Swing From Paris, Kidderminster Jazz Club, 45 Live Venue, Kidderminster, 04/05/2023.

Fenner Curtis – violin, Andy Bowen – electric guitar, Sam Hughes – acoustic guitar, Tomasz Williams – double bass

Swing From Paris is a gypsy jazz quartet from Cheltenham, founded by violinist Fenner Curtis and guitarist Andy Bowen during the first decade of the 21st century.

The group made its recording début in 2009 with the album “Menilmontant”, which was favourably reviewed by the Jazzmann in 2011.  At this time the band featured Curtis and Bowen plus rhythm guitarist Stefan Doucette and double bassist John Vickers.
Link to review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/swing-from-paris-menilmontant

“Menilmontant” is no longer available but was followed in 2012 by “Quasimodo” , which introduced a new line up featuring guitarist Andy Wood and bassist Steve Laming. This album is still available in digital form only via the group’s Bandcamp page, as is a previously unreleased EP recorded at the same sessions.
https://swingfromparis.bandcamp.com/music

The Curtis / Bowen / Wood / Laming line up was around for quite a while and in 2015 released the album “Webster”, which is currently available both on CD and digitally. They also gigged extensively, building up a healthy following in their heartland of the Cotswolds and appearing on the Fringe programme at both the Brecon and Cheltenham Jazz Festivals.

In 2022 I caught some of the band’s set on the Free Stage at Cheltenham Jazz Festival and enjoyed what I heard, although the venue didn’t represent the most sympathetic of listening environments. I’ve supported the band for a long time in terms of publicising their gigs but until tonight I’d never actually caught them in an authentic jazz club setting in front of a listening audience.

Kidderminster Jazz Club’s new home at the 45 Live venue was pleasingly well attended for SFP’s second visit to the Club. I contrived to miss their first KJC gig which had taken place in November 2019 the Corn Exchange Room at the Town Hall as I was away covering London Jazz Festival at the time. By all accounts it had also been a filthy night weather wise with localised flooding and the band members recalled that the journey home after the gig had been a bit of a nightmare. There was some rain around tonight,  but fortunately there were no such difficulties this evening.

The current edition of SFP features Curtis and Bowen plus guitarist Sam Hughes and double bassist Tomasz Williams. This was almost certainly the line up I saw at Cheltenham in 2022 and it’s these musicians that appear on their latest album “Afternoon in Paris”, which was released in 2022.

Although the band still deploy a ‘Hot Club’ style instrumental format they are less in thrall to Django Reinhardt than previously. In part this has been occasioned by Bowen’s move from acoustic to electric guitar. He now plays a solid bodied Gibson with a more orthodox ‘jazz guitar’ sound and the repertoire on the new album is largely drawn from the US jazz tradition, the title track being a composition by Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) pianist John Lewis.

As at the CJF Free Stage appearance much of tonight’s material was drawn from the album repertoire but the evening kicked off with a version of Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home”. This incorporated solo features for all four members of the band and represented a good introduction to the individual instrumental voice of each musician. Bowen and Hughes shared lead and rhythm duties in pretty much equal measure and most tunes featured solos from both of them.

Curtis acted as the spokesman for the band and explained that most of the pieces we we were to hear represented SFP’s own arrangements. Next up was the Italian song “Tu vuo fa l’americano” (translating as “You Want to be American”) written by Renato Carosone. Curtis’ presenting style was humorous, but also included a wealth of interesting information about the band’s chosen repertoire. Played in the style of a swing tune this piece saw the band keeping the solos short and sweet, with Hughes’ acoustic guitar playing a particularly prominent role.

Originally from a 1951 film a jazz waltz with a title translating as “Under Paris Skies” was introduced by acoustic guitar, with violin taking over the melody. However the featured soloist was Bowen on the Gibson.

“Afternoon in Paris”, written in 1949, was the first of two John Lewis compositions and saw the group’s two guitarists trading solos.

These two were to feature again, alongside bassist Williams, on the group’s arrangement of the jazz standard “All The Things You Are”, written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein.

SFP share a collective fondness for the music of the American guitarist George Barnes (1921-77), a popular and influential musician in his day, but now largely forgotten. Nevertheless Curtis considers Barnes to be “the American equivalent of Django Reinhardt.  Barnes was also a skilled arranger and the latest SFP album contains two pieces arranged by the American. One of these is “I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me”, written by Jimmy McHugh and Clarence Gaskill, which here included a solo from Bowen and a series of engrossing exchanges between the guitarist and Curtis.

