Newton Hotel, Nairn, 8-13 August 2005

Count Basie Orchestra

THE FIRST EVER Highland visit for the Count Basie Orchestra ended up costing the Nairn Jazz Festival a considerable amount of money despite selling out two final night shows (and Ken Ramage reckons he could easily have filled the Newton again), but it provided a memorable close-quarters experience of a top American big band.

The low ceilings in the Newton’s otherwise capacious Conference Suite weren’t really designed to make acoustic sense of 17 instruments all at once, and some of the detail was definitely lost. That was more than made up for by the sheer impact of the band, which produced a much better performance than they did in Glasgow under saxophonist Frank Foster back in 1992.

Trombonist Bill Hughes, a man who first took his seat in the Basie Orchestra in 1953, and has spent all but six of the ensuing years in the organisation, now leads the group from the front, following in the footsteps of another trombonist, the late Grover Mitchell. Frank Foster originally took on the job after Basie’s death in 1984, and was succeeded by Mitchell in 1995.

They boasted a number of very good soloists, led by alto saxophonist Marshall MacDonald, trumpeter Endre Rice and pianist Tony Suggs, as well as the hard-swinging Butch Miles (another veteran of the actual Basie era) on drums.

They played charts from several stages of the Basie band’s development, written by some of the key arrangers for the group over the years. They included Sammy Nestico’s ‘The Wind Machine’, Ernie Wilkins’ ‘Way Out Basie’, Freddie Green’s ‘Corner Pocket’ and two excerpts from Benny Carter’s ‘Kansas City Suite’, ‘Miss Missouri’ and ‘Vine Street Rumble’.

Singer Melba Joyce was introduced for three songs toward the end of the set (certainly in the first of the two shows, and I assume the second as well), and they rounded out the concert by inviting baritone saxophonist Joe Temperley to join the band for a barn-storming romp through a real Basie signature tune, ‘Jumpin’ at the Woodside’.

Although Temperley’s playing affiliation was with the Ellington Orchestra, he tackled the challenge with his usual relish, and produced the longest and most exciting solo of the set in the process.

Their music had grit and strength as well as refinement as they worked out on a series of familiar standards and blues tunes

They first met in the Duke Ellington Orchestra (by then under Mercer Ellington’s direction) in New York in 1977, but had not played together for some time. Temperley concentrated entirely on the baritone saxophone, and if he was quite not on full power straight off a transatlantic flight, his alert and imaginative soloing flowed sweetly over the pianist’s beautifully judged harmonic and rhythmic accompaniment.

Their music had grit and strength as well as refinement as they worked out on a series of familiar standards and blues tunes, including several dips into the Ellington repertoire, notably a meltingly beautiful ‘Chelsea Bridge’ at the end of the first set.

Miller’s own solo forays were as elegant and inventive as ever, and that was the case again when he took the stage on Thursday with his own trio, featuring bassist Richie Goods and drummer Rodney Greene. They produced trio playing straight out of the top drawer on a mixed set of Miller’s own tunes, jazz standards, and some classic form the jazz repertoire, including a blazing romp through Charlie Parker’s ‘Relaxin’ at Camarillo’.

Joe Temperley also cropped up again on Saturday in another duet, although it was originally scheduled to be a quartet performance. With bassist Andy Cleyndert already on his way to the Brecon Jazz Festival by the time the band were due to start at 1pm, Temperley decided to opt out of either a last-minute replacement or drums, and just play with pianist John Sheridan.

He had his soprano as well as his baritone along this time, and made excellent use of both in a set in which the tunes just kept tumbling. He was often calling the next tune to the pianist while still in the middle of the one they were playing, and chose a more conventional mainstream selection of well-known standards and jazz tunes, many from the Ellington repertoire.

John Sheridan is a much more traditional stylist than Mulgrew Miller, and his rolling, stride-inflected chords provided a swinging accompaniment for the saxophonist. Some of the tunes that Temperley threw at him were clearly not in his usual repertoire, but he managed well enough in piloting his way through the material.

The festival has again played to excellent houses this year, although Ken Ramage is already on record claiming that it needs greater funding support from the local authority if it is to continue to provide high-quality international jazz in the area, and build up to something even more special for 2007.

© Kenny Mathieson