Prestfelde School's Blackburn Theatre was the venue for the penultimate concert of a very successful season promoted by Shropshire Music Trust. Clarinet player Julian Bliss led a septet through a programme of jazz, swing and Latin American music which left their audience spell bound.
My neighbour in the auditorium had been to a concert given by Julian Bliss a month earlier in which he'd played music by Mozart and Schubert; she was amazed by Julian's ability to be so impressive in two very different genres. How right she was, for there are few musicians so versatile.
Julian assembled an impressive group around him. Everyone was a virtuoso in his own right. The rhythm section was superb; it's often tempting to compare jazz musicians with great figures of the past but no need here. Joe Webb at the piano was simply superb as were Ferg Ireland on double bass, Colin Oxley on guitar and drummer Sebastian de Krom. In the front line, Julian was joined by Daniel Higham on Trombone and Martin Shaw on trumpet and flugelhorn. From the opening notes of ’S wonderful it was obvious we were in for an evening of high-octane jazz and the intensity level never dropped. There were ballads and a couple of numbers with Ellington echoes, especially Caravan. The brilliant ensemble playing was matched by equally fine solos and the gig ended with that famous war horse “Sing, sing, sing". The drumming for this did recall a performance of yesteryear, when Gene Krupa gave a memorable drum solo at Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert. Sebastian’s fellow musicians on this occasion were equally dynamic in bringing this superb event to its conclusion.
The final Music trust concert is on June 6th When Ex Cathedra present their Summer Music by Candlelight programme-don't miss it!
Andrew Petch
