Upton Jazz Festival 2026 Part One

 

  As a purely personal thing, I am not a big fan of the folding plastic chairs that appear in most of the venues as they bring back to many awkward memories of school assemblies where one of the year's form tutors would drone on endlessly about  dull topics such as school league tables or how (male) pupils were causing lasting disruption at lunchtime because they failed to sit down, eat their lunch and leave in less than 10 seconds flat, and frankly they are just a bit too uncomfortable on my old posterior, so I found myself a nice little corner to stand in which had a good view of the band and wouldn't be too intrusive taking any photos for little notes  for this series of articles, it also had a convenient shelf corner which I could place my beverage down upon, something the aisle seats do lack. The opening band was the Debbie Arthurs Quintet which was exactly what it said on the tin, a five piece band led by Arthurs on Saxophone & Vocals, with trombone accompaniment by Dave Deakin, and a rhythm section consisting of Keith Little on keys, Malcolm Sked on Bass, and Rachel Hayward on the Guitar. I am fairly familiar with the majority of the  musicians in the line-up, maybe not as this ensemble but definitely in bands across many gigs and festivals over the years. Band leader Debbie made a number of appearances back in the day at Jazz Club 90 while it was being held  twice a week at the Harp in Albrighton, and if it she was performing on a Tuesday evening it would highly likely that I would have been there. At one point she also ran a cafe in Teweksbury, called the Jelly Roll Cafe and it did have regular jazz nights there, I am not sure if she still runs the cafe but a quick Google search indicates that the establishment has changed its name to the Corner Cafe, which suggests to me she has moved on from there. I won't go through details of all the personnel, mostly because I know very little about them (sorry guys), but I feel I should mention Rachel Hayward as not only is she musician, but she is also one of the main organisers of the festival, and email updates about it are usually sent from her.

  

 Debbie Arthurs took to the microphone to introduce both the band and the launch of the festival, however she made a minor fluff, welcoming us to the Bude Jazz Festival before correcting herself... well, at least I can name one performer who will be down in Cornwall in September. The set opened with a mostly ensemble piece which was the W. C. Handy St. Louis Blues, a number that needs no real introduction and was played with gusto. This was followed by the song "Goody Goody", which before anyone tries to say anything funny, the title is not suffixed by the words "yum yum" and has absolutely no association with Tim, Bill, and Graeme, giant Kittens or three seater bicycles. "Goody Goody" is a 1936 song composed by Matty Malneck with lyrics by the ubiquitous lyricist Johnny Mercer, and has been covered by artists including Benny Goodman & his Orchestra, Bob Crosby's Bob Cat's, a pop cover by Frankie Lymon released as a recording with his group the teenagers- but was in fact a solo recording, and a version by George Melly with John Chilton's Fleetwarmers. It is the Melly recording which I am familiar with, and as far as I can recall I have no other recordings of the number- but I haven't done a full catalogue on all albums and song recordings in my collection, so I could well be mistaken on that front. It has however proved to be a fairly popular number on the Trad Jazz club scene as I have heard it played by many bands in many clubs and festivals. Arthurs and her band again treated this  more as an ensemble piece, likely still breaking the band in as an ensemble, Arthurs also added a sweet vocal refrain to the number. This was followed by a slower more relaxed number called "When the World is at Rest" which is not a number I can say I am at all familiar with, and it was certainly a pleasant number, though my enjoyment of it was slightly disrupted by a sudden in rush of patrons going to and from the bar- both from the gig and the general bar area, but that is all part of the course when being hosting in a public bar. Had I decided to perch myself elsewehre, it wouldn't have been quite so noticeable. Arthurs returned to the vocal refrain for the next number which was Gershwin's "Lady, Be Good" starting  with the not often featured intro verse, before leaning into a  earnest exchange between Arthurs on Tenor Sax and Dave Deakin on Trombone . This was clearly a bit of a warm up for the next number which was a trombone feature for Deakin, the number was announce and due to more background noise I didn't quite catch the name, but was able to hear a little bit of history of the piece on how it got its title. The piece was named after a meteorite shower which probably should have been a clue as to what the number was, but it wasn't until Deakin got into the chorus that I recognised the familiar tune. It was a well known standard which has been covered by traditional artists such as Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden (not doubt an inspiration for Deakin), singers such as Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Frank Sinatra, plus modernist such as Cannonball Adderley. It was, of course, Stars Fell on Alabama and it proved to be a fine feature for Dave Deakin, and a fine closer for my first set of the festival. I decided I wouldn't stay for the second set which wasn't a slight on the band, but a desire to see the band which was due to start at 8pm over at the Upton Rugby Club. This was clearly a reasonably shared idea, as a number of the audience- including Not-David Bradley, were vacating and making there way across to the club.