The Pete Allen Jazz Band: New Orleans Wiggle – Jazz Magic
Pete has augmented his regular sextet here, adding a second reedsman, Trevor Whiting, and guitarist and banjoist Max Brittain. Both make valuable contributions. Pete and trombonist Roger Marks, also a band leader, have worked regularly together now for almost 50 years as notable figures in British traditional jazz.
The album opens (and closes) in grass roots early New Orleans style, but soon broadens into wider-ranging territory in an interestingly varied programme. Whiting’s warm-toned Websterish tenor solos with assured stylishness in Sophisticated Lady and The Gypsy. Brittain similarly impresses in a tasteful unaccompanied version of The Nearness Of You. Pianist James Clemas stretches out with lively drive in Brenda’s Boogie, adding some interesting minor touches. Hodgkins’ neat, light-toned trumpet solos with contained control in My Old Flame, and Marks comes up with an unusual arrangement of Comes Love for his feature. His positive phrasing in ensemble, free and arranged, is robustly supportive, with a fine solo in I’m Slapping Seventh Avenue. Clearly out to entertain, Pete’s four agreeable vocals lean towards old-school whimsy and sentiment.
Driving and expressive, Pete’s clarinet has a very full, dense, New Orleans tone, particularly in his ballad feature Just A-Wearying For You, and in his romantic and rhapsodic original, Beau Sejour. His punchy Bechet-inspired soprano, less prominent than usual on this album, is featured in his original composition Bechet’s Walk. The arrangement is somewhat heavy handed but does capture Bechet’s taste for the theatrical. Arrangements are effectively used to accommodate the expanded personnel, notably in Hines’ Caution Blues (aka Blues In Thirds?) and in Piron’s New Orleans Wiggle from 1923.
Broadly traditional in range this is an enjoyable and entertaining album, featuring classic jazz from across its rich tapestry of development.
Discography
Under The Bamboo Tree; Caution Blues; Oh How I Miss You Tonight; Just A-Wearying For You; Wise Guy; Comes Love; Hello Brother; Bechet’s Walk; The Nearness Of You; Brenda’s Boogie; Sophisticated Lady; Dardanella; My Old Flame; I’m Slapping Seventh Avenue With The Sole Of My Shoe; The Gypsy; Beau Sejour; New Orleans Wiggle (71.39)
Pete Allen (cl, ss, v); Chris Hodgkins (t); Roger Marks (tb); Trevor Whiting (cl, as, ts, ss); James Clemas (p); Dave Hanratty (b); Max Brittain (g, bj); Jim Newton (d). Exeter, 10-11 March 2025.
Upbeat URCD348
Chris Hopkins: Meets The Young Lions, Live! Vol. 2
A welcome follow on to Vol. 1, this CD completes an entire live concert recording from 2023, and introduces some changed instrumentation. On the first three tracks drummer Mathieu Clement demonstrates his prowess, elegantly fluent and swinging in blues mode on Milt Jackson’s Bags’ Groove. Chris Hopkins switches to alto for a few tracks from Jive At Five, showing Benny Carter’s influence perhaps, and nodding to Johnny Hodges in a beautiful, lyrical version of Stardust.
America-born, but now resident in Germany, Chris is a very creative and experienced musician who has become mentor and leader in his quintet to four gifted and promising young musicians, his “Young Lions”. They already sound assured and mature, in classic mainstream swing style, with impressive skill and swinging, creative ideas. Trumpeter Thimo Niesterok particularly stands out. With crisp intonation and a very rounded glowing tone, his phrasing has absorbed elements of Hackett, Braff and Armstrong. Tastefully expressive in ballads – there’s an alternative take (from Vol. 1) of Rocking Chair – he’s feisty and spectacular in upbeat numbers, sparring enthusiastically with Hopkins’ alto in Jive At Five and Just You, Just Me and stretching out on Night And Day, an outstanding track all round. Guitarist/vocalist Tijn Trommelen’s popular vocals are featured on three tracks. He’s at his most Sinatra-ish on a lively Lady Is A Tramp. Caris Hermes is supportive and responsive throughout, soloing creatively with a rounded, resonant tone, and tucking in comfortably alongside Clement’s tightly swinging drumming and Trommelen’s deft and supple guitar.
At the helm, Chris’s piano contributes an energetic flow of inventive ideas and lively dynamics; he’s at home with ballads (a sensitive solo on I’m Confessin’) and upbeat material, firing some exciting rhythmic fireworks over the upbeat bossa rhythms of Night And Day. This is classic swing-group jazz, refreshingly revisited with impressive instrumental skill, spirit and creativity.
Discography
Bags’ Groove; These Foolish Things; Jive At Five; Stardust; Just You, Just Me; I’m Confessin’ That I Love You; Night And Day; The Lady Is A Tramp; Rockin’ Chair (take2) (48.05)
Hopkins (p, as); Thimo Niesterok (t, c); Tijn Trommelen (g, v); Caris Hermes (b); Mathieu Clement (d, vib). Hattingen, Germany, 31 May and 1 June 2023. Available at hopkinsjazz.com/shop. Streaming and downloads: Spotify, ITunes, Amazon and others.
Echoes Of Swing Productions EOSP 4515 2
