JAM: Upton Jazz Festival 2012 Prologue

 2012 would mark my fourth year of attendance of the Upton-Upon-Severn Oliver Cromwell Jazz festival, and, in many ways it is fortunate that it is this one I have decided to log. As dear reader you, will uncover in the narrative that unfolds, it has several deviations to the previous years of which I attended. In a way, there seems to be a formula as to how certain developments unfold on my own personal odyssey of the festival. As always I had a great time at the festival, heard some great music from bands who are old favourites from my visits to Jazz Club 90, the Shrewsbury Jazz Network and The Trumpet in Bilston; some bands who are established but are relatively new to me and some new players on the scene. My usual consumption of fine real ales also continued as of usual, and this year I added a gimmick to my attendance.

I would like thank the organisers of the festival for once again bringing a ray of jazzy sunshine upon this rain swept isle, the bar staff for the drinks and witty repartee and of course the bands themselves without whom….

Now a little bit about Upton upon Severn itself, it is a lovely historical town a few miles out of Worcester, in the district of the Malvern Hills and on the banks of the River Severn. The town is relatively small with few high street brand stores adorning its makeup, mostly its olde world type shops and pubs… there are a lot of pubs which is probably why it is very popular for Stags, Hens and pub crawls. There are at least eight and on top of that there is a social club and a sports club making this a drinker’s paradise. Upton upon Severn has a distinctive tower which is the only surviving part of a former church, this tower is locally known as the Pepperpot due to the copper clad cupola. Upton upon Severn is where Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers crossed the Severn to engage in the battle of Worcester, hence the festival being called the Olivier Cromwell festival, it is also sub-titled ‘Down by the Riverside’ for obvious reasons. I will go into more detail as the journal progresses, but for now if you want any more information on Upton upon Severn please go to Upton-Upon-Severn – Visit Worcestershire: Official Tourism Website

In past experience I had found that accommodation around festival time is hard to come by and I increasingly have learnt you really need to forward plan booking digs, for this year’s festival I had booked my digs back in October 2011 and then it was tricky to find places. For 2013 I have already booked my digs, I did it a week after my return from the festival.

So here we go, three days of fun, frolic jazz and beer; if you want to add a little fun to proceedings you can start a drinking game using whatever beverages you so desire, just make a note of how many times the term Quagmire is used and the amount of times I refer to the bar and the beer I purchase.

Pre-Festival Thursday

As is my tradition, I arrived at my digs the day before the festival starts for various reasons, namely to get a feel for the area I’m staying at, because most check in times are in the afternoon and I don’t fancy hauling luggage around with me for half a day and also to find taxi numbers if needed, which for this year they would definitely be needed due to my hotel location. This is down to me perhaps not doing my research or more than likely not thinking it through properly. I booked myself in at the Days Inn at Strensham in Tewkesbury, which according to Late Rooms was 2.2 miles away and in strictly geographical terms it probably is correct. But in the reality of access it was more like 4.6 miles to Upton and… the Days Inn was on the Motorway Service Station which kind of presented a problem. Now I should of guessed this as there is a Days Inn on the M54 services I go past every Tuesday, but never mind after a bit of research I did find there was a walking route which was a bit of a hike, but it would save me another thirty pounds on taxi hire. The Inn itself was perfectly fine, the bed was nice and comfy, the room was clean, there were adequate tea and coffee making facilities and the bathroom was good. I knew that the Days Inn would have good rooms as I’d stayed in one twice before when I was in Las Vegas on some college trips. The only problem was that this particular Days Inn had no Restaurant nor even a bar, and the nearest place for food were the venues in the services. Motorway Service Stations aren’t exactly renowned for Michelin star food or even basic pub grub, this was no exception; a hot food court and some fast food outlets were what were on offer to me, so I ventured into Upton and had a very nice meal at the King’s Head. The King’s Head is on the river front, next to a pub called the Plough, and it serves good pub group and is not too expensive for pub in a commercial area, especially at festival time. I had a good meal consisting of fried Calamari to start with and Vegetable Lasagne for main course, I’m not a veggie but every now and again I like to pretend I’m being good and healthy with my food consumption. I washed down this meal with two fine pints of real ale: St. Austell Tribute, a lovely pale amber Cornish beer with plenty of hop and Fuller’s London Pride, a mid brown to tawny coloured ale with a nice malty bitterness to it. The King’s Head had an additional bonus in that there was a band playing as well, it was a quartet of piano, double bass, drums and reeds which played mainstream and swing styles with a dollop of rhythm and blues for good measure. They were very good, at first due to the layout of the pub I hadn’t spotted the pianist and had assumed it was a piano backing track, but as I had my after meal I spotted the pianist hidden in the corner behind some railing and the PA set up. After my meal I returned through a torrential downpour back to the Days Inn for a relatively early night. Once back I made myself a cup of Night Time Brew Tea and I started to read for a bit but found myself nodding off, that Night Tea really does help you relax.

