John Shillito Select Six - Jazz on a Sunday

John Shillito

A visit from the John Shillito Select Six from glorious Devon is always awaited with expectation and this year’s northern expedition was greeted with multitudinous applause.

The band members have superb musicianship blended into the perfect ‘finished article’.

Led by Shillito on trumpet and vocals, what better to start than “Sunday Night in New Orleans”. Gershwin’s “Strike up the Band” brought the baritone sax of John Wurr into play with Shillito adding the words, whilst harmony personified prevailed with old favourite “Clarinet Marmalade”.

Buddy Bolden, one of the pioneers of New Orleans jazz fought long and hard to populize the genre, and his “Buddy Bolden Blues” had the bluesy strains of Wurr’s clarinet and the trombone on Bobby Fox mingling with the deep vocal tones and muted trumpet of Shillito.

The calypso beat of Rollins’ “St Thomas” had Mayfield’s resident ‘danceuse’ in full flow as Wurr’s sax and an array of percussion drove the rhythm.

“I Can’t Dance” had Shillito and Wurr in a vocal tandem to the sliding trombone of Fox before “Bugle Boy March” gave a rousing finale to the first set.

There is always something fresh about Shillito’s arrangements, and Wurr’s alto sax powered into set two with “Choo Choo Ch-Boogie”, then slowed down with the gentle spiritual “His Eyes on the Sparrow”, sung by Shillito with the clarinet solo of Wurr complemented by the muted tones of trumpet and trombone.

“That’s a Plenty” brought the banjo of John Whitlock into the frame and he followed this with his own composition of “Helter Skelter”, ably assisted by Derek Maughan on drums and the orange socked bass guitarist Bob Jarvis – does he support Blackpool?

Shillito introduced the rarely played Jell Roll Morton number “Big Lip Blues” with some sparkling trumpet and plaintive alto sax, and finished the set with the driving rhythm of one of his favourites “Go to the Mardi Gras” with the petite Cath’s artistic impressions lighting up the dance floor.

A John Shillito gig is always great value, with musicians of quality and a ‘tight ship’ of professionalism giving the finest of entertainment. A third set of eight numbers chosen for its versatility had this audience hanging on every note.

Louise Prima’s “See Baby Tonight” set the scene, with Shillito in fine voice, a driving front line and powerful rhythm section, and his muted trumpet and vocal led “All My Life” neatly blended with smooth baritone sax and trombone.

Shillito does like extolling the virtues of New Orleans using his deepest tones advising “Go to New Orleans” powered by Wurr’s alto sax.

A change in style as the Wurr/Shillito duet sang “Buona Sera”, Fox’s trombone fuelling the tune, followed by a superb Wurr alto sax solo with “Caravan” and a neat interlude of Maughan’s drumming skills.

The softer Shillito sound sang “My Lucky Day” switching to ‘hell for leather’, “Stand Up” and running into “When the Saints go Marching In” with the decibels out of control and a cacophony of sound.

It was time to go, and the band played out with the ultra smooth “Lights Out”. Come back soon.