The Savannah Jazz Band

Roger Myerscough and Bill Smith - The Savannah Jazz Band

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A year on from their last appearance the ever popular Savannah Jazz Band were back again in Castleton at Jazz on Sunday.

Led by drummer John Meehan, with regulars Bill Smith on cornet, Brian ‘Sam’ Ellis on trombone, Chris Marney on banjo and Tony Pollitt on bass with Dave Mott deputising on reeds for the unavailable Roger Myerscough, they kicked off by suggesting that we ‘Linger Awhile’, launching next into ‘Apex Blues’, into a Smith vocal ‘Exactly Like You’ and then the slower and infinitely gentler ‘Breeze’.

After this the sound of ‘adjacent’ as opposed to ‘distant’ drums could be heard with leader Meehan to the fore in ‘Hiawatha Rag’, banjo player Chris, demonstrating that he is no slouch either when it comes to the romantic ballad, brought us ‘Am I Blue’ and to end the first set Bill assumed his blues harmonica and vocal personae with an individualistic, bordering on the misogynistic, rendering of ‘Just Like A Woman’

Meehan was front and centre again as set two opened with ‘Canal Street Blues’, during the course of which were discerned overtones of ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’. Next came the spiritual ‘In The Sweet By And By’, a seminal Dixieland tune (albeit one with semi-authenticated French origins) namely ‘The 1919 March’ then it was Bill again, this time in full romantic balladeer mode, with American crooner Vaughn Monroe’s 1947 hit ‘There I’ve Said It Again’ before reverting, some would say, to type for the in your face novelty number ‘Shake I Don’t Break It’.

Though seldom, if ever, heard at jazz gigs, either with or without lyrics, ‘The Love Nest’ from Chris was immediately identified by an worryingly large number of audience members as having been the theme tune from the Burns & Allen television show of the nineteen fifties - the aura of nostalgia being further reinforced as the set closed on ‘The Isle Of Capri’.     

The final set started with Dixieland standard ‘That’s A Plenty’. Chris again took the microphone, now with Bill’s (muted) cornet in support, for ‘Louisiana Fairytale’ then after Dave on clarinet had afforded club members a tantalising glimpse into ‘High Society’ (quickly countered by Bill’s ‘Nothing Blues’) and with the clock rapidly winding down he switched over to alto as Savannah Jazz strutted their individual and collective stuffs on an ‘East Coast Trot’ before we and they were eventually resigned to ‘Going Home’.