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| 4.663 Ft
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| 1. | Bourbon Street Parade
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| 2. | Do You Know What It Means
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| 3. | Eh La Bas
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| 4. | When We Danced at the Mardi Gras
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| 5. | Grandpa's Spells
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| 6. | A Closer Walk With Thee
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| 7. | Petite Fleur
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| 8. | Chimes Blues
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| 9. | Solace
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| 10. | Old Man Mose
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| 11. | Hiawatha Rag
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| 12. | Trouble in Mind
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| 13. | Ice Cream
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| 14. | Lonesome
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| 15. | Maryland
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| 16. | Ragtime Music
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Jazz
Phil Rhodes - trombone
Bruce Boardman - piano
Tony Pitt - banjo, guitar
Andy Lawrence - bass, sousaphone
Johnny Armatage - drums
For this album, Lightfoot put the alto down and returned to his roots to play in the classic manner. The compositions selected for this project reflect the unique ambiance of New Orleans and the creativity of its great musicians. Terry has mixed in street parade specialities, spirituals, blues, stomps and novelties, and added a dash of piano ragtime.
There's an enduring appeal to traditional jazz. Even those observers who were a touch patronising about the British 'trad' boom of the late 1950s admit to something life-enhancing about the sound and spirit of this music when it's played well.
People who were young in those far-off days of duffle coats and National Service loved 'trad' then and they love it now. Once they trooped into the local jazz club to jive the night away. Now they're likely to enjoy their erstwhile heroes in more sedate circumstances, at a concert perhaps, or in cabaret. Even more important, there are encouraging signs that youngsters are catching on to the appeal of down-to-earth old-style jazz. They're dancing to it and relishing the good-time atmosphere which seems to come ready-made when a traditional band is on song and going well.
Terry Lightfoot is a leading member of the 'trad' generation of British jazzmen. Like the other star names (Barber, Ball and Bilk) who still prosper, his music shows many differences from that he played at first. Terry is as likely to solo on alto saxophone nowadays as he is to perform on clarinet, the instrument for which he's so widely known. Many of his band numbers now reflect the influence of Ellington's marvellous small groups with their attractive voicings and powerful swing.
For this album, however, Lightfoot put the alto down and returned to his roots to play in the classic manner. The compositions selected for this project reflect the unique ambiance of New Orleans and the creativity of its great musicians. Terry has mixed in street parade specialities, spirituals, blues, stomps and novelties, and added a dash of piano ragtime.
Terry Lightfoot was born on May 21, 1935, and came to jazz while at school in Enfield. Although he would have preferred trumpet, he selected clarinet to accomodate the needs of the traditional jazz band being formed by friends, taught himself to play and happily, having mastered this most demanding of instruments, has remained loyal to it ever since. After leaving school, Terry formed his first band, the Wood Green Stompers, and then started the Jazzmen in 1955, concentrating on the lively London club scene.Lightfoot and company were soon in demand to accompany visiting artists, and in 1959, were chosen to open for Kid Ory's Band on a nation-wide tour. Terry retains very happy memories of this episode, recalling the contributions of Henry 'Red' Alien on trumpet with especial delight. Thereafter, chart success helped to make the band one of the most prominent in jazz, earning them the status of Britain's top traditionalists in the 1960 'Melody Maker' poll and a place in the film 'It's Trad, Dad'. Despite the impact of the Beat-les, Lightfoot's band kept busy, touring the USA in 1964 and later accompanying jazzmen like trombonist Vie Dickenson and concertising with Louis Armstrong and the All-Stars.
Since those halcyon days, Terry and his Jazzmen have continued to criss-cross this country and to perform world-wide, to unstinting public acclaim. He says, "I like to think I've got a band which can play jazz of a high order and present itself so as to get the music across to a broad public."
That such a laudable aim can be achieved consistently owes a lot to Terry's own instrumental flair and to his affable stage presence, of course, but could not be accomplished without the support of his excellent musicians. Trumpeter lan Hunter-Randall (born 1938) joined Lightfoot in 1968 and has been at his side ever since. Another who has enjoyed a prolonged association with Terry is Phil Rhodes. He's something of a musical all-rounder: a formidable Ory man on trombone, Phil is a capable arranger and more surprisingly perhaps, an excellent organist, formerly resident at the Latin Quarter in London.
