Nairn Jazz Festival 2004: Angelo Debarre Quartet / Duke Heitger’s New Orleans All Stars

9 Aug 2004 in Festival, Highland, Music

Universal Hall, Findhorn, Saturday 7 August 2004

Angelo Debarre

THE NAIRN JAZZ FESTIVAL actually got underway along the road at the Universal Hall in Findhorn, a venue that will play a major part in this year’s event, including exclusive appearances by two of the headlining artists, guitarist Angelo Debarre and singer Niki Haris. Many of the other headliners, including Duke Heitger, are scheduled to play in both Nairn and Findhorn, giving two bites at the cherry on the one hand, and some schedule-juggling dilemmas on the other.

That is how it should be at festivals, and minor setbacks like the last-minute withdrawal of star names should not be allowed to mar the occasion either. French guitar star Bireli Lagrene was due to make his festival debut in the opening concert this year, but illness meant the late drafting-in of another big name in the gypsy-jazz firmament, Angelo Debarre, plucked from his holidays in Chamonix to fill the gap.

Debarre linked up with the scheduled trio of violinist Christian Garrick, rhythm guitarist Dave Kelbie and bassist Pete Kubryck-Townsend for an exciting set in the famous string-driven, Reinhardt-Grappelli inspired Hot Club style, with some more contemporary twists thrown in. The driving rhythms brought a certain sameness to the music over a full set, a characteristic of the style, but they ripped through the combination of jazz standards and Reinhardt compositions in exhilarating fashion.

“Their treatments … breathed new vitality into both the repertoire and the musical tradition itself.”

DUKE HEITGER is also a newcomer to the Nairn festival, but the trumpeter arrived trailing a considerable reputation as a young man taking a leading role in carrying the venerable New Orleans jazz tradition into a new generation of players.

The advance praise proved to be well-founded. The music may have been as familiar and even hoary as in any run-of-the-mill trad band pub bash, but the playing was as good as it gets in this style, both in the exciting polyphonic ensembles and in the succinct, crisply focussed soloing.

The band combined younger stars like Heitger and the equally impressive Evan Christopher on clarinet with established figures like drummer Tony DeNicola and trombonist Bob Havens, and added both saxophonist Brian Ogilvy and bassist Andy Cleyndert as guests to the visiting sextet (pianist Steve Pistorius and guitarist Lars Edegren completed the New Orleans contingent).

Their treatments of chestnuts like ‘Royal Garden Blues’ or a version of ‘High Society’ taken at breakneck tempo were both fresh and exciting, and they breathed new vitality into both the repertoire and the musical tradition itself in the course of two captivating sets. An excellent start to the week.