Kenny Ball Offers Delightful Jazz

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30768, 4 June 1965, Page 14

Kenny Ball Offers Delightful Jazz

Its informal structure notwithstanding, the Kenny Ball Show at the Civic Theatre last evening and again tonight, offers more than casual delights. These seven musicians, on their third visit, appear as old friends. They combine showmanship with ' artistry, talent with pragmatism. The leader, Kenny Ball, is a gifted musician and entertainer who wears his role on stage as comfortably as an old coat. He plays, the trumpet, sings, swaps jokes, and cheerfully sends himself up: but behind it all are a secure knowledge and respect for the period of jazz he represents. This point was illustrated by the very first number last evening and driven home by the third, a superbly moody rendition of Duke Ellington's classic, “Mood Indigo.” Ball’s trumpet glistened, Dave Jones ran through the range of his clarinet, and John Bennett made a seemly contribution with his trombone. Bennett came into his own. shortly afterwards, with his featured number, “Avalon," an - old standard dusted off and given fresh life. The band played several more very good numbers, and Vic Pitt, the bass player, was given an opportunity to show his paces on “Old Man River.”

The second half opened with Ball’s showpiece, “St. James Infirmary.” His singing only shadowed the bluesdrenched original by Jelly Roll Morton, but when he put up his trumpet the sound that came out was definitive. Through it all he was supported and gently nudged by the brooding chords of Ron Weatherburn. Weatherburn, a consummate pianist, got his share of the spotlight later, with his two solo numbers, Tony Jackson’s “Climax Rag” and Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag." Weatherburn has obviously studied and absorbed the technique of ragtime piano; his performances were both authentic and quite shatteringly original, and they drew prolonged and justified applause. But the highlight of the concert, for this listener at least, was the band’s performance of the seldom-heard Duke Ellington composition, “Saturday Night Function.” Bennett rummaged around in the lower reaches of the trombone, Jones added some beautiful legato clarinet, Ball (whirled in on trumpet, and the audience made its appreciation audible. —D.W.R.