Jazz on a Sunday the Tuxedo Jazz Band

Izzy Toner, Jazz On A Sunday the Tuxedo Jazz Band

Old friends of Jazz on a Sunday the Tuxedo Jazz Band were guests at the Newtown National Club where led by drummer Brian Woods they lined up with Richard Knock on trumpet, Andrew Wilkinson deputising on reeds for the indisposed Gerry Owen, Derek Galloway on trombone, Malcolm Hogarth on piano, Mal Horne on banjo and guitar and Isabel Toner on bass.

Local product Wilkinson was quickly called upon, contributing some highly inventive clarinet work as they opened with a rousing ‘Don’t Give Up The Ship’ and was front and centre once more on a standout version of ‘Isle Of Capri’.

Then the tempo changed as Galloway on trombone with Horne in support on guitar assumed centre stage for the Duke Ellington jazz standard ‘Rose Room’ and it was march time with Knock on trumpet, Hogarth on piano and Horne, back now on banjo, doing the honours on Sidney Bechet’s ‘Dans Les Rues D’Antibes’. The evening’s first vocal offering found Horne, accompanied by Wilkinson on alto saxophone and Hogarth on piano with ‘Darkness On The Delta’ after which Derek Galloway did full justice to the all too infrequently heard Louis Armstrong number ‘Jack I’m Mellow’, evoked Ethel Waters on Fats Waller’s ‘Black And Blue’ before rejoining the band proper to end the first set with ‘Maryland My Maryland’.

Set Two opened with Horne’s banjo prominent and ‘Fidgety Feet’, then he took the microphone for ‘Georgia Grind’ with Wilkinson’s alto in support before bassist Isobel Toner offered extended contributions during ‘Louisiana’ (pronounced Louisiann-eye-ay) and in Galloway’s subsequent vocal/trombone rendition of (the more conventionally rendered) ‘Lousiana Fairytale’.

It was assumed for whatever reason that Jazz on a Sunday members would be fully familiar with the words to the tune that closed the second set and when invited to sing along to ‘Beer Barrel Polka’ they duly confirmed this, singing lustily and rolling out the barrel in some style.

‘China Boy’ opened the final set with Horne on vocals and Knock’s trumpet and Wilkinson’s clarinet in support then Galloway coerced a long-time friend Geoff Roberts into emerging from the audience and joining him for ‘Magnolia’s Wedding Day’ a song which they have apparently been performing together since they were fourteen years of age. Curiously they were, and have remained, tight lipped regarding the exact year of that first performance.

A clarinet tour de force from guest Wilkinson and rhythm section support followed by way of ‘Benny’s Boogie’ the beat went Latin with the intriguing ‘Mama Ines’ from banjo player Horne before we were treated to one of Malcolm Hogarth’s boogie-woogie style specials in the guise of ‘Let Me Call You Sweetheart’.

The required respite arrived with trumpeter Knock’s arresting interpretation of Ira Gershwin and Vernon Duke’s 1936 composition ‘I Can’t Get Started’ then Galloway took the microphone for one last time and another Sidney Bechet number ‘Cakewalking Babies’ before with Horne’s banjo alongside sending us away fittingly into the Castleton night with ‘The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise’.