Author's note 2026: Thinking back, I believe that the band playing at the King's Head was the J.B. Jazz & Blues Band.

JAM: Preface to my 2012 Upton Jazz Journal

 Way back in 2009 I attended the Upton Upon Severn Jazz festival for the first time, and enjoyed it so much I have returned every year the festival has been held, even being one of the few people to attended the Upton Jazz Day set up as stop gap while country was coming out of the grip of Covid. Over the years I have seen many changes to the festival: good, bad, and indifferent, but there has always the continual drawback for me.

During the month of March I learned through the official Upton Upon Severn Jazz Festival news page that "Sir" Alan Buckley, one of the key organizers of the festival has passed away, so it seemed fitting to me to revisit my 2012 Festival Journal as it was the final year "Sir" Alan was in charge of the festival.

The 2012 festival marked the end of an era for the festival, not just with the loss of "Sir" Alan at the helm, but with the MO of the festival itself. High levels of rain had affected the running of the festival as the field in which it was being held was badly water logged meaning some of the intended stages had to be relocated, and as a consequence from 2013 onwards the festival would be held at different locations in the town.

I have looked over my diaries, and they will be published over the course of the month of April. Some of the text has been edited for clarity, to remove typos, and minor edits to remove bits and pieces due to lack of context in the present day, and it is worth noting that my approach to writing at the time was very much 'stream of consciousness'. I will also be adding little footnotes where required for bits and pieces I feel might need additional explanation.

Unfortunately, and not exactly unexpectedly, my hand written notes made at the time have long since disappeared into the ether, so I give examples of how my note taking at the time worked.

I hope you enjoy my account as much as I enjoyed revisiting them.

So raise a glass of wine, beer, whiskey, beverage of your choice to salute "Sir" Alan Buckley and have a small peak into the Jazzy recent-past.

JAM: Frank Sinatra I Remember Tommy (Album Review)

This album is somewhat of a tricky one for me to review, fond as I am of both Frank Sinatra, and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.  I loved the original recordings they made together, so this album should by all accounts be made of win for me. The tracks are amongst the most well known they recorded together, some of which Sinatra went on to record several times in different contexts. On top of this the orchestration is by none other than Dorsey arranger Sy Oliver, so this should be a treat….

   Well, this is where it gets a bit complicated, as it is by no means a bad record, not by any stretch of the imagination. The problem is, I think, like a lot of tribute albums is that the album lacks the spark and feeling of the original recordings.

   The album opens up with the tune which would become the signature tune for the Dorsey band, “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You“, a tune which usually was performed as a showcase for Dorsey’s Trombone skills and would get him dubbed the sentimental gentleman of swing. Here the lyrical passages of the song are vocalised by Sinatra and illustrates that like Dorsey, he gets the subtly of the somewhat downbeat lyrics. However where on the original recording we get the soft swell of the orchestra and the angular off-key passage on piano, this recording presents us with a syrupy and dramatically unswinging strings arrangement which jars with the style Sinatra is aiming for and the aim of the album. This arrangement would of suited better of one of the more Sinatra introspective albums of the era.
Things pick up with a full on rousing big band arrangement of the standard ‘Imagination’, which Sinatra brings to great swinging heights as the lead for this arrangement. He originally did record this with Dorsey early on in his career, but being the band’s vocalist he has one verse before the band took over. In this case the boot is on the other foot and the instrument riffs are second fiddle to the vocal refrains. This is no matter as the while the crescendos of the band may be more akin to Count Basie than Dorsey, the band certainly swings here and gets the album going, which leads me to the next track. The wonderful ballad ‘There are Such Things” which captures the sentiment of the Dorsey band perfectly without over applying the sugary texture which could take over some of the later recordings. Sinatra himself is a more relaxed mood and his vocal tones are slightly higher than the usual as he attempts to recreate the timber of his voice back in the hey days of the band, he just about succeeds which is probably better than most of us would do without over voices cracking. 