The jazz waltz “Montagne Sainte-Genevieve”  was written by Reinhardt’s rhythm guitarist Matelo Ferret and functioned here as a showcase for acoustic guitarist Sam Hughes, originally from the musical hotbed that is Bromyard, Herefordshire, also the hometown of guitarists Remi Harris, Darren Beale and Mick Ralphs, drummer Shane Dixon and trumpeter Bryan Corbett. Hughes plays a vintage Maccaferri acoustic guitar specifically designed for playing gypsy jazz and for giving maximum unamplified projection.

The second John Lewis composition was “Django”, the pianist’s dedication to Reinhardt, written in response to the guitarist’s death in 1953. Lewis and Reinhardt had struck up a friendship after meeting when Django was on tour in the states. Part celebration, part lament this piece is one of the most complex in SFP’s repertoire but they performed it flawlessly, with solos from Williams, Bowen and Curtis.

The first set concluded with “Avalon”, credited to Al Jolson, Buddy Desylva and Vincent Rose and named for the town in California. The melody borrows from opera composer Giacomo Puccini, whose publishers successfully sued for a share of the royalties. The song was also recorded by Reinhardt, hence its inclusion in the SFP repertoire. Performed here in a broadly ‘Hot Club’ style the piece included solos from all four group members as the band ended the first half on an energetic note.

Set two commenced with “The Grabtown Grapple”, written by clarinettist and bandleader Artie Shaw for his then current ‘squeeze’ Ava Gardner. This was a suitably upbeat opener with solos from Bowen and Hughes.

Introduced by Williams at the bass the enduringly popular and highly adaptable Duke Ellington / Juan Tizol composition “Caravan” followed. Bowen’s solo featured some impressive string bending and he was followed by Williams and Hughes, the latter also exchanging ideas with Curtis, before Williams returned to round things off.

Curtis took the lead on the Charles Trenet song “La Mer”, eventually handing over to soloist Bowen. At one point during the first set the KJC logo that was projected behind the band had switched to images of rolling waves, something that would have been more appropriate here, as Curtis noted.

The second George Barnes arrangement was of the jazz standard “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”, another Jimmy McHugh composition. Barnes’ arrangement includes multiple key changes and injects an element of humour into the piece. SFP delivered it with relish, with Hughes featuring strongly.

Dating from 1947 and written for the film of the same name Bronislaw Kaper’s enduringly popular jazz standard “On Green Dolphin Street” was ushered in by Williams’ bass and featured both guitarists as soloists.

From the 1930 musical “Girl Crazy” the George and Ira Gershwin song “But Not For Me” was delivered at a fast pace and featured Hughes and Curtis as soloists. The violinist may have enjoyed less solo features than his colleagues but his instrument was the band’s main melodic component and Curtis’ playing was right at the heart of the band’s sound.

“These Foolish Things” was performed as a ballad, ushered in by a gentle passage of unaccompanied electric guitar, subsequently joined by double bass and violin. Hughes subsequently emerged as a soloist, his feature incorporating some prodigious string bending. Curtis and Williams were also to feature before the close.

“We’re getting scarily modern now” declared Curtis as he introduced Astor Piazzolla’s “Libertango”, written in 1979. Introduced by the two guitars working in conjunction with pizzicato violin this was another of the more complex items in the SFP songbook.
A very impressive group performance saw Bowen emerge as the featured soloist.

A crowd pleasing “Sweet Georgia Brown” rounded things off with Bowen, Hughes and Williams soloing as Curtis carried the tune.

An enthusiastic audience reaction saw the group members remaining on stage to deliver a deserved encore,  an arrangement “La Foule”, a song made famous by Edith Piaf. Although co-written by the Peruvian Angel Cabral in SFP’s hands it still sounded convincingly French.

This was an impressive show from Swing From Paris and in this setting I was able to give the music my full attention. The standard of the playing was excellent throughout and in Curtis the band had a humorous and informative spokesman whose announcements added to the enjoyment of the music.

I was also impressed with SFP’s choice of material, which was admirably diverse and avoided many of the now overly familiar gypsy jazz staples (“Minor Swing”, “Django’s Tiger”, “Nuages” etc).

The combination of electric and acoustic guitar was also distinctive and helped to give the band a strong identity. Meanwhile their arrangements were consistently intelligent interesting and inventive. There are a lot of gypsy jazz acts around but SFP is one that has managed to put its own stamp on the genre.

The “Afternoon in Paris” album, which also contains several selections not heard tonight,  is recommended for further listening, as are the group’s previous recordings.

My thanks to the members of the band for speaking with me afterwards. For details of Swing From Paris recordings and future live performances please visit;

http://www.swingfromparis.co.uk

https://swingfromparis.bandcamp.com/music

 

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