Barry Martyn & The Young Bloods Carshalton Jazz Club 15 Feb 2011

From being a key figure in bringing to our notice some of the Legends of Jazz, Barry Martyn has become something of a legend himself. Born in Viginia Water he moved to New Orleans some fifty years ago to bring up a family and mix with the musicians of the City. One of Barry’s sons, Ben plays Bass in the current band. It would be difficult to find somewhere so different to Virginia Water than the Crescent City but Barry has made the transition and he sounds like an American.

Mindful of the future Barry has assembled talented young musicians – the Young Bloods – to make up his band. On the current tour Julian Webster Greaves, his reedman, couldn’t make it so a not so young blood Frank Brooker ably took his place.

To complete the line up there was Allen Beechy, a competent trumpeter, Graham Hughes on trombone who reminded me of Roy Williams (a compliment in my book) and Tom Kincaid on piano who gave me the best moments of the evening.

This was not the type of traditional jazz band we usually hear in the UK. Sylistically it was fairly all encompassing – from jazz standards, to mainstream and to popular songs. There was something of the old Avon Cities band in the use made of familiar hit songs and, although not so ambitious as the French Anachronic Jazz Band there were wide jazz influences. It is tempting to call this music jazz influenced rather than straight jazz but that is perhaps what is required as Barry puts it, to attract the ‘man in the street’.

Personally I prefer the pavement on the traditional side of the road.

The high point for me was Tom Kincaid’s interpretation of Oscar Peterson’s moving ‘Hymn to Freedom’ and the duet between Ben Martyn and Tom Kincaid on Ben’s lovely composition ‘My Heart Stays in New Orleans’. The drumming throughout, with the snare drum prominent, was a joy. ‘Body & Soul’ gave Frank Brooker a chance to display his Tenor sax whilst ‘High Society’ gave the clarinet its well known spot.

However, I have one grumble. It was the singing. In past years I have got into trouble when commenting on

singing by traditionalists. I once described Campbell Burnap’s singing as dire to his great annoyance. It is clearly important for bands to communicate through song and Barry’s showmanship and style, as with George Melly, can take you a long way. But from the pure swinging gravel of Louis Armstrong to that lazy drawl of Jack Teagarden, let alone the great vocalists like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, we have real quality in the singing. British jazz, in my view, matches some of the best jazz from the other side of the pond, except in the sphere of vocals

We have had exceptions as with Ottille Patterson and Steve Lane introduced a number of able vocalists over the years but when Barry sang ‘Secret Love’ I swear I saw Doris Day – my childhood sweetheart – quietly cry in the background.

Jerry Westall