  East of the Sun, now this one is an oddity as the originally it was a ballad piece with band throwing in call and response vocals to Sinatra’s vocal lead. Here the tune is presented as if the arranger isn’t quite sure whether he wants this to be a ballad or a swing piece and as such it changes tempo in the middle. Now this doesn’t necessarily equate to a bad thing, as many pieces of music successfully change from one style to another, but not usually on a sixpence as it does here. Perhaps if they’d stuck in the call and response element of the original the change would work better, but it just jars here and they finish off with a reprise of the lyrics and stop… okay next track… now wait they repeat the coda a little bit louder and faster… and then again. Come on guys, that is one time to many and detracts from the ending.

  Okay, next up is a lovely little ballad entitled ‘Daybreak‘ which I have not heard done by the Dorsey band so I cannot compare it to the original, so in a way perhaps this track gets the most unbiased view. The lyrics are very romantically sentimental which suits the band well and the soft orchestration compliments Sinatra’s old school crooning, no intrusive strings here unlike on Getting Sentimental, so boys why didn’t you re-record the first track? 

   Without a Song is up next, a song which is improved on from the original I think. The original is a bit too slow and unswinging where here the tune is set at medium pace which helps the feel of the lyrics but helps it swing without detracting. This is voiced by the ‘present’ Sinatra as his voice is more akin to other recordings of the era. The rhythm section takes of here with a catchy drumbeat sending out its foot-tappable rhythm and the trombones really come into play for the first time. An ironic thing really since Dorsey was primarily a Trombone player, here there are some strings as well but they compliment rather than intrude.
  Points lost for the overtly upbeat swinging of the romantic ballad “I’ll Be Seeing You“, this totally missed the point of the lyrics and a couple of times it sounds as if Sinatra is trying to get to the end quicker. Also the horns are really intrusive!
This is followed by a rendition of “Take Me” which basically sounds like it comes from a ridiculously OTT romance film and to be perfectly frank (ahem), seems an odd inclusion. Why not something like “Everything Happens to Me” which is a great example of Sinatra taking the lead of the Dorsey band or the smiling inducing rendition of Blue Skies?

    “It’s Always You” is a return to form with a medium swing tempo for the sentimental lyrics and the band cushioned the lyrics leading to a good instrumental bridge in the middle leading to a much more humble and amused take on the lyrics. Evidently, Mr Sinatra has been taking lessons from the ultimate crooner the old Bingle.
  “Polka Dots and Moonbeams“, a tune which is a popular jazz standard, is up next and the tempo is down to slow ballad and here it works best. I feel as if perhaps Sinatra is thinking of the way Lester Young played the tune rather than his original interpretation of the tune. The bridge has a more Dorsey feel to it and for those of you unaware of the original you get the feeling of how Sinatra originally interpreted the piece.

   Next up is a piece called “It’s Started All Over Again” presented here more as a jazz ballad, an improvement as the original has a vocal trio harmonising some of the lyrics which would be a foreshadow of what would befall Sinatra as he went solo for the first time. The original is a bit and cloy so the laid back, end of the night jazz work out suits it better. You could visualise this as Sinatra sitting at a table with a half empty bottled of booze, collar undone and bow-tow untied singing this.

  Now, the next one up, The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else, tries the tempo and tone change trick tried on East of the Sun, but this pulls it off spectacularly. Starting as a ballad before becoming much more upbeat as the tune progresses, but here it feels planned and the icing on the cake is the duet vocal reminiscent of the call and response the band often employed. Now I like both interpretations of this piece despite them being so different, this should be the big finish for the album but it’s not. We get a brief reprise of Sentimental I guess reflecting the way a live set would be bookended.

   Overall it’s not a bad album, pretty much reflective of Sinatra of the period but with a few nods to the past. Certainly its worth a listen as a stepping stone onto the original recordings, seems a pity that nobody thought to put the originals on as bonus tracks.

JAM: Easter Jazz in Shrewsbury

 It is 1st April, and that means it is Jazz Appreciation Month.

So to kick off the month, I am promoting a gig in my home county of Shropshire.

On Saturday 4th April The Pancake Band will be playing at the Crown pub in Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury.

The gig starts at 8pm.

The pub has a good selection of ales, lagers, soft drinks, and bar snacks. Try and arrive early to get a good seat.