Norman Gibson reported in Jazz North West, courtesy of Fred Burnett: “I have to report that there is no doubt that the Frog and Henry Trio UK Tour started with the best audience reception I’ve witnessed at Kendal Jazz Club in a long while. This was a really good marker for the success of their tour.
“The latest version of the Fotdella Double Bass Machine behaved itself on it’s debut and created a lot of interest at the interval. Not only is FH Henry an amazing and pleasant young musician, he is a clever engineer to boot! Ewan Bleach is a rising star and had the audience in raptures with his playing, moving easily with his choice of two clarinets to alto and tenor saxes. Hadn’t seen Dave Neigh before, but he kept the rhythm going strong on his Tuba Machine, also constructed by FH Henry, whilst accompanying on steel guitar – at the same time of course.
“My crowd mirrored their earlier reception at Kendal with standing ovations – some even singing along to the numbers. And there were dancers at the band’s encouragement. Why, we even had an 85 year old tap dancer! All in perfect time. These young guys only drink water while playing. But they stayed with us overnight so we had supper and a few bevies to round
off an amazing evening.
“I wish I was 10 years younger as I see the jazz scene finally waking up to the new young musicians who are determined to carry the music forward. Three north west promoters joined us, one of whom has provisionally booked Frog and Henry
for a 2019 return tour.
“In all we had an enthusiastic crowd of 90, and an end result of £345.00 towards a £2,500 target for St. John’s Hospice Lancaster. No way could it have been bettered ! And a big ‘THANK YOU’ to you Fred Burnett and Jazz North West for all you do for jazz. I’ll still be around and doing what I can to help promote Frog & Henry’s UK tour next year.”
Norman Gibson
Norman Gibson “Happy Days”
Photo Courtesy of Jazz North West
The March Edition of The Jazz Guide depicted “Jump Jive & Swing By The Sea”!
Way to go! So how about Jazz Jive & Swing with Frog & Henry!
At Jazz&Jazz we call it New Wave Jazz and the Way to Go! More Soon!
Peter M Butler
Editor & Proprietor Jazz&Jazz
I have to say that assisting Frog and Henry with getting this UK Tour together has been one of the most pleasing and satisfying things I’ve done, since embarking on Jazz Evening promotions back in Sept. 2005. I came back from forced retirement, the old ticker gave me a warning, just to promote this one more, and show what the young, and very talented musicians, can offer up if they are welcomed and embraced. OK two of this trio are from Canada, but in our country we have many – Amy Roberts, Adrian Cox, Ian Wynne et al. These young are the ones we will rely on to carry the music on !
My wife and I went to F & H’s fifth and final gig in the North West, at the Caledonia Music Pub ( the ‘Cally’ to Liverpool locals ) on Monday night. This turned out to be the best of the lot so far, as young reed player Laurent ( Old Fish Band -Berlin ) had flown in to join them, and the place was bouncing until nearly midnight. Now we relax until we do it all again, when F & H, and the amazing all girl band ‘The Shake ’em Up’ Band (New Orleans), are at Fest Jazz Brittany end of July. Cheers Norm888
Great addition to my Frog & Henry feature, Norman. I’ve got in the pipeline another J&J Feature on our young UK stars, some of whom you have named. So much to cover it takes time getting round to it.
Looking forward to all this and meeting you @ Fest Jazz Norman……ps I am 28!!
Don’t forget another North West star will also be at Fest Jazz. Along with the fabulous Frog and Henry, you will also find Amanda Brown and the Common Ears (to my mind, uncommonly good jazz). They were both on the same bill on Sunday at Studio 2, Parr Street in Liverpool. Unfortunately, we’re nearer to Châteauneuf-du-Faou than we are to Liverpool, so we missed that, but we’re looking forward to seeing them all at Fest Jazz
… Give or take!!!
Thanks for the tip, Joanna. See you there.
Hmmm. So it really will be all the youngsters at Fest Jazz 🙂
Maybe Joanna is in the London area ? If so, she might get to Tiger Rag at the Arcola in Dalston tomorrow night for a late bash 10.30pm to 3 am. Frog and Henry will be there with Ewan Bleach’s own band.
Re Fest Jazz this July, there will be an amazing mix which should please everyone. The Rosenberg Trio for Gypsy/Manouche through to Georgie Fame no less ! Boogie on down. Norm888
F & H wind up their UK two week tour tonight, and I shall get FH Henry’s summation of events shortly. In doing a bit of checking around, I found a ‘blog’ written on Kendal Jazz Club’s website describing F & H’s performance from Bruce, Club Chairmen/ Musician’s perspective. Very enlightening to me as a non-player.
( Sorry I do not know how to provide a direct link to it ) Norm888
The comment can be reached via this link: http://www.kendaljazzclub.co.uk/page12.html and scrolling via the forward arrow. But to save you the trouble here it is:
The long-awaited (by me, anyway) visit from Frog and Henry most definitely did not disappoint. And judging by the response from our relatively small audience, they weren’t exactly sorry they came, either. I had the advantage of having heard reedman Ewan Bleach at the Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party in November (recommended, by the way), so knew that we would hear some fiery stuff from an exceptional exponent of early jazz styles, but the other two guys were an unknown quantity apart from a few viewings of their YouTube output. I really should have guessed from those clips (often featuring fiddle and accordion) that some of their influences come from beyond the narrower definitions of jazz, and so it proved.Things like ‘Some of these days’, That’s A’Plenty’, and ‘Wabash Blues’ were no surprise, but many other numbers came from the 1930s output of jug bands and, in particular, Western Swing – which is a genre previously dominated in my mind by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. However, F.H. Henry’s frequent mentions of Milton Brown led me to look Milton up, and discover that he was at least equally important because of his recordings with his Musical Brownies. So food for thought there, Bruce – you can never know enough about the music we love.But whatever their influences – and there were many others – this band provided entertainment of the very highest order.They achieved tremendous variety, with the two rhythm men multi-tasking as advertised, (full marks to Dave Neigh for doing so all night on National guitar and knee-operated tuba), Ewan swapping saxes and clarinet ad lib, and the two vocalists singing appealingly. Also, under the direction of F.H., there were many instances of broken rhythms and breaks in unusual places, making a nice contrast to their hard-swinging straight 4/4. And Ewan took the lead role with his usual jaw-dropping effect.I would rate this as one of the very best nights we have had at the Club, and the good news is that they’re touring again next February with an enlarged line-up. Having had the honour of hosting their first ever UK date, I hope they’ll be back then – and, finally, thanks to Norman Gibson of Heysham for setting up this current tour.
What is mentioned is that Ewan played two clarinets, but they were both in the same key, so why use two, when I chatted to him he is a Boehm System clarinet player, he is trying manage playing the Albert/Simple System clarinet that has a much simpler and harder to play key system but has a big tone, I wish him luck.