Changes In Bilk’s Repertoire

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30541, 9 September 1964, Page 18

Changes In Bilk’s Repertoire

Since the last visit to these shores of Mr Acker Bilk and the Paramount Jazz Band the trad fad has run its course, to be replaced by the Liverpool sound. Perhaps as a result there were a few change's in the group's repertoire in its concert in the Civic Theatre last evening. Whereas last year the band played a large number of then-current pops, this time it stuck mainly to traditional jazz standards and durable popular songs like “Lazy River” and “Sentimental Journey.” Bilk’s convoluted clarinet style, with its fraying-at-the-edges vibrato, is substantially unchanged since last year, but his gravelly voice has mellowed. His singing was featured on several numbers, including “Lazy River” and the wartime hit “White Cliffs

of Dover,” which he codded gently.

The drummer, Ron McKay, who exuded a rather laboured air of bonhomie, also sang, with a bustling voice. Mr McKay’s vocals and some of Mr Bilk’s patter, by the way, included some interesting examples of the way in which scatologically-inclined humour is replacing the traditional off-colour joke among British entertainers—grist for a psychologist. Other changes in the band since its last visit have taken place in the rhythm section, which included two newcomers—Tucker Finlayson (bass) and Tony Pitt (banjo and guitar). Mr Finlayson played only one, brief solo, but Mr Pitt (a brother of Vic Pitt, the bass player in Kenny Ball’s band) was featured quite extensively. He is a real find.

Basically, his style is an amalgam of the popular guitarists of the late thirties and forties—Remo Palmieri, Al Casey and Django Reinhardt. But he also demonstrated some acquaintance with more modern performers —in his use of the now-con-ventional runs in octaves, for example. Oddly enough his featured number, “Sweet Georgia Brown,” taken at a racing tempo, was—considerations of technique apart—rather disappointing in that it consisted mainly of flashy, banjo-style picking with little attempt at melodic development. Some of his other solos, however, rather set one about the ears. The other members of the band (Colin Smith, trumpet: Jonathan Mortimer, trombone: Stan Greig, piano) are familiar figures.

Mr Smith is one of the top traditional jazz trumpeters in England and his playing last evening, whether open or muted, was as immediate as ever. Mr Mortimer also played well and, in his featured number (phonetically spelt Boola Boola) demonstrated an unexpected acquaintance with modern trombonists like Jimmy Knepper and Bob Brookmeyer. Greig’s piano playing was a valuable asset, both in solo and ensemble, though he could perhaps have done more to preserve the electric tensions of “Honky Tonk Train Blues,” ‘he famous comoosition of the late Meade Lux Lewis, who was recently killed in a car Crash. The band will give another concert in Christchurch tonight. —D.W.R.