Pigfoot Play Ellington
BEN THOMPSON at EHSAA
“They never dance, some of them don’t tap their feet, some of them are actually asleep… but still it’s full every month?!” Such is the bewildered response of the Sea Angling Association bartender to the loyal clientele who flock there every cycle of the moon to sample whatever savoury smorgasbord of jazz the committed non-profit community organisers of Jazz Hastings have laid before them. Beneath its somewhat sedate outward aspect, this M&S pastel shades-clad gathering is actually one of the most receptive and open-minded regular crowds the thriving Hastings gig circuit has to offer, and while the admission price of fifteen quid might seem a little steep by local standards, it’s a lot cheaper than Ronnie Scott’s for music of equivalent quality, and you can save a train fare on the bar prices.
This month’s guest quartet Pigfoot Play Ellington belonged in the very highest echelon of Jazz Hastings nights, alongside such stellar previous visitors as the great South African drummer Louis Moholo and South London compositional visionary Byron Wallen, the only man to write a jazz concept album about Woolwich. For those with limited knowledge of Duke Ellington, perhaps perceiving him only vaguely as a suave old guy playing the piano with a big band, this show offered an exhilarating crash course in the oeuvre of a man who was, as a matter of informed consensus, one of the ten most significant and radical artists to have graced the 20th century.
Given the under-celebrated fact – local pub quizmasters pay attention here – that Duke Ellington played the last show of his extraordinary career just down the A259 in the unlikely jazz hotspot of Eastbourne, it was especially joyous to hear his music brought to such exuberant life here by an ensemble (James Allsopp on baritone sax and bass clarinet, Chris Batchelor on trumpet and Paul Clarvis on drums) which walked fearlessly in the footsteps of such storied Ellington sidemen as Harry Carney, Sonny Greer and Cootie Williams. The player in the real hot-seat was pianist Liam Noble, who, perhaps acknowledging the impossibility of precisely matching Ellington’s elegant interventions, threw a shopping trolley into the canal of collective memory by supplementing his fluid right-hand upright piano chord clusters with a left hand somehow picking out Zapp Band-tinged basslines on a farty Novation Bass Station synth.
To understand the level of technical challenge being undertaken here, readers are advised to pat the top of their hand with one hand and rub their stomach in a circular fashion with the other, while making themselves a cup of tea with their right foot. There were occasional moments – such as a version of “African Flower” (the sublime standout track on Money Jungle, Ellington’s great trio album with Max Roach and Charlie Mingus) which flirted with outright travesty – where Noble’s heroic efforts seemed to invite one of Samuel Johnson’s most celebrated retorts: “Difficult do you call it, sir? I wish it were impossible”. But overall his fearless jeu d’esprit was the key to accessing the unmatched scope of Ellington’s legacy, from the jaunty 1926 floor-filler “East St Louis Toodle-oo” through the Shakespeare suite with which he effortlessly overturned colonialist hierarchies of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, to the adventures in exotica undertaken on government-sponsored travels which were one of the most persuasive manifestations of American soft power (“Blue Pepper” from Ellington’s Far East Suite was a particular highlight tonight).
Now moving into their second decade, Pigfoot’s mischievous approach (previous touring shows have been dedicated to 1920s New Orleans jazz, the music of Elvis Presley and the sounds of 1972 – apparently the Dolly Parton segue was sensational) sidesteps the solemnity of illustrious reputations to access the playful spirit of the initial creative impulse. More power to their collective elbow.
Next month’s Jazz Hastings event is the Darius Brubeck Quartet on 12 /December.
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