Pianist Bruce Boardman first recorded with Lightfoot in 1977. His versatitility allows him to perform graceful ragtime pieces or hard-swinging uptempo things with equal facility. Drummer Johnny Armatage (born 1929) is a British jazz veteran and one of our best swing drummers. He started out with Bruce Turner's now legendary Jump Band and has also played extensively with Alan EIsdon. Completing the personnel are bassist/sousaphonist Andy Lawrence (once the band's 'roadie') and ex-Kenny Ball, Alex Welsh and I Acker Bilk bandsman Tony Pitt on banjo and guitar, who was specially added for this recording. Bourbon Street Parade is by New Orleans drummer Paul Barbarin and fittingly, there's a street-beat feeling to this lively opener, inspired by the city's notorious French Quarter entertainment centre. Do You Know What It Means was first introduced by Billie Holiday in the film 'New Orleans'. Terry's limpid clarinet glides through the theme, Tony Pitt adding a neat guitar accompaniment. Eh La Bas was recorded by Kid Ory's superb Creole Jazz Band and Terry's vocal retains Ory's use of the local Creole French patois, with Rhodes powering in just like Ory himself. Incidentally, Phil uses a mute given him in '59 by the great man. There's more than a trace of George Lewis in Terry's fine solo. Another noted clarinet man, Pete Fountain, played When We Danced At The Mardi Gras, a pretty tune, which receives a very swingy quintet treatment here. Jelly Roll Morton's Grandpa's Spells is one of the great adornments of New Orleans jazz l on record. Wisely, Terry and company stick fairly closely both to the spirit and the letter of J the original, with lan Hunter-Randall ably recalling the trumpet of George Mitchell. The moving spiritual Just A Closer Walk shows off Phil Rhodes's declamatory approach, his playing hinting at the modernisms of Gary Valente. Sidney Bechet's Petite Fleur was a smash hit for clarinettist Monty Sunshine in both the US and UK; Terry adds his own flavour to this delightful melody. Nice guitar by Pitt.
Chimes Blues is from King Oliver's repertoire, his version notable for Louis Armstrong's first recorded solo. Scott Joplin's calm and stately Solace appeared in 1909 subtitled: A Mexican Serenade. Bruce Boardman's reading provides a pleasing antidote to the gutsier sounds heard elsewhere on the album. Old Man Mose is fun, a slice of old fashioned hokum. Terry's vocal sets the scene before lan's feisty trumpet cuts loose. Hiawatha Rag is by Charles Daniels, a white musician from Kansas City, and was written in 1901. It's good to hear it in a band version again. The blues Trouble In Mind is another classic, premiered in New Orleans and a favourite of many groups, usually taken slow with feeling, as here. An old pop song, Ice Cream was recorded by George Lewis and trombonist Big Jim Robinson in a happy, stomping version, cheerfully echoed by Terry and Phil. Lonesome is another composition associated with Sidney Bechet and Terry has it to himself most of the way. Maryland, a traditional march, was favoured by Kid Ory and is rightly popular - lan plays the traditional trumpet passage over Johnny Armatage's snares. Note the 'Red Flag' counter-melody. Our Louisiana sojourn ends with Terry's composition Ragtime Music with its thoughtful lyric posing a question or two about this music's future. Given performances like these, that future seems safe. After the session, Terry said, "I'm delighted with the record. I love playing these things and I'm very intrigued by the idea of doing more of this. I'd very much like to expand this and put it in a concert format."
Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it?
---Peter Vacher, September 1993
Terry Lightfoot
Active Decade: '00s
Born: May 21, 1935 in Potters Bar, Middlesex, England
Genre: Jazz
Terry Lightfoot made his, professional debut as a bandleader in 1956, and since that time has established an international reputation as a clarinetist, saxophonist and vocalist of the highest calibre. He was prominent in the traditional jazz revival in Britain in the 1950''s and reached a much wider audience during the "Trad" boom of the early 1960''s. During this period, and in subsequent years, he has broadcast prolifically, both on radio and TV, recorded many albums, and appeared in the only movie to feature British jazz bands, "It''s Trad Dad!". In 1964, Terry made his first visit to the U.S.A. and played in New York at the legendary Eddie Condon club, and the following year toured Britain with the great Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong. He had previously met "Satch" in London in 1956, when he had the privilege of "jamming" with the man whose recordings first introduced him to jazz music as a teenager. During the course of his career, he has work |
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