Dick Laurie
Dick Laurie's Elastic Band continues its long-standing jazz residency at the Half Moon, 93 Lower Richmond Road, Putney, South London every Sunday lunchtime with free admission from 1 to 4pm, where car parking is right outside the door. The nearest railway stations are Putney Bridge (tube) and the mainline Putney Station, and a No 22 bus will also drop you there.
The music ranges far and wide, from Dixieland to Mainstream, New Orleans to Bebop. Of the many notable guests it attracts, the band has recently welcomed, Stan Robinson, who played saxophones with Maynard Ferguson, multi-award winning multi-instrumentalist Alan Barnes and Bob Clarke.
Guitarist Diz Disley, who played with the late famous Stephane Grappelli plays with the Elastic most weeks, the rest of the lineup is Dick Laurie, clarinet leader; Ken Reece on cornet; Don Cook on drums and John Day, double bass.
For further details and bookings:- Dick Laurie, 27 Clarendon Drive, Putney, London SW15 1AW
tel:- 020 8780 1939 fax:- 020 8780 2137
15th Anniversary
On the 2nd of October 1983, Dick Laurie's Elastic Band was formed to play in the Jolly Gardeners, Lacy Road, Putney, London SW15, fifteen years ago. On Sunday lunchtime the 4th of October 1998, the band celebrated its 15th Anniversary in the Half Moon pub its current residency.
The Elastic Band's other engagements have been in Ireland, France and Hong Kong and at many prestigious events such as, the opening of the Channel Tunnel, the Lord Mayor of London events, the Leeds Castle, Kent, wine festivals, the Ordination of the first woman priest at the St. James's Church in Piccadilly, Central London, at Soho annual jazz festivals and others at Teignmouth, Upton-upon-Severn, and Cork, Eire.
The Laurie Elastic band has appeared on radio and television shows, as well as at the National Theatre, the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican Centre, Silk Road, London and at the Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington.
The founder of the band and longtime Putney resident Dick Laurie, alias - The Conductor - is also a jazz festival organiser and is responsible for the booking of bands at the open-air Summer sessions at Cannizaro Park, Wimbledon.
Newspaper Review printed a few days prior to 30/01/98 - Burns Night.
Audience revels in joyful jazz
by Paul Nelson
What is, alas, almost only an annual visit when it should be a weekly one, turned out to be a wonderfully exciting event at the Half Moon, [pub] Putney, [South London] on Sunday when the lunchtime session given by Dick Laurie's Elastic Band almost got out of enthusiastic control.
Wave upon wave of appreciation in shouts, applause, stamping and whistling greeted numbers such as "Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave to Me," "Someday You'll Be Sorry," and "Little Suede Shoes," when the packed saloon bar witnessed the metamorphosis of the Elastic Band as it stretched from a quartet into an octet, professional musicians dropping in to the session.
While presidents of other countries were sweating (Saddam) and fretting (Clinton) - or is that strutting and fratting - matters of State washed over the Putney pilgrims with little or no effect as they went through their version of the conversion on the road to Richmond [Surrey, England].
Abetted by the vocals of Annie Long and the shy, retiring preposterous Fred (Rick) Shaw (who by chance had brought along his cornet), and with featured vocals by Diz Disley, guitarist extraordinaire, the three and a half hours of the afternoon whizzed by.
The band usually takes a couple of breathers, and the first was delightfully filled in by a surprise appearance of a new local pair of guitarists Manouche (Colin Cosimini and Iain le Vrai), whose talent and charm, with Dick's gracious concent, received a very warm reception.
That's the sort of informal afternoon you get at the Half Moon.
Still, in the run-up to Burns Night, the Annie-Laurie combination on "Honeysuckle Rose" takes a lot of beating, as does "Some Of These Days" sung and played by Diz Disley.
The really wild riffs started when Stan Robinson, erstwhile Maynard Ferguson tenor sax player, Mel Henry, regular trombone drop-in, and Fred Shaw took off. Though where, I ask myself, would they all have been without the incomparable, solid, consistent genius of Ken Reece on trumpet?
Mention must also be made of the salubriuos double bass playing of stand-in unsung genius Pete Morgan, who can make his instrument lyrically speak out, and drummer Don Cook.
Dick Laurie himself has developed a new vigour and robustness in his playing, the source of a conversation point which so far has proved an insoluble question. Still, as long as Dick et al (that would be Al Nicholls, sometime regular sax player who dropped by last Sunday just to listen to the band), continue to pack them in there will be no complaints from either management or customer.
One hint to be taken seriously: seats are available at the start of the session (one o'clock), but become extremely rare as the afternoon zips by. In fact, if lunch is to be had, an early appearance is not only advisable but essential.
For a fitting crescendo to the afternoon, try to beat Diz Disley singing and playing "Crazy 'Bout My Baby" (and getting four red cards at once for his audacious musical quotations) and "Perdido" which all the musicians plainly enjoyed to the point where they lost themselves and their audience in a labyrinth of ensemble phrases.
They caused what nearly amounted to a riot of delighted excitement.
