Sunday, July 16, 2006

All That Jazz

We had, in a rather inebriated state it must be said, agreed to spend the day in Glasgow for another Saturday afternoon of Jazz in the city. A beautiful day for it as well. Lady El hadn't been home when we popped round in a taxi on route to the station so we assumed, wrongly, that she had made her own way there. Anyways we got on the train without her and left a message on her machine. This time we thought we try a different Tapas place out for lunch and a fine choice it was too with some really excellent tapas and a lunchtime special price of £6.95 for any three.

Lady El phoned midway through apologising for completely forgetting about it and arranging to catch up with us later. Then we headed off for a really good session in Bar Sola. George McGowan's Orchestra seemed as tight as anytime we heard them previously. Sola is a big place but it really gets filled with the tremendous noise of a big band with a lot of brass. There were moments that were simply sublime, it could have been Stan Kenton we we were hearing, they were that good. The singer, Kenny Paterson has a great voice that fits the sound nicely. Lady El joined us and opted for white rather than red this time due to an unmentional incident in the course of previous foray. The young bartender had the most original and interesting tatoos I have ever seen on his arm. Titles and snippets of lyrics from John Lennon songs in a variety of fonts and typefaces. Cool I thought.

As the set finished the bar emptied into the brilliant sunshine of the terrace and we sat there, people watching. I was absolutely stunned when I saw the staff leave Emporio Armani all the bright cool young poseurs actually had their bags inspected as they left the premises. Shocking. I'd be surprised if they get paid enough to buy the stuff.

When we finished our drinks we ambled through the streets towards the Buchanan Hotel. The Jazz there runs from 6.00pm til 9.00pm. We'd been before, but that was the Lady El incident visit, which we don't remember much of. This place is a rundown seedy dive which has clearly seen better days. There a bucket in the middle of the floor gathering drips of water from the ceiling and there's no end of peeling paint and fading grandeur, but despite this we walk in to the unmistakable opening bars of Art Blakey's Moanin' which is a fabulous thing and they do it real justice too. The trumpet player must be Big Bob and this is his band for the night. They look the part too, drummer, pianist and guitarist, only that's not a guitar she's playing its a six string bass. Tina Weymouth, Kim Deal, Yvette from that really good band who used to play the HAC now and again, move over there's a new chick bassist in town and she's fucking awfully good. I discover late that she's Jennifer Clark and she must spend about 10 hours playing Jazz on a Saturday.

We can't stay until 9.00 so we leave at the break. We head home via the Blue Lagoon. Black Pudding supper, perfect finish to an excellent day out.


posted by timesnewroman at 1:19 PM  

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