Hank Victor Quartet at the Sherborn Inn, January 4, 2012

It might have been the Holiday Hangovers, or the 20° weather, but there weren’t many folks at the Sherborn Inn this Tuesday.  Their loss.  We spent the evening listening to virtuoso professional musicians and some fine Coleman Hawkins-style tenor sax, the kind that hits you right in the solar plexus!

Hank Victor delivered what he promised – swing arrangements of compositions by Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and Cole Porter. Hank is a former guitarist with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestras, as is multi-instrumental reed-man, Tom Ferrante . They work well together – backed by drummer Bill Kane, and Mike Ball, string bass, who likes to scat along to his solos, like Slam Stewart. 

They began with Lester Young’s Jumpin With Symphony Sid, then S’ Wonderful in a Bossa Nova Beat; an upbeat Jerome Kern All The Things You Are, guitar and sax having a musical conversation.

Ferrante plays sweet sax, straight from the heart on a lovely ballad, Johnny Green’sBody and Soul,

Guitar intro to a jazzed-up version of Duke Ellington’sDon’t Get Around Much Anymore, fine drum solo.

Bill (Twobeat) Kane keeps the right beat, his tempo never falters and he doesn’t get in the way of the music.

Side trip to South America for a unique arrangement of Girl From Ipanema, Mike’s string bass lifting the band. 

His imaginative bass solo was backed by Bill’s soft brushes on drum.

Tom was featured on clarinet with a an electrifying version of Fats Waller’sHoneysuckle Rose.

They all four were really swinging with Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, instruments intermingling, clarinet and guitar playing off each other. Green Dolphin St.,  The Way You Look Tonight, all the tunes we love to remember.  One that Hank likes, but doesn’t get to play too often, Willow Weep For Me featured Hank’s melodic guitar and virtuosic solos.  His electric guitar was invaluable, sometimes in the front line, sometimes comping behind the solos.

They moved up into what we consider ‘modern’ with Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man, then Hank announced they would play the Wizard of Oz’s, Over The Rainbow.   The Wizard would have been shocked by this passionate, low register tenor sax  that left us with goose bumps!

Tom started Duke’s In a Mellow Tone on saxophone, then switched to flute, backed by Mike’s relentless pulse on string bass.

That’s All was not the end.   Someday My Prince Will Come was a fast waltz.   They closed with a blazing version of Juan Tizol’s Perdido. Fabulous!

It’s a pity there weren’t more people here to listen to this fine band.  Hank Victor knows how to pick the finest musicians, as well as tunes from the 30’s and 40’s that will never go out of style.  It was the perfect conclusion to a stressful Holiday Season!  Maybe you can catch them next time.


Bios:
Hank Victor has been a professional guitarist and electric bassist for over fifty years.  He has performed with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestras and has recently been leading swing jazz groups at Bullfinch’s Restaurant and the Sherborn Inn.  Currently, he teaches guitar and electric bass at Boston College.

Most of Tom Ferrante‘s performing career has been in the Colonial, Schubert and Wang Theaters of Boston. A retired Associate Professor of Saxophone at UMass-Lowell and former director of Bands at Waltham High School, Tom was also a member of the Herb Pomeroy and Greg Hopkins Jazz Orchestras. Tom has been a featured jazz clarinet soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra under John Williams and Keith Lockhart. 

Bill Kane’s 50+ years of gigging in the Boston area have covered some very diverse territory, from name stage shows at Caesar’s Monticello in Framingham and the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset to many dinner theater productions at the Chateau de Ville in Randolph.   Bill also appeared at the Wonderland Ballroom in Revere for over ten years.  He is currently involved with two big bands, and continues to do a great deal of work with smaller groups, from first rate society bands to lounge quartets. 

Michael Ball began his musical career in the midwest playing concerts and club dates with such Jazz greats as Jay McShan, Clark Terry, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, R&B legend Bo Diddley, The Coasters and many more. Michael is a New England Conservatory graduate and has received numerous awards.

Monte Carlo Jazz Ensemble A Frabjous Fall Fling At the Sherborn Inn, Fall 2011

Fabjous – a word that poet Louis Carroll invented in 1872 for a blending of fair, fabulous and joyous, and this was fitting!  The Monte Carlo Jazz Ensemble plays the hot dance musical arrangements of the exciting bands of the Roaring Twenties. The musicians are Bob MacInnis, cornet and flugelhorn, John Clark and Craig Ball clarinet and saxophones, Al Bernard tuba, Billy Reynolds drums, and Robin Verdier leader/piano.

He meticulously arranges and times every tune like a painter creating a complex masterpiece, (see list at the bottom).    Robin blends together new ideas and refreshes the material.  It was very different from his September Slide & Glide of 2010. 

