the Bedford School Jazz Orchestra who were performing some of the great chart hits from the 1960s, such as Crisis (Hubbard), Grease Wheezer (Norman) and many more.
Master in Charge of Ickwell, Chris Jones, swapped his wellingtons for his bow tie to immerse himself in the atmosphere and kindly wrote a review:
Jazz aficionados of all ages gathered in the Quarry Theatre for a stunning night of performances from what, to my mind, must be one of the largest, finest and polished set of jazz collectives representing a school, and 99.9% made up of school performers from Prep to Upper. The Jazz Orchestra stretched out first and, with a 12-section brass contribution they gave a mega performance with a blend of unison and octave harmonies during their set. What a set! As the only staff back-up, the Head of Woodwind and Brass Dom Childs changed to baritone for the night to complement the playing. I am tempted to say that at a 12-strong brass section, this could be the largest, most iconic school jazz section in the UK. It certainly, to the reviewer’s mind, made as stunning a contribution as the one of my favourites – the professional big band led by Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland in the 60s and 70s. Outstanding in this were the great rhythm support from bass, drums and piano with Hugo on Alto and Daniel on trumpet. Gideon contributed some great piano work with Sam on trumpet in Crisis, by the great trumpeter Freddy Hubbard, adding to the tightness of the band’s playing.
Gideon on piano, Toby on electric bass and Josh on the sticks then stayed in their seats for a fine rendition of Peace by Horace Silver.
We have a great small jazz collective group, who used their improvisation skills on two numbers by Hubbard and Corcovado. Four saxes were a great innovation and carried the tunes well. Jazz is about improvisation, and for jazz learners, a difficult task, but the boys carried it off wonderfully well. There were solos from Korede and Aryan on altos and Toby now switched to tenor.
We also have a small Prep Jazz Band, and they showed their skills off with three trumpets, one alto saxophone and a slide trombone. Asha led on piano and there was a great trombone solo from Max. This group will provide the jazz stars for the Upper School in the future.
The Jazz Orchestra finished off the first half with After the Love Has Gone and followed with I’ll take Les by the great guitarist John Schofield. Once again, the boys stormed through these great tunes with aplomb and Mr Baker (sadly in his last contribution) held it all together with his band leader skills, giving us much to talk about in the break.
The high standards continued in the second half, with the Jazz Orchestra providing a Count Basie medley. Here, Josh on the sticks contributed some stunning solo work emulating the great work done by The Basie Band with two Jones’ (no relation unfortunately) over a long period, but these boys move onwards and upwards after leaving us and going into the jazz community.
One of the finest moments featured was Mist written by Errol Garner. Here we were treated to Harry on piano and Hugo on tenor. This was a triumph of improvisation and we cheered at the end to respect the talent showed. If I closed my eyes, it could have been the great Coleman Hawkins on sax and Bill Evans on piano playing together. Wow!
The New Jazz Collective returned on two famous numbers Doxy by Sonny Rollins and And What if I Don’t Know by Herby Hancock and, once again, they improvised and took over the tunes. Stand out this time was Korede on alto sax.
Not to be short changed was the contribution from Bedford Girls’ School, with a fine alto player joining the band and three singers on a lively interpretation of The Two of Us by Bill Withers.
The Jazz Orchestra finished things off with Recorda Me by Joe Henderson with a late fine solo by trombonist Max finishing off the evening in an outstanding contribution. Oh, and they did an encore. I should also say how well all the rhythm section musicians in the various bands backed up all the soloists – well done, boys and girls.
Come back next year for the continuing story!
