Mezzo-soprano Patricia Hammond is joined by percussionist Nick Ball, banjo player/guitarist Matt Redman, clarinet/sax player Simon Marsh and Dickie Evans on Sousaphone, revisiting the golden epoch of the 1910s and 1920s, when the new century struggled for a new identity. Sampling ragtime, tea-dance, exoticism and sentimental ballads, the programme is:
In the Gloaming (Annie Fortescue Harrison. Lyrics: Meta Orred)
The Aeroplane Rag of 1912 (Jack Glogau)
Afghanistan – A Romance of Asia – (William Wilander. Lyrics: Harry Donnelly)
Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland (Leo Friedman. Lyrics: Beth Slater Whitson)
Japanese Sandman (Richard Whiting. Lyrics: Raymond B. Egan)
Red Pepper Rag (Henry Lodge)
If I Were the Only Girl in the World (Nat D. Ayer. Lyrics: Clifford Grey)
Take Your Girlie to the Movies (Pete Wendling. Lyrics: Bert Kalmar, Edgar Leslie)
Dardanella (Felix Bernard & Johnny S. Black. Lyrics: Fred Fisher)
Kashmiri Love Song (Amy Woodforde Finden. Lyrics: Laurence Hope)
Love’s Old Sweet Song (James Molloy. Lyrics: Graham Clifton Bingham)
The Honeysuckle and the Bee (William Penn. Lyrics: Albert Fitz)
Patricia Hammond is a classically-trained singer who, despite her teachers’ earnest entreaties, has insisted on singing popular and parlour songs from the 1880s to the 1920s from the age of nine. In recent years she has been dragged as far forward as the 1950s due to the ever-shifting nature of Nostalgia. A CD of some of her favourites is soon to be hitting the shops, and features all four of the musicians here today. See www.patriciahammond.com for more details.
Nicholas David Ball, percussionist, arranger, singer and specialist in early jazz and Brazilian Ragtime as well as a myriad of later styles. He created “Albert Ball’s Flying Aces,” a band of WWI aviators playing 1920s jazz and pop songs. In collaboration with Matthew Redman he completed twelve new arrangements for the CD “Our Lovely Day” on Imperial Music, to be released later this year. Nick is also a very talented artist.
Richard “Dickie” Evans is from the Lake District and is heir to a long tradition of northern British brass band music. A classical orchestral and chamber tuba player, in recent years his distinctive and stylish Sousaphone has been in increasing demand with early jazz ensembles.
Simon 'Zeppo' Marsh was only 11 when he first played for the Wiltshire Youth Jazz Orchestra, and has gone from strength to strength ever since. Simon is equally at home behind a saxophone, clarinet or flute, is a teacher and arranger and also leads the Simon Marsh Octet.
Matthew Redman, expert in all things plucked including Lute, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and guitars nylon, steel, electric and acoustic. Recently he formed the RMS Lusitania Ragtime Orchestra and embarked on an exploration of hundreds of different rags. He plays early music, classical, jazz of all kinds, modern music, and various ethnic styles as well. In collaboration with Nick Ball, he arranged the songs for Patricia Hammond’s forthcoming album “Our Lovely Day.”
