It's called 'The Pocket Ellington', but there is nothing about this band that is small. A big sound and some really high-quality arrangements that wowed the audience at London's fabulous Vortex jazz club.
With Alex Webb on piano and musical director duties, this is a tight, well-rehearsed and impressive band: Tony Kofi (tenor sax). Alan Barnes (baritone and alto saxes, clarinet), David Lalljee (trombone), Andy Davies (trumpet), Dave Green (double bass) and Winston Clifford (drums).
With Alex Webb on piano and musical director duties, this is a tight, well-rehearsed and impressive band: Tony Kofi (tenor sax). Alan Barnes (baritone and alto saxes, clarinet), David Lalljee (trombone), Andy Davies (trumpet), Dave Green (double bass) and Winston Clifford (drums).
The project was conceived by Webb and Kofi, who share a love of the Ellington big band sound: The Pocket Ellington takes music composed by the great Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, as well as by a number of other musicians influenced by them, and reduces them to a manageable septet setting. The four horns themselves have to work hard to produce the sense of around 15 and the combinations seem to do just that. With a great rhythm section behind them, there really is a sense of the 'big' from this small band.
Webb's arrangements take classics such as Mood Indigo, I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart and Raincheck and give the musicians the opportunity to show their virtuosity. Each soli section and improvised solo is of the highest quality with this group of musicians, with no sense of losing style in the reduction.
Similarly, tracks composed by Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Gil Evans are arranged with a keen eye for the Ellington influence. One particularly clever piece came with Ruby, My Dream, melded Ruby My Dear and Monk's Dream.
The truly delightful Vortex Club was packed with an appreciative audience on a cold December night: the venue and the band may have been equally small, but the sound and the atmosphere was huge.
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