Ooh! that Kiss! : The Elastic Band
Ooh! that Kiss! : The Elastic Band
PERSONNEL
Ken Reece (tpt flghorn); Dick Laurie (cl); Al Nicholls (tenor); George Oag (gtr); John Day (bs); Don Cook (drms) Melissa James (vcls).
TRACKS
Ooh! that Kiss! + Tangerine + I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me + Peel Me A Grape + * ‘S wonderful + With Time To Love + Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me + Little Suede Shoes + Let’s Do It + Somebody Loves Me + The Folks Who Live On The Hill + * Blues In The Closet + * It Had To Be You + * St. Thomas.
* Al Nicholls on tenor saxophone.
Recorded at Red Gables Studio on the 23rd and 24th of March 2000. Engineered by Richard Hammett.
HARL CD 003 Harlem Records, 425a Kingston Road, Wimbledon, London SW20 8JR.
It was about a dozen years ago, if exact, that I found myself walking in the streets of Putney on Sunday when I heard the sound of an E-flat clarinet coming from a nearby pub whilst I was on my way seeking out the venue which featured the Bonzo Dog Do Da Band a decade or so earlier. The pub we entered was the Jolly Gardeners and the sound of the clarinet came from the horn of Alan Cooper, whom I was a follower of in those earlier years.
In the interval, I was introduced to the bandleader of the group of then about six years standing, and it turned out that we both had started publishing a jazz magazine at the same time just a few days earlier, our intrinsic writing idiom resting at extreme ends of the spectrum, but with one purpose in mind, and that is how I first met Dick Laurie.
A long time in coming, as is learned from the opening paragraphs, for Ooh! that Kiss! the title of the band’s first album. The tune is new to me, whether it is a hybrid of the Jimmy Rushing Orchestra of Buck Clayton, Earle Warren includes, in the days of Knock Me A Kiss or the Warren period of Count Bassie, or his own band, I’ve no idea, but it really is a nice signature tune for the Elastic Band to claim, as one gets the feeling that all in the group are blowing with loving care and with kissing embracing’s of their instruments, led by the chalumeau clarinet. They all are doing it, exemplified by trumpeter Ken Reece, so setting the scene through the fourteen tracks through the opening number – Ooh! that Kiss! .
Melissa James sings with sultry, nightclub timbre on Dave Frisberg’s Peel Me A Grape made famous by Blossom Dearie and on the very beautiful Jerome Kern The Folks Who Live On The Hill accompanied by the wonderful sound by guitarist George Oag, which, in contrast, Melissa handles this testing tune with sheer delight.
Tenor saxophonist Al Nicholls is featured on four tracks, one of which gives a good account of drummer Don Cook.
On Blues My Naughty Sweetie one encounters the full stretch of those Elastics and I pay particular attention to the string bass of John Day where one gets to hear in a break the full strength of his talents. Noticeable in this Elastic Band, the two main rhythm instruments have mastered the art of letting one being able to hear them, yet not to hear them at the same time, if you know what I mean.
The music is dedicated to Pat and Roger Horton and their family of the 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, London.
The CD is the third in the Harlem Records of the Wimbledon stable, and by the standard set here, it should grow in strength.
To all those having hang-ups, or are averse to giving jazz variations a gender; I have no qualms in placing this album Ooh! that Kiss! in a category entitled: Supreme Classics of Mainstream Jazz Music.
Ian King
Monday the 5th of July 2000