YOU would have given odds against even St Vitus getting a modern jazz
audience up dancing in the train tunnel atmosphere of the City Halls.
You would have reckoned without the Rebirths and their stomping, joyous
exuberant evocation of the best in jazz and associated music over the
past 80-odd years.
They so invigorated a surprisingly small crowd that at one stage the
stage was invaded by a dozen or so boppers. All of which was too much
for the hall keepers -- Glasgow's version of the Redcoats put on their
best jobsworth attitudes and cleared them off.
No matter, a minor irritant like that could not spoil the party. The
Rebirths are one of dozens of new-style marching bands, taking the old
format of the original Dixieland and using it as a board to spring all
sorts of musical styles, from trad to funk via swing, bebop, big band,
and R'n'B.
Kicking off with an old New Orleans trad number, Bourbon St Parade,
the band seemed to flow effortlessly through the different facets of
jazz -- the only omnipresent factors being enthusiasm and feel. Okay,
there have been better, more accomplished outfits but for getting down
to the soul of the music this was a hard show to beat.
It touched through numbers like Ellington's Caravan, Miles Davis's All
Blues, St Thomas Infirmary, a Dizzy Gillespie tune and even Stevie
Wonder's Too High. The rock solid snare and bass drumming of Ajay
Mallory and Keat Frazier set a backbone of beat for the sousaphone bass
lines of Keat's brother Philip, who must have several spare pairs of
lips to keep up the constant flow of that essential sound.
Up front the five horns were divided between two trumpets, trombones,
and a tenor sax, and despite some wayward tuning early on soon merged to
produce some snorting, Kentonesque brass lines.
Thirteen-year-old trumpeter Derek Shezbie looks like being some player
for the future (he's good now). The other trumpet was in the hands and
lips of Kermit Ruffins, who blew some spectacular top-register solos.
Stafford Agee and Reggie Stewart on trombones were always lively and
there were some fluid breaks from Roderick Paulin on tenor.
Who says you can't party to modern jazz?
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