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The reaction to ‘Manteca’ the other week at Favourite Things brought it back to me just how influential Mr. Jones has been to the UK jazz scene. Apparently, he even played at a special party for Dom Servini back in the day.

Back in those days, Denga was the album to have and apart from Paul Murphy, I only knew one man who had it (see links below). This was the jazz scene at its best and with Jones’ reputation, he was always in demand as a session musician and has played with some of the very best jazzmen in his career (plus a few non-jazz dodgy ones). Anyway, with this current line-up he seems very happy and with Mojito released on a label that understands percussionists, what more could he want?

On the opening track to the CD, ‘East Walk’ the band is joined by a couple of extra percussionists Snowboy and Bosco de Oliveira on a “Latin boogaloo”. After that, just to surprise us all, ‘Miles Below’ is a tribute to a certain trumpet player in his fusion period with a big Hammond organ. No doubt influenced from playing with JTQ, this track was written by excellent trumpet player Steve Waterman. Not sure about the ‘dance mix’ bonus track at the end but I’m sure it would work is the right setting.

‘Peckham Royalty’ is nothing to do with Del and Rodney and along with ‘Pardon My Poché’, while sounding a little old skool, it certainly has that Latin spirit.

In fact, all the tracks here are as lively as a Latin Jazz sextet should be. No more so than on the title track and their version of the jazz dance classic, ‘Manteca’. Nick Walker writes most of the tunes for the band but he’s sounding at this best on ‘Manteca’; and you get three solos from Snowboy, de Oliveira and Jones (sound like a very odd firm of solicitors to you?).

I’d certainly recommend seeing the band live and they were an inspired choice for the debut act at Bournemouth’s New World music club. Robin told me he loves coming to Bournemouth, especially when the dancing is as unique as it was at that gig. Shifless Shuffle has surely never seen the like, but the main thing was that everyone had a great time and the smiles were as wide as a Cuban sunset. I’m looking forward to see them again and of course, the ever-youthful Snowboy can still be regularly found at Jazz Café (with the Jazz-CoTech crew) and last year held his ‘Snowboy 20th Anniversary’ concerts there.

A great start for Club du Monde and a reminder that jazz isn’t as underground as you’d think.

Live: Club du Monde (Bournemouth’s new world music club) @ Centre Stage, 14 Queen’s Road, Westbourne, Bournemouth presents ROBIN JONES LATIN JAZZ SEXTET Friday 17 November 2006:
ROBIN JONES — Congas, Percussion
NICK WALKER — Baritone Sax
TOM ALLEN — Trumpet
ANDREW NOBLE — Piano
MARK CECIL — Drums
JONNY GEE — Bass

Reviewed: Robin Jones’ Latin Jazz Sextet — Mojito (Quinto Music) Cat. No. QMCD051 Release date: 2006

Tracklisting:
1. East Walk (11:22)
2. Miles Below (8:10) feat. Hammond Organ & Rhodesby Paul Birchall
3. Peckham Royalty (5:49)
4. Manteca (10:42)
5. Christophe (4:36) [Dedicated to the memory of Christophe Martino who was a waiter at the 606 Club tragically killed in a car accident]
6. Pardon My Poché (6:09)
7. Mojito (12:34)
8. Miles Below (Subterranean Mix) (7:14) Remix Paul Birchall

Links:
www.bournemouthjazz.org
www.quintomusic.com “Quinto Music is run by percussionists for percussionists.
We pride ourselves in importing only the finest Congas, Bongos and Hand Percussion available in the world today”.
Paul Murphy @ The Foundation 2nd February The Yardbird, Birmingham
Robin Jones And His Quintet — Denga (Apollo Sound) Cat. No: APP 5012 @ Orgy In Rhythm
Snowboy www.snowboy.info “We believe in the power and freedom of the Descarga — the Latin Jam”
Sat 27th January, 2007: @ Jazz Café www.jazzcafe.co.uk 5 Parkway, Camden Town, London NW1 7PG. 11pm-2am Tickets £10 Advance featuring The JazzCotech Juniors and special guest DJ Nik Weston (Mukatsuku) with The Original Messin’ Around DJs Adrian Gibson and Perry Louis.
Sat 17th February, 2007 featuring special guest DJ Snowboy with The Original Messin’ Around DJs Adrian Gibson and Perry Louis.
www.jazzcotech.com
Christophe Martino at 606 Club
www.birchy.net
SEARCHING playlist Sunday 17 December www.ScannerFM.com Deep jazz special: Robin Jones Seven — ‘El Maja’ (Apollo Sound)