The result was a tour de force that transported all of us back to the rowdy days of prohibition, and the swanky Speakeasies of New York and Chicago.


Concentration!

The musicians receive their parts in advance, so they can prepare – even though they’ve played them before and know them instinctively. 

They started this evening with fine ensemble on Alone At Last.  Ensemble is the key here.   Robin used the works of many writers from that era.  Tiny Parkham was represented with Bombay, Now That I’ve Found You and Golden Lily (a tune that Robin also played with  Pam Pameijer’s Jazz Wizards.) 


Albie played a beautiful, passionate,  solo on Now That I’ve Found You that made Robin smile.

Walter Donaldson & Irving Kahn’s My Baby Just Cares For Me was new to their book.   Robin said that Ray Smith called this a “Peppy Period tune.”  I’ve Had My Moments is also one of Donaldson’s. 

Irving Berlin had three tunes.

With Bob MacInnis on cornet, the Intro to Berlin’s  C-U-B-A was very dramatic,  before the tuba and drum actually moved  to a genuine Latin beat. 

Puttin’ On The Ritz and Waiting At The End Of The Road were Berlin’s other two this evening.

Bob switched to flugelhorn for Turk Murphy’s 1946 Bay City

Dream Child, in the daunting, exciting Artie Shaw style, keeps clarinet player Craig Ball in a good mood.

“When you are famous, no doubt somebody will write a song about you”,  as was Charles Lindberg. In 1927, he was the first person to fly the Atlantic alone, from Long Island to Paris.  George M. Cohan made sure he would be remembered with When Lindy Comes Marching Home, including passages that sounded like an airplane.

No trip back to the 20’s would be complete without the Charleston.

Lorrie Carmichael (in pink), former band leader of the Squirrel Hill Olde Tyme Band, was having a great time with Everybody’s Doing The Charleston Now.  The others gave it their best effort!

Lorrie was also following along with every note of Lu Watter’s Yerba Buena Strut.

Bill Reynolds’ drum introduced Nullabor, possibly an Australian aborigine song with heavy drum accents, the rhythm section driving the cornet, clarinet, and saxophone to astonishing intensity!  Then they ran out of time. 

This was a fit ending for our own New England version of the rowdy, Roaring Twenties in a swanky Speakeasy! 


Bob MacInnis left for Florida shortly afterwards.  Catch him at the Island Pub in Naples on Mon. & Sat., andErin’s Isle most other nights, in Naples between Marco Island and US 41.

Robin and Albie will be at Jeff & Joel’s House Party on February 11-12 in Guilford Ct. Jeff & Joel’s House Party
in good company!

John Clark is bringing his Wolverine Jazz Band to the University of New Hampshire on January 30th, and also celebrating Mardi Gras lunch at the Sherborn Inn on February 21st.

Ed Reynolds will be wherever the Black Eagles are playing.  www.blackeagles.com

A Fabjous Fall Fling 

Set 1 7:00    
Alone At Last 1925 Gus Kahn & Ted Fiorito
Bombay 1929 Tiny Parham
C-U-B-A (I’ll See You In…) 1920 Irving Berlin
Bay City ~1948 Turk Murphy
*My Baby Just Cares For Me 1930 Walter Donaldson & Irving Kahn
Dream Child ~1929 Hank Palmer
Now That I’ve Found You 1930 Tiny Parham
Puttin’ On The Ritz 1928 Irving Berlin
     
Set 2    
That’s Where You’re Wrong 1929 B. Bruce & H. Smith, c. 1929
Waiting At The End OF The Road 1929 Irving Berlin
When Lindy Comes Home 1927 George M. Cohan
Golden Lily 1929 Tiny Parham
Everybody’s Doing That Charleston Now 1925 Benton
Lost 1936 Ohman, Mercer, Teetor
Okay, Baby 1930 Tracey & Pinkard
Who Wouldn’t Love You? 1925 Benny Davis & Joe Burke
     
Set 3    
I’ll Dance At Your Wedding 1938 Joe Davis [Fats Waller?]
Everything Is Hotsy Totsy Now 1925 McHugh, Fields, & Mills
Sweet Man r1925 R. Rutk & M. Pinkard
How Am I To Know 1929 D. Parker & J. King
Yerba Buena Strut ~1944 Lu Watters
Nullabor 1951 Dave Dallwitz
I’ve Had My Moments 1934 Walter Donaldson
Running Wild 1922 Gibbs / Gray, & Wood
Daybreak (Mississippi Suite, final theme) 1926 Ferde Grofe

* New to our book

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Addendum:

Frabjous – Sculpture by George W. Hart  – The word Frabjous comes, of course, from The Jaberwocky of Lewis Carroll. O frabjous day!