Jazz FM gets some celebrity glitter on Christmas Day when Strictly Come Dancing star Anton du Beke joins the presenting team, 1700-1900, to play “Christmas jazz classics” from his collection. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his favourites are from the days when jazz was a dance music, although he acknowledges that mainstream is a starting point for an adventure into more “abstract” jazz. He expanded on his ideas in the following interview for Jazz FM:
What can we expect from your Jazz FM Christmas special?
“Just Christmas on a stick! It’s just all my favourite songs really, all those classic standards, incredible music and marvellous singers – people like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank and Sammy and Sarah Vaughan. I’m playing a couple of new talents as well, the wonderful Stella Cole and Samara Joy. I’m really excited about both of them, really excited to see what they do because they sound like they’ve been around for years, they’ve got these really seasoned wonderful voices, but they’re both only about 25 so I’m really excited to follow their careers now. I’ve never felt that way really because most of the people I love are well… dead!”
Where did your love of jazz come from?
“Well, I grew up with it and of course we dance to a lot of those standards but it’s the orchestrations really that I love. These great bands, the Count Basies and Lionel Hamptons – that sort of thing. It’s difficult to put your finger on it really but the vocals are great, everyone is singing properly, the music is incredible because all the musicians are remarkable – which is not to denigrate modern music which is brilliant as well – but it’s a different style and a different way of making it. I love that too, I’ve got a very eclectic taste in music, but the one I feel I’m closest to is this style of music and it’s what I like dancing to as well.”
Is there a particular artist, album or song you would recommend to a jazz novice to start with?
“My advice is to start with the jazz standards – they are the classics that we would know as swing – the great artists – Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Frankie, Sammy, Sarah Vaughan. A lot of them have recorded the same track but in their own styles and it’s really interesting to see what they do with it.
“For example, a song I did in my show is All Of Me. Now if you take Michael Bublé’s modern version it’s lovely but then you take Frank and then you listen to Ella’s version and then Sarah Vaughan does it and it all goes in a different direction. The same song but it changes so dramatically and it’s wonderful to listen to what they do with these different pieces of music.
“And then you spread your wings from there – to abstract jazz, or not, and find the type of jazz that you love.”
Jazz FM also has a special day on 1 January, renamed for the occasion “Q Year’s Day”. The whole day will be dedicated to the late Quincy Jones and include Quincy Jones On Screen (illustrating his work in film scoring, from The Color Purple to The Wiz), the Miles Davis and Quincy concert form Montreux in 1991 and a chance to hear again The Lost Tapes With Quincy Jones, taken from a 1962 interview with him. Jazz FM say the the highlight of the day will be the airing at 1800 of a new documentary, The Jazz Legacy Of Quincy Jones, which features an unheard informal interview with Quincy recorded by Richard Allinson and record producer Steve Levine in 2007 at a hotel bar after the Ivor Novello Awards.