The Richard Exall/Amy Roberts Band

The Richard Exall/Amy Roberts Band

The Richard Exall/Amy Roberts Band made a much anticipated return to its Newtown National Club, Nixon Street venue on Sunday 4 January 2015 to collect the Harry Cameron Memorial Trophy for Jazz On A Sunday’s Band of The Year 2013-2014 and Harry’s daughter Sally and his grandson Andrew attended to make the presentation.

Co-incidentally the band’s line-up was the same as it had been at their last appearance in August, comprising Amy on clarinet, on alto sax and on flute with her co-leader and fellow Barber Band member Richard Exall on clarinet, alto and tenor, supported by Henry Botham on piano, Jim Swinnerton on bass and John Watson on drums.

As ever the session swung from the get go - an exhilarating ‘Lady Be Good’ and no less so as Richard took the microphone for the first time with ‘Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby’.

There followed ‘Basin Street Blues’ with Richard and Amy on tenor and altos respectively then by popular demand Amy on clarinet reprised her August magic and the samba sounds of ‘Tico Tico’. Next it was Richard back on song with ‘The Very Thought Of You’ before he reverted to tenor sax, joining Amy on alto for the Gerry Mulligan inspired ‘Bernie’s Tune’.

‘Sweet Sue’ found Richard on clarinet again with Amy remaining on alto before the set ended in something of a tear-up with Louis Jordan’s seminal jump-jive number ‘Caldonia’.

The pace was maintained as Set Two kicked off with ‘Hindustan’ showcasing Amy on alto and Richard on tenor combining to blow up a veritable (sand) storm. ‘Flamingo’ came next then to the same degree of acclaim that had greeted her August performance Amy soloed on flute to a bossa nova beat and the theme from ‘Black Orpheus’. Following this an arrangement reportedly attributable to John Kirby who had played double bass, and indeed tuba, with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, namely Chopin’s ‘Minute Waltz’, was played by pianist Botham at the kind of pace members have come to associate with performances of ‘St Philip Street Breakdown’ and went down to considerable acclaim. The principals’ twin clarinets gave us ‘If I Had You’ and the set closed to Exall’s outstanding arrangement of ‘Limehouse Blues’.

The final set kicked off with a quirky, strangely attractive, almost Les Dawson-esque interpretation by Henry of ‘The Mule’. The sound of the big bands was conjured up and then some with Earl Bostic’s ‘Night Train’ and Richard took centre stage for the final time vocally with ‘Georgia On My Mind’.

Lester Young’s classic ‘Lester Leaps In’ was next then in response to an audience request we had another clarinet duo and Duke Ellington’s ‘Creole Love Call’ before another thoroughly enjoyable evening in Castleton wound up in unashamedly trad jazz style with ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’.